Seattle, 2017: Lordy, I hope there are tapes (Day 1 and Day 2, Part I)
Time for the annual Seattle pilgrimage. This trip was built around attending some shows and meeting up with the usual suspects. So without further adieu…
Got in Friday afternoon, after a flight from Philly that left at 8 am ET. I met up with my good friend Dave O’Leary, a fantastic writer and cool guy at his favorite haunt: the George & Dragon Pub in Fremont. Dave introduced me to his wife Allison and some friends. He’s a regular. If you’re a friend of Dave’s, you are a friend of the George & Dragon.
That’s about all I have to say about that first night. Suffice it to say, I now know not to get off a long flight and start drinking local beers with a higher alcohol content. So, yada yada yada, I was in bed by nine.
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[Mountains outside of the plane as we begin to approach Seattle.]
The next morning, I met Leighton Beezer (His name is actually John Leighton Beezer, but I call him Leighton…everyone else calls him John, so I thought I’d be original) for breakfast on Capitol Hill. As I’m walking toward the restaurant, I pass under a store overhang and hear “Polly,” the 1993 Unplugged version, coming from a speaker. I think, ‘How cool! They’re playing one of my favorite Nirvana songs as I’m strolling along in Seattle!’ Then I realize, ‘Right. That’s my wife’s ringtone.’ (Sometimes I even amaze myself how completely out of it I am at times.)
Met Leighton and a couple he’s friends with and enjoyed some breakfast at the Crystal Kitchen. Turns out he’s putting together a benefit show on October 5 for Dawn Anderson. If you’re not aware, Dawn, a favorite Seattle music writer of mine, has been battling breast cancer and funds have been extremely tight…wonderful health care system have we in this country. And I’m sure the current party in power we’ll make it better. Ok, I’m done with politics…sorry.
So this show will feature the Thrown Ups, Leighton’s old improv punk/grunge band, Jack Endino’s Earthworm, and Swallow. I had heard a rumor about a mystery band appearing at this show…but Leighton will not confirm or deny it. That’s killing me. Could it be a grunge reunion show? Could it be a major act? No one’s talking.
During breakfast, Leighton provided a heartfelt theory of what drove the grunge scene. I won’t go into details, because it’s quite personal, but suffice it to say…it was young kids who experienced serious tragedies early in their lives, and used music to move beyond those tragedies. It was pretty powerful stuff.
I had some time to kill, so I walked around Capitol Hill and stumbled into a record shop called Zions Gate Records. As I scanned the CDs (yeah, I still buy those), I saw a copy of the Groundhogs’ Thank Christ for the Bomb. Then, as I walked toward the register, I couldn’t help notice what the store was playing…it was hard blues, with a Hendrix touch, supplemented with this fantastic blues turnaround (I’m a sucker for a great turnaround.) The next song was even better.
“Great selection,” the rather young cashier commented.
“Thanks,” I responded. “By the way, what are you playing? It’s fantastic.”
“It’s a band called Leaf Hound, and the record is Growers of Mushroom.”
“Ok, I’ll take it.”
“Right on. They had one fantastic record that came out in 1970, and then they broke up. So no one knows about them.”
I listened to it in the car. Yeah, wow, that’s all I can say.
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I headed back to the 11th Avenue Inn to rest up for that night’s shows featuring two great bands: Kinski and the Squirrels. More about that in Part II.
