Detestation

Detestation was another in a long string of great Portland anarcho-crust punk bands. Formed in 1994, the band was made up of ex-members of Resist, Defiance, and Starved and Delerious. The female vocals helped set this band apart, especially when it was coupled with brutal metally punk and dark images. These photos are from a show they played at The Radio House. Their "Massacre of Hate" CD, which contains a bunch of their vinyl releases, is still available through a bunch of punk distros.

Band members: Saira on vocals, Kelly on bass, Brian on guitar and Dominic on drums.

Today Kelly plays in the Pierced Arrows with Fred and Toody from Dead Moon, as well as Severed Head of State and the reunited Defiance. Saira is now a fashion designer in Minneapolis and plays bass in shock punk band Faggot.

(Thanks to the couple of blog readers who recognized the band in my photos when I was trying to recall their name!)

Akimbo

This photo of Akimbo is from when they played the University branch of the Seattle Public Library. Darlene Nordike and a few other rock'n'roll librarians used to put on some great punk and rock shows in different neighborhood branches of the library, it was awesome. Akimbo are a fun band that walk the line between hardcore and metal with definite gamer geek overtones. Totally in the vein of other local bands like Bloodhag and Teen Cthulhu.

Band members: Aaron Walters on guitar and vocals, Jon Weisnewski on bass and vocals, and Nat Damm on drums.

DOA

One of those punk bands I've seen a ton of times is DOA, mainly because over the years they've released so many records and toured relentlessly. But they also used to be a band that often wouldn't show up for their Seattle shows... the promoters would always claim they got stuck at the border. Still, I probably have seen them a dozen times, and even in their older years, they still put on a decent show and pull out all their old hits. This shot of Joey Shithead is from a show at The Off-Ramp in the late-'90s.

Zine Fiend Festival

The Zine Fiend Festival was a zine festival and zine art show that took place in Seattle, Washington in the Summer of 1997. The festival was hosted by the Project 416 Art Gallery, located at 416 Occidental Ave South. The festival featured a ton of Washington zine artists and publishers, as well as a few out of town guests like Aaron Cometbus and R. Seth Friedman. And the Primate 5 and other bands played at night! I tabled between Chris "Wez" Lundry of Pooldust zine and Seth from Factsheet Five, it rocked. The highlight for me was hanging out smoking with a bunch of zinesters and Aaron Cometbus accusing me of not liking him, which couldn't have been farther from the truth. Creepy cool artwork by local artist and zinester Blair Wilson.

Guitar Wolf

October 23, 1997, Guitar Wolf opened up for The Cramps at Seattle's Showbox Theater (also on the bill were The Demolition Doll Rods). This was my second time seeing The Cramps, but my first time beholding the Japanese rock'n'roll stars Guitar Wolf. The band came out in black leather pants and motorcycle jackets, then soon stripped down to wife-beaters! They totally rocked the joint and were a perfect opener for a band like The Cramps.

Sicko

I first heard Seattle punk legends Sicko when I was at Fallout Records one day browsing the demo tape case and picked up their new 3-song demo. It was super catchy and fast pop punk, I loved it from the get go. While jamming out to "FB Song" I looked through all the info on the tape and spotted the band's address and phone number. No way, they lived about 15 blocks from me! So I called up and talked to one of the band members and lined up and interview with them for later that week at one of their practices. This photo is from the very first time I saw Sicko live, practicing in their basement in September of 1992 in their house along the side of I-5 by Seattle's U-District. Somewhere I think I still have a recording of the interview and a few songs I recorded that day, I hope to stumble upon it and put it up as an MP3 some day. I bet Denny only wishes he had this much hair still.

Manna, Bloody LaManna

That photo I posted of Duane Peters' bloody forehead yesterday made me recall an old picture of The Valentine Killers I had. Sure enough, I found it!

The setting: Gibson's Bar & Grill in downtown Seattle in the middle of 1999 (ignore the incorrect date stamp on the photo). Brian Foss was booking the shows and Friday nights there was an awfully tempting double-whiskey sour in a pint glass drink special that lead singer Brian LaManna was fond of. A few songs into The VK's set he smashed his drink glass on the floor and sliced his forehead open. He dripped blood the rest of the show. Later I remember Stu being kinda pissed about it, but from the crowd's viewpoint, it was pretty awesome!