A month before his band releases its first album without him, Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller will be remembered in a special tribute concert and cancer fundraiser taking place on the seventh anniversary of his death, June 17, at the Cedar Cultural Center.
The so-called Kill Kancer concert has been spearheaded by Karl's widow Mary Beth Mueller to benefit the Minnesota Medical Fund. It will feature close pals Golden Smog, including SA guitarist Dan Murphy and special guest Chan Poling (Suburbs, New Standards). Also set to perform are the Magnolias, a Curt Almsted party band called Curtiss A's Dark Click (see: "American Bandstand") and young-man-out Jordan Gatesmith of Howler fame/notoriety and Johnny Marr kinship. Gatesmith, who will play Rock the Garden the day before the event, grew up as the Muellers' neighbor. Tickets are on sale now for $15 at the venue or Electric Fetus, or online here.
Mueller died in 2005 from throat cancer at the age of 41. The May 2004 rally concert for him at the Quest, Rock for Karl, went down as the biggest all-time display of Twin Cities rock royalty on one stage, with the fabled two-song reunion by Bob Mould and Grant Hart, Paul Westerberg, the Gear Daddies, another all-star Smog lineup and Soul Asylum, which played its last gig with Mueller on that (amazing) night.
