Green River, The Fluid, and Why Rock 'n' Roll will never Die

You may or may not know that this year marks the 20^th anniversary of Sub Pop records, a Seattle institution and the original home of one of the biggest bands of all time. This wasn't necessarily a big deal to me, but when they announced that Green River and The Fluid were going to re-unite to play a big anniversary bash it became a very big deal.

You see, I never saw Green River live, but was a huge fan back in the late eighties…their sound came to epitomize the Seattle experience to me even before I moved here, and once I did get here it made even more sense. Of course, they broke up long before that. And the Fluid, well, there has never been a more exciting live band, and I seriously doubt there ever will. The only downside was that this show was going to be during the day at a park…not necessarily how I'd like to see either of these bands.

Then Mrs. Frenchy heard of a "secret" show at the Sunset in Ballard, a tiny little tavern, that Green River would be playing. As a bonus, it was on her birthday! So I watched the website and soon the tickets for a show starring The Press Corps and "2 special guests" went on sale. I bought 4, as we had some friends who were going to go with us. I then looked up The Press Corps on the internets and found out that it was kind of a supergroup, and the singer was Garrett Shavlik…who used to play drums for The Fluid. Hmmm….what could that mean?

The day of the show I checked the Green River myspace site and found that, yes, the mighty Fluid would be playing! And then the excitement began in earnest. Emails were flying all over the place…excited phone conversations were taking place, discussing the bands, music, and all kinds of stuff…plans for meeting up were made and changed…"Rehab Doll" was getting a lot of play in my office and many others.

Do you remember that feeling you'd get before a big weekend show, the one where you loved the bands and all your friends were going to be there? That's what was happening (even though only some of our friends would be there) and it was even better because I would be celebrating the birthday of my lovely wife at the same time.

We met up with a bunch of folks at the Bal-Mar, a classy joint in the middle of trendy Ballard, owned by our friends, and bar hopped for a while until finally it was time to hit the Sunset Tavern…the secret location. It was crowded, lots of old schoolers there of course, but not too crazy. My friend Chris and I staked out a spot about 4 feet from the PA speaker on the right side of the stage and soon Green River took the stage.

They had the whole line up on stage, with early guitarist Steve Turner as well as Stone Gossard and Bruce Fairweather, which was kind of surprising, but also a pretty cool & classy move on their part. I'm not great at recounting a set by a band that I dig song by song, because I completely geek out and get all immersed in the music and the show and shit, so all I can say is that they launched into a blistering, incredibly loud set and really tore it up. I think that the presence of Turner may have held them back a bit on some of the more metal tinged songs (the ones that are my favorite), but not that much. The big revelation for me was what a bad ass lead singer Mark Arm is…I'm used to seeing him in Mudhoney, but without the guitar he stalked the stage with a burning stare and just belted it out, channeling Iggy the whole time. I love the way he sings, and he was in fine form for sure, even when he ventured out onto the bar (the mic cut out, but if you were close enough you could hear him scream!). Awesome. I finally got to see Green River, and they were fantastic.

The Press Corps played next, and, well, they were pretty bad. And long. Enough said, I think.

Then the Fluid took the stage. Damn, I wish I could remember the first song exactly, but, like I said, I just dive in and I can't really think straight after that. It might have been "Black Glove", it seems like it was anyway, but whatever it was, about 2 seconds after the whole band kicked in it was obvious that something special was happening here. The whole club was instantly in motion…heads bobbing, eyes closed, singing along with John Robinson, who is still an absolute Rock God. His voice is as good as it was back in the day, and he looks like he's in his 20's, the bastard.

The Fluid always had one of, if not the, most powerful and inventive rhythm sections anywhere, and they have not lost a step. Shavlik pounded the skins as hard and aggressively as ever, and Matt Bischoff was with him on bass every step of the way, still flashing that goofy grin at his bandmates as he looked around the tiny stage. James Clower and Rick Kulwicki blasted out a towering wall of guitar as if they had never stopped playing.

I wish I could find the words to adequately describe their set. Transcendent would work, I think, as would devastating, but neither tell the story. At the end I walked to the back to catch up with Mrs. Frenchy…I was covered in sweat and grinning from ear to ear, and that grin remained for days (as did the ringing in my ears). It was her birthday, but I got a present too!**

The next morning the missus and I had a late breakfast in the hotel lobby and noticed that the Sub Pop flag was flying off of the top of the Space Needle. I don't know, I've never spent much time thinking about that label itself, but it was kind of moving to see it up there. I mean, without them I probably would have never moved up here, and so would never have met Mrs. Frenchy, and missed out on a lot of awesome rock too. I guess it really was a big deal after all.

**Yes, I got her a present as well…the evidence of that will be in my photos soon.