Christdriver

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.

Malefaction

Malefaction formed in Manitoba, Canada in the early '90s. They walked the line between grindcore, hardcore and death metal over their existence, putting out a string of releases on G7 Welcoming Committee and other labels. They broke up in 2004 when singer Travis Tomchuk decided to go back to school. This photo is of the band in the late '90s playing a house show in Josh Plague's (Behead the Prophet) basement.

Band members: Travis on vocals, Clint on guitar and vocals, Mike on bass, and Cory on drums

Clint now plays in Big Trouble In Little China and Of Human Bondage. Mike is one of two vocalists in Time Kills Everything. Both Mike and Cory play in Of Human Bondage. G7 still has a Malefaction page up with a few songs and more information here.

The No-Talents

The No-Talents hailed from Montrouge, France. They combined the sounds of '70s punk with garage rock and burst onto the scene in July of 1995. The next year they debuted on vinyl with a single and their "100% No Talent" LP (released first on Wild Wild Records). The LP was re-released in the U.S. in 1997 on Broken Records. In 1998, Bellingham's Estrus Records released their second LP, "Want Some More!" Both records are fun, crass, raw and packed with energetic songs with female vocals. These photos are from May of 1998 when the band toured the U.S. and played at the Breakroom on Seattle's Capitol Hill (now Chop Suey). The band broke up in June of 1999.

Band members: Cécilia Meneau on lead vocals, Lili Zeller on guitar and vocals, Iwan Lozac’h on bass, Laurent Bigot played drums on the first album, Marc Adolf played drums on the second album and US tour.

Lili Zeller is married to Jack Ansellem, together they both played in another great French punk band called The Splash 4 and run Royal Records, which has a Northwest tie-in, because they released the A-Frames "Crutches" 7". They also run a smaller label called Polly Magoo that in 2006 released the vinyl version of The Intelligence's "Bordeom and Terror" CD with extra songs under the title "Let's Toil." Lili has some solo stuff out now, if you check the Polly Magoo MySpace page you can hear a few songs and get more info.

9 Lb. Beaver's Singer vs. Metal Chair

9 Lb. Beaver tried out a new song/skit live on Saturday called "Until It Bleeds" that didn't work out so well, but was pretty funny...

9 Lb. Beaver & The Bill Collectors at the Monkey last Saturday!

Last Saturday night I went to an excellent show at the Monkey Pub that really should have been more packed, because holy shit, 9 Lb. Beaver put on a show! It was my first time seeing ex-Rickets singer Scott Reese's band 9 Lb. Beaver. They were totally hilarious with super goofy songs, costumes and staged routines mostly revolving around Ric Flair and wrestling. They do songs about rollerderby, Les Schwab tires, Spokane girls, and cover both Rainer and Hamm's beer commercial songs. Awesome, they put on a full show. It's fairly un-PC, which I guess got them into a little trouble when they played Funhouse, but you can tell it's all tongue-in-cheek and supposed to be funny. The singer pretends he's Rick Flair for god's sake. Seriously, don't miss these guys next time, they are hilarious. The Bill Collectors were up next and rocked it. They had more witty banter than usual (and that's saying something, the lead singer does stand-up comedy), Owen was fucking on with the wrestling comebacks to 9 Lb. Beaver. I haven't laughed so much at a rock show in ages.

9 Lb. Beaver:


The Bill Collectors:


ps- There is an excellent photo montage from this show up on the Stranger's Lineout music blog

The Casualties

The Casualties live at Area 51 in Seattle from 1998:

1998 was a great year for Seattle punk!

I just stumbled upon a ton of photos from about 10 years ago in my archives. These are from the Summer and early Fall of 1998, I think from two shows at Area 51, the short-lived venue in Pioneer Square a block or so from the old Velvet Elvis.

Poxy:


Bristle:


Bastard Squad: