“A band? I didn’t come downtown to see a band! Where’s the carnival ride?”

Yet another disgruntled customer at the 7th St. Entry, having learned that there will be no carnival ride tonight, only a full-throttle set of some of the most dynamic rock and roll around, by one of Minneapolis’ premiere original bands.

A ridiculous scenario, you say? Everybody knows the difference between a rock club and a fairground, right?

Wrong.

Saturday, January 27th at the 7th St. Entry, a Mpls. band hailed as local rock gods by an ever-growing throng of loyal fans will be playing to celebrate the release of their first album, an 11-song hailstorm of ponderous ideas and thunderous rhythms, entitled “This”.

Something will be different, however.

You say you’ve been around the scene for years, and you’ve never heard of the band Arcwelder? Don’t feel bad – nobody else has either. Maybe you knew them better during the past two and a half years as “T__t-A-W___l” [just think “carnival ride”], and even their long-awaited LP was set to bear the familiar version of the now unmentionable moniker sometimes associated with a popular carnival ride.

“You get in it and it spins you around, and when you get out you feel kind of sick inside, but it’s still a lot of fun.”

Scott MacDonald may be talking about a ride called Tilt-A-Whirl, but it’s not a bad way to describe his band Arcwelder, which only a short time ago had the same name as the ride, until the powers that be decided that sharing was not okay. Scott, who plays drums and sings, along with brothers Rob and Bill Graber (who both play bass and guitar and sing), had to come up with a quick solution, and with the impending album release date (not to mention a possible impending lawsuit), had to rule out the likelihood of anything remotely close to their old name. “The Tilted World”, “Tilted Whirled”… these simply would not do, said the unsympathetic folks at Tilt-A-Whirl corporation. An earlier nomination had been one of the band’s song titles, “Arcwelder”, but had been passed over for fear it gave a different impression of what the band was all about. (“Too industrial sounding”, mused Bill)

Never fear. Nothing has been changed but the names of the innocent. “This” is a smartly produced record that neatly manages to capture the band’s live energy which has won them a huge following locally. For those who have been eager to hear more since the band’s 1987 single, “Pint Of Blood”, “This” is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Approximately half of their live repertoire (occasional cover versions of songs by Prince, Led Zeppelin, Tracy Chapman or Joy Division notwithstanding), “This” is one locally released album that won’t have critics neatly pigeonholing it as part of the “Minneapolis Sound”.

Truth is, Tilt – I mean, Arcwelder, just doesn’t sound like anybody from these parts or any others. On occasion, though you may think you’ve heard something like it somewhere before, you quickly realize it’s just not the same thing at all. Grant Hart (ex-Husker Du and a big fan of Arcwelder) once disclaimed a jab that the band was the “biggest Husker Du rip-off ever”, and claimed that to him, they sounded more like Boston’s defunct Mission Of Burma – a band, it turns out, the members of Arcwelder have never even heard [at the time, anyway]. Bill admits being somewhat influenced by Gang Of Four, as well as local legends Rifle Sport (whose singer, Chris Johnson, heads the Big Money Inc. label that “This” will be released on), and “probably a lot of other bands too”. Arcwelder aren’t trying to follow an easy road to rock stardom by jumping anyone else’s bandwagon. They like what they do just fine, and that goes for their following as well.

The band’s music is “mostly personal”, and all three members share in song-writing responsibilities, combining their individual perspectives of day to day living, dealing with problems and “trying to find some kind of meaning. We ask a lot of questions”, says Bill, quick to add that while the band is not overtly serious or introspective, they do believe that some good can come from those kinds of feelings. Arcwelder may not be out to solve any of life’s great mysteries, but the members do think it’s important to have something to believe in – as Bill puts it, “a focus in life. You have to believe that what you’re doing is important to succeed”.

Their belief in the importance of what they do has taken the members of Arcwelder a long way. Scott has certainly put some time in on the local front, from a stint with a “synth-pop” group called Boys, Boys… on to one of the Twin Cities’ most formidable and eclectic groups, 2i (which also featured Jay McHale, currently playing with 12 Angry Men). A project called No Exit paired Scott with Rob Graber, later joined joined by Paul Dickinson [Poetry Grenade, Frances Gumm] to form Velvet Elvis. Shortly thereafter, Rob’s younger brother Bill entered the picture, in what would eventually evolve into [past tense reference here only] Tilt-A-Whirl. There have been a few rocky moments along the way, such as a booking at St. Paul venue The Payne Reliever, where they headlined a “Progressive Underground” bill, along with a headbanging metal band whose act called for the lead singer to play a crash cymbal with his forehead. Bill recalls with amusement, “it was not going to be our kind of crowd”. Apparently, what is “progressive” to some is not the same thing to others, and like many other clubs which have tried similar billing ploys, The Payne Reliever no longer books in the “underground” vein. [Addendum: The venue closed permanently in 2000, just ten years after this article was printed.]

No matter. “This” is now completed, and with a pressing of 1,000 copies, it should be a sellout. A regional tour with Twin/Tone rockers Agitpop is in the works, and except for a few vocal tracks, a second LP is almost completed, and due for release within the year (“nine months”, promised Bill), and it would seem that there is an open road of possibilities ahead for this determined group of rock heroes, who may just get the recognition they deserve – if people can just get that name straight.

Oh yeah – if you show up at the Entry on the 27th with a ticket to a carnival ride, trust me – you’ll definitely get what you came for.

© J.Free / The New Puritan ReView; 1990; 2026