I love this first photo of Mark Arm last Thursday hanging from the rafters of the Sunset Tavern after he had pushed through the audience and climbed the bar and was singing over the crowd. And my favorite bartender Holly looks totally not worried at all in the background on both photos as Mark screams and knocks over drinks.
So I got word about a week before that a show simply billed as "The Press Corps plus 2 Guests" was going to feature Green River, The Fluid and Love Battery on Thursday, July 10th at the Sunset Tavern. The Love Battery part was wrong, but the rest was correct. So stoked! It was mostly a Sub Pop insiders show, but they did put up a small number of tickets for sale on Ticketweb for $10 each, so I immediately bought two and told a couple hardcore Mudhoney/Green River fans who grabbed tickets as well. The show was kinda hush hush, but The Fluid were talking about it in interviews and word was out, so the for sale tickets were gone by the next day.
The last time I saw Green River I think was in highschool opening up for PIL on their Generic tour... 1985 maybe? Mark Arm played in a pink negligee and at the end of their set said something like, "If you want to see someone that really sold out, stick around for the next band." Ouch. Johnny Rotten came out pissed and PIL only played about 45 minutes. They put out that song "Seattle" on the next album, I always though Mark Arm's comments were the inspiration for it. So it had been about 23 years and I was uber-excited for the show. I've seen Mudhoney like 20 times, the Monkeywrench quite a few, Steve Turner solo, etc., and honestly I probably like early Mudhoney the most as far as what I listen too, but damn, Green River!
My friends had a pre-Green River party in Ballard where we gathered for drinks and to gear up for the show. Awesome! Word was Green River would play first and you'd be a sucker for showing up late. A phone call from the Sunset said Green River would hit the stage at 10:20pm, so we all got there by 10pm. Indeed, the word was true, the place was packed by around 10:30pm when they took the stage. They kicked off with "Come on Down" and sounded surprisingly great. I guess I was expecting them to be more sloppy and unrehearsed, having the extra guitars on stage (they had the dudes that played in both eras of the band all playing together) really gave them a full sound.
The crowd was weird. On one hand there were people I totally recognized from Sub Pop shows in the '80s and '90s. A dozen or so of my friends were there. There were total 1990 time capsules with long hair and flannel action, also tons of "Ride the Fucking 6-Pack" tshirts. There were also younger folks, probably hoping to spot the Pearl Jam guys and relive an era they missed, which I'm sure was true with the weekend event at Marymoore Park as well. The funny part is that is was grey-haired old timers started dancing and got the floor moving a few songs into the set.
The show was awesome. Green River were fucking on. They definitely played all their shit heavy and loud, people were talking about their ears ringing after their set. So the set list I think was: "Come on Down", "33 RPM", "PCC", "Ozzie", "Baby Help Me Forget", "Unwind", "Leech", "Queen Bitch", "Together We'll Never", "Swallow My Pride", "New God", "10000 Things", "This Town" and "Ain't Nothing to Do." Yeah, "Queen Bitch" is a Bowie cover, I don't know if they used to do that live all the time or if it was something new, but their version was great! After their set I ran into Steve Turner in the bathroom and told him it was great and he did his normal humble thing and patted me on the back, smiled and said, "Thanks, that's great to hear."
The Press Corps followed, they were a bit of a supergroup with guys from old grunge bands. I thought they were pretty boring actually, I'll have to read up on who is in the band, I think the Fluid's drummer was singing. The Fluid were fantastic! I need to dig up their old stuff, I never picked it up on CD but have it on vinyl. I remember seeing them play a few times, including an excellent 4 Band for 4 Bucks show at the HUB back in the day, it seemed almost like they never stopped playing, they were that on it. The singer is a fucking great front man too. Pix of their set soon!
For more Green River photos, music and news, check out Dana and Alex's Green River MySpace Page. Also many more Green River photos coming within the next 24 hours.
10 comments:
congrats on getting in to see the show, memories must have been flowing, and it must have been a rocking night, wish I had been able to go!
Your review was fine....I wasn't there, but I was at the SP 20th show--which rocked, but maybe not *quite* as much as the now legendary Sunset show.....
One thing, though.....sure, there are probably plenty of chicks who only want to see GR because of the fact PJ dudes are in it. HOWEVER, knowing people at the show (including the Barbie-type girl) it's really short-sighted of you to make assumptions like that. Being a chick myself, people always discount that fact that I'm there for the right reasons (which totally sucks)--I'm there because I fucking love music--not because I want to fuck some guy in PJ....that's just nasty--and a serious insult. You can see why chicks have always seemed to come in a distant second in the scene around here--it was true back in the day, and it's still true. Marginally attractive, or worse yet--really attractive chicks won't be taken seriously EVER.
Whatever....we have a great time and don't really care what some guys in the scene think. Still, I believe you should consider some of the content you spout before you spout it--it's patently offensive.
Ha ha ha, you wrote this after I already edited my entry (after talking with Dana and apologizing to her). You're right, I did take the opportunity after one person asked me to move to take a photo with a cell phone, to spout off about a general trend that annoys me: people at shows crowding up front to take cellphone pictures that don't look like they are really into the band at all. Gender had nothing to do with it, although I can see how you might get that from my rant. Trust me, I would have posted a similar rant with different adjectives if it had been a dude. I probably would have used douchebag or guyliner and offended some young hipster guy. I was at the show with 7 or 8 women that are all big Green River and Mudhoney fans. I pretty much always go to shows with female friends. I think your rant is misplaced as well, of course women can be just as much fans of a band, if not more so than a guy.
I started my blog not only to post band photos, info and my stories, but also to have a place to vent/rant. I don't expect everyone to agree with me or share my opinions, that's not really the point. People don't want to read watered down or self-censored views, especially when it comes to music and our local music community.
I think it's better to say what you feel and get your opinions out there, even if that means sticking your neck out and occasionally being totally wrong. It can be enlightening to find out through conversation when your anger or opinions are misplaced, that's how we grow. And the conversation won't start until people are willing to be honest and open with their opinions.
I hear you--you have to say what's on your mind....you can see how I misplaced some anger, though, right?
After so many years of going to shows having dudes think you're just there to "pick up on the band", you get an itchy trigger.......I swear to god, we have better things to do. Anyone who has ever dated anyone in a band realizes that the fiction is much better than the reality any day of the week...
I agree--there are douchebag guys out there, too...everyone is so eager to hop on whatever they think is the "cool train." That's life.....can't do a thing about it.
I like your style....you're a good one....consider me a regular reader :-)
I promise to keep the "venom" to myself.....
Hey. Great review, only wish I coulda been there.
For the record, their version of Queen Bitch was originally included as a bonus track on the European Rehab Doll LP.
And speaking of European lps, whatever happened to GlitterHouse? They seemed to put out a lot of those Sub Pop and AmRep releases in Europe and then at some point I just stopped seeing any of their records.
Good call Michael... I should do an entry on them, but I'll have to spend some time researching. I think they are still around, but evolved into more of an alt country label.
Yeah, I'm fucking jealous not to have been there. Can't believe that everyone from both versions of the band played! Did Steve play on the songs from the later years then? I was going to school with him at WWU then and he talked total trash about those songs in those days!
Nice to see Mark was making the old moves. Probably couldn't do that at Marymoor Park on some huge stage.
Between 1990 & 1994, Glitterhouse were uncredited partners in Sub Pop Germany - for all the European Sub Pop releases with catalog numbers in the style of SPxx/yyy, the "yyy" fits into a gap in the Glitterhouse number sequence. Guess they figured European buyers would rather have something bearing the Sub Pop name & logo rather than that of a local licensee.
Glitterhouse themselves would appear to still be in operation - discogs.com shows a few 2008 releases.
Ricardo, Steve played on all songs. I was along way from the Northwest back in the mid-80s, but I assume that some of those later tracks were probably written and originally performed while Steve was still in the band. Whatever the case, the three guitar attack was immense and they all looked so overcome with joy that I can't imagine they wouldn't want to do it again. Hopefully soon.
Wow, Glitterhouse is still around. You've got to evolve to stay alive, I guess. One record that I wanted back in the day was the Monster Magnet 12" that they put out in 1990. We got a copy of it at the radio station I was at, but never saw a copy in the shops. It had different versions of the songs that appeared on their first singles.
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