Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [43]
JEFF AMENT And her boyfriend, from behind, grabbed me, pulled me off the stage, into the crowd, and I got pummeled! … I’m just getting like beat to death. It was horrible.
MARK ARM I’d gotten pulled into the crowd before, when we opened for Black Flag, and Jeff had thrown his bass off and jumped in after me and saved my ass, so I’m like, Oh, great, it’s my turn. I gotta save Jeff’s ass.
ALEX SHUMWAY I wasn’t gonna jump in a crowd of 700 people! Screw this crap!
BRUCE FAIRWEATHER All I remember is Stone and I look at each other, and we just backed up. I was like, They’re on their own, man. I thought they were going to get killed.
MARK ARM We’re about to get pummeled by the angry crowd that surrounded us. But a security guard, who was an off-duty cop with a gun, stepped in and saved our asses.
JEFF AMENT Went up to get paid afterwards, after probably the most humbling experience ever. And Corey Rusk, who was in the Necros at that point—I was really excited to meet him, ’cause I loved the Necros—and he runs Touch and Go now, he was the promoter for the show. We were supposed to make like a hundred bucks, which was a huge payday for us at that point. He’s paying Danzig like $12,000 or whatever he’s making that show. And I put my hand out, and he goes, “Man, I thought you guys sucked. I’m only giving you $25.”
BRUCE FAIRWEATHER The reason for this whole tour was that we were supposed to open for the U.K. Subs in Boston. Gerard Cosloy from Homestead had booked the show, so we drove all the way to Boston to find out that the U.K. Subs didn’t make it into the country. So that show didn’t happen.
ALEX SHUMWAY Gerard said, “Okay, I can get you guys a show on Wednesday at CBGB’s in New York.” We were going, “Fuckin’ awesome! CBGB’s!”
MARK ARM Of course, we played last, which is cleanup—it wasn’t the headlining slot. The place cleared out, and we played in front of the staff and a couple of Japanese tourists.
ALEX SHUMWAY On the way back, we were driving through some part of North Dakota or South Dakota, and it was pitch-black out and snowing lightly. We were all just wiped out. Mark was driving. I was laying in the way back of the station wagon, and we were all talking about lighting farts on fire. “Oh, you can’t light a fart on fire.” “Sure you can.”
And Stoney goes, “Yes, you can,” and he puts his legs up, takes a lighter, puts it between his legs and just rips one out. And the flame goes boom! Everybody was like, “Fuck! Oh, my God!” thinking he was gonna blow the place apart. And it scared Mark so bad that he yanked the steering wheel and hit black ice, and we go flying off into this ditch.
MARK ARM Fart-lighting? (Laughs.) I don’t recall anything like that happening at all in Green River. It wasn’t like a frat house. Also, the sun was just starting to come up, and everyone was pretty much asleep when that happened. We were driving through a snowstorm and had to get gas. So I started taking an exit and the exit was basically a sheet of ice, and we ended up going off the edge of the road.
BRUCE FAIRWEATHER Me and Jeff and Stone were in the back sleeping. All I remember is waking up, with Alex going, “Oh, my God, oh, my God! No!” And looking up and seeing the trailer bouncing and snow flying everywhere. I just wrapped my head in the pillow and went, “Oh, let it happen.”
Mark was never the greatest driver, and he took an exit on black ice going 60 miles an hour. We just went off down this hill, totally out of control, through a ditch and … ended up right at a gas station.
We were fine. We were all just terrified.
MARK PICKEREL (Screaming Trees/Truly drummer) Ellensburg, Washington, was definitely a sleepy little town. It was mostly a farming community, a little rodeo city, but there was also a university there that saved it from being