HUSKER DU were interviewed by me (Steve Wainstead)
at the Pop Shop on 6/29/84, immediately after I
interviewed Pestilence. Actually just Bob (guitar)
and Grant (drums) were present. Greg (bass) was
getting paid.

NEGATIVE PRINT: FIRST TOUR OF THE US?
Bob: Eleventh tour. Been on the road for three years.
NP: YOU PLAY HERE BEFORE?
B: Yep, we played last year with the Fall right
  here at the PS. It was a pretty good show, we
  thought we'd come back.
NP: HOW'D YOU TAKE THE CROWD? DID THEY CROWD IN
  TOO FAR?
B: Tonight? Well, I wish they'd watch the lights
  & mike stand cuz it doesn't make it easy on the
  club owners. I don't mind the people . They can
  fuckin' do whatever they want, just as long as
  they don't give us crap.
Grant: Just as long as  we  don't distract them
  by playing our music.
B: As long as we don't get fat lips or mikes get
  broken and we have to pay for 'em.
GD*: Fuckin' sliced up feet.
 (Talk goes to Zen Arcade, which is out already so
  it's outdated. More talk of going back to the
  studio at end of tour.)
NP: PLAN A NEW DIRECTION FOR YOUR MUSIC?
B: It's just evolving into new stuff. It's a lot
  more melodic, we're not into "fast concept" any-
  more. If it calls for it, well do it but we don't
  write stuff just to be fast. We just wanna write
  good songs now.
G: We've written all the fast songs we could think
  of already.
NP: WHAT DO YOU DRAW YOUR INFLUENCES FROM?
B: That's a big question, life, you know? Airpl-
  anes flying over your house....
G: Granny's garden.
B: You go by factories and they're chuggin' fuckin'
  awful shit into the air.
G: The smell of old people...
B: Dead fish...
G: People fucking you over... canoeing...
B: Everything man.
NP: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER?
B: A little over five years.
G: (Snapping his vibrant little fingers) We've
  always been together.
NP: WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CALIFORNIA?
G: Don't know. We're from Minnesota!!
NP: UH... WELL, WHAT'S HAPPENING OUT THERE THEN?
G: Tornadoes.
B: Lotta rain. Lotta people with walkmans roller
  skating around the lakes ... s ame old shit.
?: Little lotta.
G: A lotta cats look like Micheal Jackson.

G: People calling you up to get on the guest list.
B: People wanna drink your beer, do your drugs,
  but we don't do drugs so we ain't got any drugs
  to do. All that weird shit. We bought some new
  equipment today, we made real good money for the
  first time ever on a tour, and we went and
  bought somenew fuckin' equipment and we're real
  happy. It pays to work hard. People say, "I
  don't wanna work for a living." They don't have
  a new Marshal 4 by 12.
G: No, they don't. They're not looking at a brand
  new set of Radio Kings.
B: Hard work pays off. Don't let anyone tell you
  any different.
NP: DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELVES A HARDCORE BAND?
B: Nope, we're a rock-n-roll band. We play music,
  man, that's all we do. We tell our stories.
NP: HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN PEOPLE, OR THE PRESS,
  CLASSIFY YOU AS HARDCORE?
B: Hey, it makes it easier when they wanna do a-
  nother story on us. They just pull out the file
  caginet, look under "H", hardcore, Husker Du,
  yeah, there it is man. Fucking hardcore. It
  makes it real easy, they can put it in the file
  cabinet you know, they can find it real quick.
NP: SEE ANY BANDS ON THE   ROAD YOU'VE LIKED?
G: Yeah, but we really couldn't stop and pick 'em
  up!!!
B: Ragged Bags were fucking wayyy out band man!!
  They are fucking gone.
G: I liked the drummer from the Guns. He had a
  whole lotta guns to him.
B: Yeah, Guns were pretty tight tonight, I was
  real impresses. I'm not the biggest fan of that
  kinda music but they were fucking tight as shit
  for what they were doing. Volcano Songs in Bos-
  ton, Articles Of Faith as always, all Minneap-
  olis bands that we like, like Man   Sized Act-
  ion, Ground Zero.
NP: DO YOU HAVE A BIG FOLLOWING IN MINNISOTA?
B: Eh, so-so. We tend to aleinate them from month
  to month. The more new material we write the
  more confused they get.
G: But then there are those select few people that
  are just as bored as we are so they appreciate
  the change.
NP: OKAY, ANY FINAL COMMETNS?
B: Keep working and you'll be able to buy some
  new equipment.
G: Don't fuck up your dreams.
B: Don't fuck your dreams up. Don't let anyone
  tell you, "sit on your ass and you'll get every-
  thing," cuz you cant'. You gotta work, man.
G: Be big.
B: You gotta believe in what you're working in.
G: It's the only job we're qualified to fucking
  do. 'Cept maybe demo derby.
 )And we finish with talk of going home. Bob says
  they'll be back out in a few months touring
  again, so watch out!(

    Never do drugs without some permission!!