Mudhoney Comes To Town

I think most everyone has a favorite band. I'm sure there are people that don't, I just don't feel like I know them. I mean, everyone has that one band. For me, especially with Nirvana being long-since dead, it's been Mudhoney since as long as I can remember. In 2001 when they came to Trees, I was ecstatic-and honestly expected it to be my one and only chance to see them outside of a trip to the Pacific Northwest. So imagine my glee when back in May I found out they were coming back to Dallas, this time to the Granada on Sept. 5. There may or may not have been a couple exclamations of joy and/or fist pumping.

Look, I don't expect you to understand why I love Mudhoney. I don't expect you to completely understand the role the band played in the history of rock music, nor do I expect you to really care. The ship sailed a long time ago on me trying to convince people of their greatness (though I have had a fair amount of success doing so for ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and Sunny Day Real Estate). For the last several years they've been that little band that I love and just understood that others didn't. And the people that know me have just dealt with the fact that I have this strange obsession with a distortion-driven band from the early '90s that has virtually zero radio air-play and has settled into some blues influences over the past few years.

So what did I think of the show?

Well I thought it was awesome, of course. What did you expect me to think? I can't say I'm a terribly huge fan of the encore they did (hasn't that encore bit run it's course by now?), and I'm still a little miffed that it started and ended so early (I ended up missing three songs on the front end), but fuck-it was Mudhoney and they were good. Considering Superfuzz Bigmuff came out in 1988, I thought they did a pretty good job of playing a set that spanned the entirety of their 20 year career without ignoring the early career stuff they were known for, and throwing in a few b-sides found on March To Fuzz. I was also very pleasantly surprised at the size of the crowd, it seemed to me like it was a fair bit larger than the aforementioned Trees show in 2001.

That said, the venue, ehhhh.....I can't say I'm sold on The Granada. I love the concept of the Granada, on old movie theatre converted to all-ages music venue that has a nice setup (although not great sound) and is centrally located. In theory it's a pretty cool place. In practice, it's non-smoking (i just can't get behind a non-smoking club) with not-so-great sound and apparently bar Nazis. I got denied a shot of whiskey because I'd ordered one 30m earlier, and while I wish there were more to the story, there's just not....I was sober and just wanted a shot to go with my beer (Mudhoney is best experience with alcohol, and since the show started early I hadn't gotten going). I understand being cautious and I understand the TABC sucks, really I do, but as I told the guy, "look at me, do you really think that shot of whiskey is going to leave me wasted? Not to mention I'm walking home...."

That unpleasantness aside, yes, Mudhoney fucking pwned. And you should have been there. Oh, and thanks to Nick for having us at his party afterwards...sorry if Ian and I were a wee bit intoxicated at that point.