Seattle Subsonic

Reviewed: Hater at the Tractor Tavern

October 3rd, 2008

[Guest post by misterlevitan's brother, Little Murph]

Last week I was in town visiting my older brother. He moved here 12 years ago with his Sub Pop Loser T-shirt, flannels, and ridiculous black boots just in time for his favorite band, Soundgarden, to break up. I remember him coming home for winter break that first year nearly in tears because that band had postponed their two-night-stand downtown for a week, and he had to give his tickets away.

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So as a Southern California resident who lives on the beach in Malibu and drives a full-size V8 truck, you probably aren’t surprised when I say that I don’t “get it”, this thing about Seattle, why you guys drink coffee all morning and yellow beer at night. So when I got to my brother’s house from the airport (he made me take the bus, don’t cha know) I wasn’t really sure what to expect when he said that he had just bought tickets for a band called Hater. He said something like “this band has 50% of Soundgarden’s roster”. “Oh boy. I can’t wait ’til they play Spoonman“, I said. He promised that they wouldn’t. Ever the fanboy mouth-breather on all things Soundgarden, he said that a third member of the group, that bearded dude with the backwards baseball cap, would be there too.
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Whoop dee doo.
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So Tuesday night we got some burgers at some hardware store, drank a bunch of Rainier tall boys (don’t you people like pint glasses?) and kept running into all these motherfuckers that my brother knew. (Does everyone live in Ballard?) We got to the Tractor Tavern just in time to see the last few songs of The Cops set. Those guys were pretty damned good, too. I scanned the room: not a tattered Badmotorfinger t-shirt in sight. I don’t know what your shows usually look like, but these grunge legend dudes (I hate that g-word) sure didn’t attract a full house. In my week here, I had become accustomed to the sight of Death Cab for Cutie fans with their omnipresent Blackberrys and hipster uniforms. This Tractor was all about straight-ahead blue-collar rock-and-fucking roll.
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The band rolled right into their first song [Jethro Tull's "A New Day Yesterday" - ed.] and I guess I couldn’t help but laugh a little to myself. Not at the band - they were pretty badass. I’d just watched that Cameron Crowe movie about Seattle music with my girlfriend this summer, and this little club scene was totally just like that concert part of the movie. Just shorter hair, and this lead singer guy doesn’t appear to be skipping any meals. And just like in that movie, the crowd at the Tractor stood fixed in place, reverently nodding their heads to the slow, thunderous dirge coming from the stage. They only played for about an hour, but it was solid. After the show, my brother swiped the set list off of the stage and he told me that their performance was a mix of old songs, and well, older songs.
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Now I loves me some AC/DC, Zeppelin, MC5, “Fun House” by The Stooges. Listening to this band, a footnote in the history of local rock, I could hear them channel the spirit of those far-better-known masters. What was sweet was the lack of a big sweaty crowd, an expensive ticket, overpriced beer in a plastic cup, dickhead security guys in a distant soulless venue, shit parking, and the associated bullshit of a major-label band’s tour. Is that what you people are so proud of here? If it is, I guess that’s why I think I do get it.
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Just before getting on the plane Wednesday night, I caught my reflection in a window of a shop in the airport. Ho Lee Shit. I saw my out-of-place-for-LA beard and backwards trucker hat in a whole new light. Can’t wait to come back.