Mudhoney

Mudhoney
at Bo Jangles, San Francisco
October 3, 1998

On a cool Saturday night, I was teleported back to the year 1992. It felt like a scene from the movie, Singles. Men and women were sporting raggedy flannel shirts and baggy shorts. There was also a plentiful amount of Nirvana and Pearl Jam T-shirts. What could possibly bring these twenty-somethings out in such full force? Mudhoney, the innovators and one of the last remaining remnants of the long-ago Seattle "grunge" scene performed in support of their latest record, Tomorrow Hit Today.

The band opened the show with their classic, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More," with Mark Arm's distorted slide guitar blistering the ears of the crowd. That was only the foundation to the wall of noise that was about to be constructed upon the stage. Guitarist Steve Turner quickly burst into the opening riff of "Judgement, Rage, Retribution, and Thyme," bringing the still floor to a maniacal stampede of bodies. With his high-pitched squelch pouring from his lanky frame, and an ever-present smirk, Arm seemed to pleased with the effects. Keeping the between-song banter to a minimum, they continued to surge through a decade's worth of songs, including material off of the new album. The bluesy chaos of "A Thousand Forms of Mind," and "Real Low Vibe" show that the band has remained pretty straight forward in their songwriting.

In what seems to be a trend as of late among bands, the show ended as quickly as it began. The hour-long set did, however, come to a grandiose ending. At the end of the final song, Arm, minus guitar, leaned toward the groping hands of the crowd, as if on purpose, and was swallowed by the sea of sweaty bodies, disappearing for a time, only to be spit back to the safety of the stage. The wall of noise that once stood, was now gone, and so was Mudhoney.

– Mark Lore

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