WHAT FUN DO THE MODS GET OUT OF SMASHING THINGS UP

Photo by Arin Eaton

The Vaudeville Mews is a big part of why I moved to Des Moines, Iowa, almost five years ago now. My wife and I would come back to visit her family, and we'd go to some new restaurant/bar or other. And they were pretty good! But we didn't move here until after I ended up reading about the Mews, near Fourth and Court, the small local music venue. Jonathan Richman, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Jens Lekman had been through the doors not long before I arrived.

A few years back they opened an outdoor bar, in the adjacent alley. Somehow, I'm told because it sold the most Pabst Blue Ribbon in all of Iowa, it ended up apparently being sponsored, as the PBR Bar. That was open for a couple of years, on warm weekend nights and farmers market mornings. Then the building next door got sold, and last fall they had to tear down the alley bar.

They reopened it a few weeks ago. I had the honor, privilege, thrill (is that a U2 Batman song?) of DJing the first night back. Here are some songs I played. (Spotify approximation, which lacks CEO, Chance the Rapper, Kate Bush's actual version of Kate Bush's song, etc., also below.) Thank you, everybody!



The Tough Alliance: "Setting Sail"
The Grace Period: "Mod Killer"
The Seed of Something: "Downtown"
Bully: "Milkman"
Courtney Barnett: "History Eraser"
Ray Charles: "You Don't Know Me"
Belle and Sebastian: "The Stars of Track and Field"
Sally Shapiro: "If It Doesn't Rain"
Danny Brown: "25 Bucks" (feat. Purity Ring)
Mac DeMarco: "Passing Out the Pieces"
Silk: "Freak Me"
Lydia Loveless: "Head"
Deerhunter: "Nothing Ever Happened"
The Poison Control Center: "'Torpedoes on Tuesday'"
Grace in the Jones: "Walking in the Rain"
TNGHT: "Higher Ground"
PM Dawn: "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss"
CEO: "Halo"
Beyonce: "Partition"
R. Kelly: "Ignition (Remix)"
LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"
Chance the Rapper: "Juice"
Disclosure: "Latch"
Sleigh Bells: "Tell 'Em"
The Go! Team: "Ladyflash"
Dwight Yoakam: "Honky Tonk Man"
Ghost Town DJ's: "My Boo"
Beyonce: "Drunk in Love" (feat. Jay Z)
Chic: "Le Freak"
Lucinda Williams: "Passionate Kisses"
Ricky Eat Acid: "In my dreams we're almost touching"
Drake: "Worst Behavior"
Al Green: "Let's Stay Together"
Kylie Minogue: "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
ESG: "Moody"
The Long Blondes: "Fulwood Babylon"
Kate Bush: "Hounds of Love"
OutKast: "So Fresh, So Clean"
New Order: "Bizarre Love Triangle"
M.I.A.: "Come Walk With Me"
No Doubt: "Hella Good"
M.I.A.: "Double Bubble Trouble"
Missy Elliott: "Work It"
Daphni: "Yes, I Know"
Amerie: "1 Thing"
Michael Jackson: "Rock With You"
TLC: "No Scrubs"
T-Pain: "Can't Believe It" (feat. Lil Wayne)
R Kelly: "Bump N' Grind"
Madonna: "Live to Tell"
Whitney Houston: "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (12" Remix - Radio Edit)
Madonna: "Like a Prayer"

Photo by John Huffman