Lineup: Mudhoney, The Supersuckers, Marcy Playground, Pete Droge with Elaine Summers backing, Wellwater Conspiracy, Stickfigure
Set: Ed joined Wellwater Conspiracy for Red Light Green Light and Felicity's Surprise. Ed also with The Supersuckers for Poor Girl.

Ed and Eddie
Photo credit: LeAnn

A few nights ago I went to the baseball charity concert thingie at the Showbox in conjunction with the All Star baseball game.  Jack McDowell, former White Sox pitcher and FOE (friend of Eddie's) has a band called Stickman that was playing along with Wellwater Conspiracy, Pete Droge, the Supersuckers, Mudhoney, and uh, Marcy Playground.  "When I was four years old they tried to test my IQ they showed me a picture of three oranges and a pear...they asked me "which one is different and does not belong?" and I said "Marcy Freakin' Playground, you idiots!"  I'd purchased my ticket based on it being well worth $34 to see Pete Droge, Mudhoney, and the Supersuckers all in one night, but we got a nice 'bonus' when it was announced Ed would also be appearing. After being added to the bill, we expected Ed to join Wellwater Conspiracy onstage, and he did, performing the perfunctory two songs with Wellwater, and then caused GREAT JOY in our party by hopping back up onstage at the end of a truly stellar set by the Supersuckers set to do "Poor Girl" from the West Memphis Three benefit album! YES! 

(Sidenote: Jack McDowell had apparently said on the radio that Ed was going to appear and play with Mudhoney, which initially we wrote off as a method of selling more tickets, ha. When Ed's name "officially" was added I just couldn't imagine he would be joining MH...he's never recorded anything with them and it would almost be like stepping on their toes, or so I think. As much fun as it would be to see Ed onstage with them, it made much more sense for him to appear with Wellwater and then the Supersuckers.)

Stickman (Jack McDowell's band) played first.  They were a decent bar band...nothing to scream or shout about but they held their own. Wellwater Conspiracy played next.  I appreciate the talent in the band and don't dislike WC, but I liked their first album and haven't really developed a relationship with the latest one. But I have to admit, as any Pearl Jam fan in the room would, it was cool when Ed joined them onstage much as he did at Key Arena last November.  You could see people suddenly sucked toward the stage like iron filings toward a magnet! It seemed like as quickly as Ed appeared, WC was done with their set and they all vanished from the stage too fast.

Next up was a favorite of mine, Pete Droge (with Elaine Summers).  His acoustic set included Beautiful Girl (which was nearly drowned out by crowd conversation...they finally started to shut up and listen towards the end of the song), Motor Kid, Small Time Blues, a Graham Parsons cover...something about "I Just Don't Care Anymore" perhaps?, a new song called Train Love to Stay, Brakeman, and his radio hit, If Ya Don't Love Me...  People ended up getting into Pete's set and were very appreciative, which was a good thing as I would have hated to have had to kick them all in the ass for ruining it, ha. 

Next up: Marcy Playground.  What The Hell?  Who booked this band?  Are they from Seattle and I just don't know it?  I'm thinking Vancouver or Portland but oh boy, they were not my cup of tea.  My friends and I sat at our table, casting horrified looks at each other and watching drunk people do a bad, gyrating hippie dance to MP's radio hit, Sex and Candy. It seemed like an agonizingly long set! But we survived it and were rewarded with...

The Supersuckers.  What a completely fresh breath of air!  In honor of the All Star game they rumbled through "Rock and Roll Part Two" and one of my friends noticed that no one pumped their fist in the air and yelled "HEY!" more enthusiastically than Scott McCaughey, who was in the audience along with Jason Finn and Mark Arm and a few other Seattle glitterati (although it wasn't a big star gazing night...NO KIM THAYIL!).  Then, to appease our lust for Thin Lizzy According to the Supersuckers, they did roll out "The Cowboy Song" and we were urged to spark up our lighters at the beginning. A few people close to the stage did, but we were standing further back, and no one in our area was complying...I whipped out my lighter and flicked it and I swear, Eddie Spaghetti nodded at me as a gesture of approval.  Ooooh, a brush with greatness!  Laugh if you want...it was cool, hahaha. 

Pacing is everything and the Supersuckers command it.  I thought RnR Pt 2 was the highlight...then the Cowboy song tore the roof off the Showbox...and then they had the cajones to bring Ed out, after a long intro about the cool stuff you get to do if you're a Supersucker, like record with: [insert list of people they've worked with here], including Ed Vedder on the "Free the West Memphis Three" album. 

I moved more toward the middle of the room during this song cause suddenly, Tall People had appeared in front of me.  When the Supersuckers/Ed got done I realized I had been standing smack behind my antihero, MARK ARM.  (Another example of how Ed commands all the attention in the room!) Ed's hair is short and he shaved off his beard and he looked great...tan, well rested, very healthy and fit. When he first came to the stage, Eddie Spaghetti handed Ed his trademark wrap around shades and Ed sported them for a few minutes before giving them back to Eddie. Then they ripped through Poor Girl and it was just thrash...so much harder than the recording.  [Sorry, I didn't tape the show!]

After the Supersuckers, there are few bands in Seattle who could still take the stage, but Mudhoney is definitely one of them. Matt Lukin didn't play with the band but they had a perfectly capable guy in his place -- but it was kind of sad not to see Matt up there.  Have I never noticed that Dan Peters, for all of his strangeness, is actually a killer drummer?  Steve Turner was doing his Stone Gossard imitation (sometimes they seem like the same person, LOL), right down to rushing into the club with a backpack on...shades of Bridge '99.  And...my beloved Mark Arm has finally transformed himself into Iggy Pop.  He has dyed his hair brown, let his bangs grow out, and perhaps lost a pound or two...he simply has become Iggy.  Mark and Steve were totally rocking out the whole set and laughing and having a good time.  Mark, of course, thanked the crowd at the end and I can never tell if he had a good time cause he always smirks and says something like "I hope you had as good a time as we did" and then looks like he hates the audience and that the show sucked, hahaha. But Steve said "thank you" and meant it, LOL.  They did Suck You Dry, which I always need to hear, and they also did Poison Water and When Tomorrow Hits, which are two favorites of mine. One of the highlights happened at the beginning of their set, when Eddie Spaghetti rushed out onstage and snapped a photo of Mark Arm with a disposable camera from about three feet away -- a distance Mark closed to inches as the camera flashed, baring his teeth in a huge grin.

Ed Vedder wandered from the back of the club out on to the main floor during their set, wearing a jacket and a hat and clutching "the" notebook...he casually made his way up to near the front of the stage on what would have been Matt's side...bobbing his head, pumping his fists...doing a beatnick 'snap' after one song cause he only had one hand free and couldn't clap, haha.  I could see him from where I was standing in the back of the room for most of the rest of the set and he seemed to maintain his anonymity, or else people didn't care...and I'd like to think at this point he could stand in the crowd at a MH show and not be hassled by people any more than the rest of us.  MH left the stage and some people very LAMELY began chanting "Eddie Eddie" because they obviously believed Jack McDowell but I just couldn't see Ed coming up onstage with them...it would be such a slap to MH and disrespectful...and personally, I don't think they'd invite him and I don't think he'd suggest it.  The "Eddie" chanting died out and was taken over by a much louder, more organized chant of Mud-hon-ey! that came from the vicinity of where I'd last seen Ed, ha.  And then MH came out and did their encore. Mark didn't play guitar, just sang, and he was even more like Iggy Pop than before, without the constraints of his guitar. 

It was another amazing evening of the diverse music Seattle has to offer. The show started at about 8:45 and didn't end until 2 a.m., and for those of us who work a 9-5 job, that's a late evening so early in the week! But it was a great show and definitely one I'm glad I did not miss.