Unplaced Show Notes: All of the shows with unknown dates below took place sometime between 7/1/84 and 8/21/87.
??/??/8? Top of the Court. Seattle, WA
Notes: Top of the Court was located at 1524 15th Ave W.Steve:
The first show I remember playing at an over-21 club was near Magnolia but at the bottom of the hill on the west side. It was a little, tiny bar. I think Green River played with Malfunkshun and maybe the Melvins there. I swear I played there with something. I think it was Green River. [Note: he was just playing with The Thrown-Ups between Green River and Mudhoney, and it probably wasn't that.]??/??/8? 11th Ave NE and NE 50th St. Seattle, WA
Attendance: 250-300
Also on Bill: Bundle of Hiss
Notes: This show was scheduled to take place outdoors in Standwood, WA, but was cancelled at the last minute due to rain and rescheduled as a gig in this five-bedroom house. This show happened after Steve left the band - sometime between 7/8/85 and 8/20/87.Mark:
There was that show that was supposed to happen at Camano Island with Feast. It turned into a house party at Tom Mick and Ed Fotheringham's house.??/??/8? The Central Tavern. Seattle, WA
Notes: The audience begins throwing spam at the band, and they respond by dropping their instruments in the middle of the song that they are playing and throwing it back. The resulting chaos and damage gets Green River both fined and banned for life from the Central Tavern. This event prompted Green River to start throwing things - most notably cooking oil - at the audience during future performances. This might have taken place at one of the other listed Central Tavern shows.??/??/87 Washington Hall. Seattle, WA
Also on Bill: Cat Butt
Notes: Cat Butt formed in early 1987, placing this gig after that.Mark:
[Throwing stuff at the crowd] came a little bit from Mr. Epp, it came a little bit from The Butthole Surfers. "What are we gonna do to surprise or freak out the crowd this time?" ... The cooking oil thing [throwing cooking oil at the crowd] I think was at Washington Hall, maybe it was Cat Butt? I think David Duet got his hands on that and started spraying it all around. That wasn't a pre-planned thing like spaghetti and Jell-O. That was opening for the Butthole Surfers. "They're gonna do something, what are we gonna do?" The fish in the pants thing, gotta have something! The fish in the pants thing, that kind of goes back to a Dicks show in Texas where Gary Floyd had steaks in his pants and his armpits and played the whole show and sweated on them, then threw them out into the crowd. Which I think is a reference to one of those John Waters movies where Divine is shoplifting and putting steaks down her pants.Unplaced Notes:
- Steve:
I think [Green River] getting banned from venues was [after I left the band]. The fish incident was one. Jell-o and Spaghetti. I was at the fish show. That was at the Central.Tom Price in Grunge is Dead:
Once, I went to see them - I'd gotten off work late, and Mark was always fucking with the audience. They were playing and I was pushing my way through the crowd at the Central Tavern. Right as I got up to the front of the stage, the crowd parted like the Red Sea - Mark had a pitcher of beer, and launched it directly into my face. I didn't see what was coming - he just douched me from head to toe.Bruce Pavitt in Grunge is Dead:
Mark Arm, I remember one show in particular - him climbing up the PA stack and leaping on some lights there. Basically, endangering himself physically.Note: this sounds like Bruce is referring to 5/23/87.Dale Crover in Grunge is Dead:
There's one show we played with [Green River] - our van was screwed up, so we borrowed their gear. Playing on the drummer's set, he had a really huge bass drum. He was going for a Jerry Nolan/New York Dolls-type thing - I think a 26-inch bass drum. And I was like, 'Wow, this is awesome!' And he's like, 'Good luck finding one. I had to order this and it took six months to get.'Tad Doyle in I'm Now: The Story of Mudhoney:
The first time I saw Mark Arm, and it was a pretty awesome show at the Central. I remember walking up to him and saying, "That was a great show. I've got some pot. Want to smoke some?" [Note: Tad moved to Seattle in early 1987, so this may be 1/24/87.]Kim Thayil in Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle:
I remember Green River were about to play a show at the Rainbow. Alex went up to the stage to check his drum set, and then he grabbed a can of Aquanet, which was a hairspray popular in the Sixties, and he starts spraying his hair. I thought - that's gotta be a joke. But he seemed serious. He adjusted his drum set, fixed his hair, and then was like, 'OK, what now?' I think, given that context, Mark went along that direction and Steve left the band. When Steve left Green River, that left the band to Jeff and Stone, and when that band broke up they formed Mother Love Bone to further the direction they were going. Steve wanted to maintain more of a pure approach to playing guitar in a hard rock band without any of the artifice. Without the scarves and all that rock'n'roll stuff. He just wanted to play his guitar loud.
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