It was late 1988 or early 1989. Not terribly sure on the date and can't find any solid verification of tour dates on the internet, but it looks like fIREHOSE was playing college campuses in the fall and winter of 1988, so I'm leaning toward fall/winter 1988.
Brendan introduced me to a lot of new to me music in a very short span of time in 1986 and 1987. In ONE NIGHT!!!!! he introduced me to Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Minutemen, fIREHOSE and Fear. ONE NIGHT! That was a pretty mind melting musical awakening. We had a mutual admiration for punk and hardcore, but Brendan was for more steeped in the genre than I was. I was a metalhead who was basically a tourist into the punk world until Brendan really turned me on to what was happening in that world. I will be forever grateful for this!
Anyone who knows him knows that Brendan LOVES The Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Love love loves both bands! And Mike Watt is an idol of his. Rightly so. Mike Watt is the shit!
So, in the fall (or winter) of 1988, I was a junior in high school and Brendan was a senior. We were good, if terribly odd kids. My parents loved him. His parents loved me. We both adored each other's parents. It was all working out very nicely in the families getting along category.
We were inseparable. We understood and respected each other's particular brand of weirdness.
We had some friends who were in their first year at UC Santa Cruz and we would occasionally call them to ask to get us a pass on to the campus at night so we could wander around the campus and get a feel for life at the college we would both be attending in the coming years.
One night, fIREHOSE was playing on campus at Sluggo's Pizza in the Porter residential college! Brendan and I make our way over HWY 17 to campus hoping that our friends had put our names at the west entry to the college, so we could get in to see fIREHOSE play at a freaking pizza joint!
Sluggo's was great! It wasa small pizza joint at Porter above the residential dining hall. There wasn't anything fancy about it. Some indoor seating. A small outdoor patio. It was usually packed on any given night. It was reasonably priced and super convenient if you lived on the West side of campus. I remember the pizza being pretty good as well. I would eat there a lot in the coming years when I attended UC Santa cruz from 1990-1993.
Brendan and I make our way through this heavily wooded campus to Porter College. fIREHOSE is already playing. We may have missed a song or two. Had this been The Minutemen, we would have missed like 120 songs in this span of time, but this was fIREHOSE, so we only missed a song or two.
This is my first time seeing them. To see them playing at ground level with no stage and literally 6-10 feet away is amazing. It's 1988 and since I've always dressed like it's 1991 in Seattle, I'm wearing my Chuck Taylors, denim jeans, probably a Metallica or Metal Church t-shirt and a hefty, Midwestern style flannel.
Mike Watt is a bassist like no other. He's an amazing player. His more famous peers like Eric Avery, Norwood Fisher, Les Claypool, and Flea all have sung his praises over the years. He wasn't as technically proficient or as flashy as many of his peers. This isn't to say he's not a very technically proficient bassist. That's very far from the truth. He's a very gifted player, but what really separates him from most players is his honesty. His intensity. His obvious and overflowing passion while playing. He's the only bassist I've seen bust a low E string on stage!
fIREHOSE was a far more traditional band compared to The Minutemen. Honestly, I liked fIREHOSE more than The Minutemen for this fact. The songs were more structured and easier to follow and allowed the time for them to wash over you. The Minutemen created something more like sketches of songs, sometimes verging on what felt like inside jokes between the three. That's not a slam. The Minutemen were amazing and their break from traditional song structure was revolutionary at the time. I love their work!
fIREHOSE really felt like The Minutemen had grown up and really found their footing as songwriters. Mike's unique, thumping bass. George Hurley's incredibly skillful playing fits right into the pocket and Ed Crawford's melodic voice and understated guitar playing glues the whole thing together beautifully.
It's a fantastic show. To be so close to it was thrilling. After they finish, the go out of their way to chat with the people in the crowd... which wasn't all that big really. Brendan and I get to talk to Mike. He compliments my sneakers and flannel. Autographed my shoes. He's genuinely appreciative that we would take time out of our schedules to come watch him play his music.
No, seriously Mike, the honor is all mine!
He's such a nice person. Genuine. Honest. Humble.
I would get to hang out with him more a few years later when they would play a couple of Primus shows where I had a photo pass and then many years later when his post fIREHOSE projects would come and play the Crocodile in Seattle.
In the years after this and a moderate amount of success, when I would run into him and say hi, he would always take a couple moments to shoot the shit and express his appreciation.... and compliment my flannels!
So, for those of you who like to poke a little fun of my Seattle in the Early 90s sense of "style", take note. Mike Watt has complimented my style choices on four separate occasions and I will always hold onto that more than the joking criticism of my more... ummm... shall.... er... fashion conscious friends.
I would see fIREHOSE a half a dozen or so more times in the coming years, but I'm never going to forget the time I got to eat a slice of pizza while watching them perform a couple of feet away from me at my future alma mater with my bestest buddy.
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