In the second half of the 1980's one Northwest punk band I saw a lot live was Subvert from Tacoma. They were big compared to a lot of other local punk bands because they had out a 7" and eventually a full length vinyl LP (at their record release party in Tacoma they opened the box of LPs sent from Europe only to find them all with a warp in them, luckily they played and I still have my warped copy). Subvert often either headlined local punk and hardcore shows or was the big local band opening up before an out of town band like Poison Idea. When Subvert broke up in 1991, singer Eric Greenwalt formed the band Christdriver. Where Subvert were metally in a fast hardcore punk way, Christdriver slowed things down to a gloom and doom pace with grindcore parts. I thought they were excellent at what they did, but I don't think they ever really caught on big locally or in national punk scene. Profane Existence put out their first 7", "Blind," then later their full LP/CD "Everything Burns." They also had a cut on the Home Alive benefit album. This photo is from August 1998 at the Off Ramp (now El Corazon).
Band members: Eric Greenwalt on vocals and guitar, Luke Picard on bass, Brian Ward on keyboards, Edward Pollick on drums. Ray Skilton was the first player, he tragically died in a bike accident ten days after Mia Zapata of the Gits died in 1993.
Eric went on to sing for the Irish punk band Saint Bushmills Choir. Then he and Brian formed Black Noise Cannon.
3 comments:
Haha! Oh, I remember being 17 and "sneaking" into Uncle Rocky's to see these guys. Good times!
I can't imagine Uncle Rocky's being too hard to sneak into. Much like the Lake Union Pub, there didn't always seem to be a door guy, or if there was, they didn't ID people regularly.
Luke Picard was a good friend of mine when I lived in Seattle. I went to a Home Alive show in San Francisco and took photos of Christdriver and Tribe 8. I still have them. I lost contact with Luke several years ago and I would love to find him. Does anybody know his whereabouts??
Jimbo
Post a Comment