Seattle grunge is state of mind
SEATTLE (AP) — Ah. to b«
young and grungy in the spring
time.
In .Seattle, the Wonderland of
Grunge, them's not a day on the
calendar when you can't be
blasted into dreamy-eved obliv
ion by super-fueled guitar, gut
wrenching bass and drums that
pound, pound, pound
It's Nirvana.
Actually, it's not anymore.
You'll have to pay close to $30
to see those? grunge rockers gone
golden, but there are plenty of
bands still in the city belting it
out nightly.
What is a grunge band, any
way?
Like life, grunge is hard to
define, but it has certain recog
nizable characteristics.
Grunge often sounds like
Engine Kid, whose show and
record release party I caught
recently at the Weathered Wall.
Sure, the lead singer had a
Brady Bunch haircut and was
wearing a green polyester shirt
buttoned to the top, but the
music was fierce Seemingly
every song went from clean,
gently plucked notes to pound
ing borre chords and shouted,
sometimes screamed vocals. No
guitar solos — a characteristic of
true grunge. (Solos are for
posers, heavy metal guitar
heroes and Eric Clapton
wannabees.)
Engine Kid was preceded by
Dirt Fishermen, a group fronted
by two female guitarists and
singers that's begun to develop a
loyal following. Are they
grunge, too? Sure. The clothes fit
the grunge image, and the guitar,
running from nifty start-stop
rhythms to fairly complex scale
runs, fits the grunge criteria In
other words, it's loud.
How about the Kent 3? I saw
their show at the Off Ramp
recently. The music is sweaty,
shirtless thump more akin to
punk rock than the smooth, dis
torted chunk of Nirvana. Pearl
Jain and other great big grunge
acts. But then, if Nirvana
weren't punk rock when they
were working the Seattle circuit.
I don't what to call them. Sure,
the Kent 3 is grunge.
The Family? This band fea
tures a wall of guitar noise no
earplugs can take you over, and
a Charles Manson lookalike
wandering around the stage in
prison coveralls. A wad of gui
tar-hero type solos in every song
make it more like thrash metal,
but when it's so loud, who can
tell?
The Bumping Uglies, a
thumping three-piece that opens
its set with a tightly poetic
round of swearing, is most defi
nitely grunge. You can tell by
the knit stocking caps.
No Good No Evil is grunge,
even though all their songs have
catchy hooks and tasty guitar
Mob fights end show
by Screaming Trees
YAKIMA. Wash. (AP) _ A concert by the alternative music
(Mind The ScreamingTrees was stopped early when fights broke
out in a mob that had rushed the stage.
Police were called to quell the Tuesday night violence in the
crowd of about 500 There were no arrests or serious injuries,
but seats were smashed in the Capitol Theater
The hand, formed in nearby Ellensburg, has made recent
appearances on Lute Sight with David Ij’tterman and 1 h?
Tonight Show with lay Lena They had played just a few num
bers before music was stopped about 9:30 pm. when fans
jumped on stage
At least 15 police officers formed a wall across the stage short
ly after band members announced they wouldn't play anymore.
Trouble began during the opening performance of the Seat
tle band l-ove Battery, when a crew member hurled a fan off the
stage into the crowd.
Some fans grablied the crow member and toned him into the
crowd, causing others to rush the stage
Theater management and Screaming Trees singer Mark Iana
gnn tried to quiet the mob.
"Stay in your seats. It’s cool with us," lanegun said, but the
crowd did not comply.
Brett Eliason. tour manager for the Screaming Trees, said the
incident was unusual for the (wind and blamed inadequate secu
rity.
Theater manager Steve Caffery said there had bueu minor inci
dents in past concerts, but "we didn't think something like this
would happen."
Damage was a dozen broken theater chairs and a broken light.
Caffery said.
He said it would lie the last such concert in the l.SOO-mat the
ater. a restored vaudeville-era house more accustomed to sym
phonies and traveling Broadway productions.
Caffery said the Screaming Trees quit playing voluntarily
when things got out of hand.
“The band was concerned about the safety of the kids," he
said.
licks; The Rhino Humpers are
grunge for their attitudes alone
— not so much a sneering at the
crowd as a disdainfulness that
hardly recognizes the others in
the room.
Hand of Sand, a hand from
across Puget Sound in Poulsbo.
is grunge, despite tight three
part harmonies, a female drum
mer who makes percussive mag
ic and songs good enough to
listen to without earplup. Heck,
they've got the grungy look and
ves, they're loud.
My own band could tie
lumped into the grunge catego
ry, despite a lot of guitar-hero
solos and songs with fairly com
plex changes. We're loud
enough for grunge, and we re
not pretty.
Bathtub Gin. who sound more
like a good, clean hard-rock
Iwnd. are grunge because they're
from Seattle and they dress
down. Their non-label demo
tape is getting some solid airplay
on a lota I FM rock station
Even whitemaleguilt is grunge
(sorry, guys), despite oodles of
smoothly textured guitar and
soaring vocals, for their casual
onstage approach.
m
Seattle bands often complain
that the national media lump*
them all under grunge.
Well, we do.
If they'd blow-dry their hair,
squeeze into full-length spandex
tights and trade their flannel and
black military boots for artfully
ripped tank tops and boot slip
Crs, they’d be heavy metal glam
nds.
Perish the thought.
Grunge is simplicity in dress,
and usually in music
The names are where it gets
imaginative. On any given night
you can see Blow-N-Smoke,
Fear the Cow. Girl With 100
Heads. Mama Troll. The Hungry
Crocodiles. Poverty’s Child.
Rawhead. The Pleasure Flite.
Alcohol Funny (iar. Tad. Stink.
Conifer Bog. Panic. The Tramps
of Panic, Voodoo Gearshift, and
my personal favorite, Big Dad
dy Meatstraw
Not all of these are grunge
bands, (no one admits being in a
’’grunge’’ band anyway), but
they’re all part of the still-boom
ing Seattle scene. We ll get to
know a few of them on a more
personal basis in upcoming
columns.
n
TTT
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