Mudhoney Tourbook, 1989
1/6/89 Satyricon. Portland, OR
Supported By: Nirvana1/9/89 The Underground. Seattle, WA (40 min)
Supporting: Danzig
Set: No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, Chain that Door, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Burn it Clean, (Touch Me I'm Sick), You Got it, Touch Me I'm Sick, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: They play 'You Got it' for the first known time. After 'Chain that Door,' someone in the crowd shouts for the band to play some heavy metal (headliner Danzig being very metal), so mark rocks a few riffs and then gives the Dev il's Horns hand gesture. Glenn Danzig formed Danzig after leaving his previous band, The Misfits, so Mark later jokes, "Thanks for coming to see the evil genius behind Mr. Epp and his new band Mudhoney." Steve starts into 'Touch Me I'm Sick' too early into the set. After they play the song in full later, Mark announces, "They wouldn't let us sell t-shirts tonight for less than seventeen bucks. That's kinda fucked," and throws a handful of Mudhoney t-shirts into the crowd. After Mudhoney's set the guys are breaking down their gear, someone from the venue comes on stage to announce upcoming shows. When he gets to Mudhoney-favorite The Wipers, Mark and Steve find a mic to jokingly let the crowd know, "Anvil is better than that show." In a 9/24/98 Seattle Weekly article, Steve remembered:Mudhoney played with Danzig in Seattle in '88, I think...They had their free-weights in the backstage room. The lead guitarist was just practicing his solos, and everybody else would be lifting.Mark and Steve talked about the show in an 8/90 Maximumrocknroll interview:
Mark: That was weird. During soundcheck [Danzig] wasn't even there, then he walked down, looked at the stage, which was like three feet high, and he said, "I'm not going to play unless there's a barrier." We were like, "Oh great, we have to have a barrier. Are you afraid people are going to touch you?" Anyway, after we played we were splitting to a bar down the street and we saw Danzig come out of his bus with like two security guards to keep people from touching him or something. It's like, "You were in the Misfits, you're so neat."
Steve: They're riding that Misfits thing.
...
MRR: What's the story with what you said at the Danzig show?
Mark: The posters for the show said, "The evil genius behind The Misfits returns," so during our show I said, "I'm the evil genius behind Mr. Epp! Ha ha ha!"
All: (laughter)
Steve: That was funny. I doubled over.1/14/89 The HUB Ballroom. Seattle, WA (45 min)
Supporting: The Life
Supported By: TAD, The Posies
Set: Mudride/Here Comes Sickness, No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, (Jam), Chain that Door, If I Think, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, (Jam), (Sifting), You Got it, Burn it Clean, In 'N' Out of Grace
They play 'Come to Mind' for the first known time; it's titled 'Now' on the setlist. The show takes place on The University of Washington campus. After 'Here Comes Sickness,' Steve warns, "They say no stage diving," and UW grad Mark adds, "If you do, they'll take away your grades for this quarter." After 'Sweet Young Thing,' Steve plays a little bit of an unrecognized punk song, and Mark joins in to sing a line. A few guys in the crowd recognize it and shout at the band to play the whole thing, but they're off to the next song. After 'Touch Me I'm Sick,' Steve is dealing with a broken string, so Mark says, "I guess this means I get to do all the solos from now on," and Dan lays down a beat while Mark plays some guitar to it. Then, Steve tests out his repaired guitar by playing the start of Nirvana's 'Sifting.' Nirvana hadn't released that song yet, but they'd played it at the show with Mudhoney in Portland the prior weekend, so Steve probably picked it up there. Someone is shouting at Mark, and he tells him, "Look, if I could sing Soundgarden I would. Do you think I sing like this because I want to?" A little more banter, and Mark says, "This is a song about being a witch and being burned at the stake," then plays some heavy guitar and does high-pitched wailing with it. "Just kidding, I don't play stuff like that because I'm the King of New Wave. This song's called 'Baby Baby Ooooooh Baby,'" and they start up 'You Got it.' The photo used as the bonus picture for the 'You Got it' 7" (released in May) was taken at this show. They also play that single in order - 'You Got it' and then the b-side, 'Burn it Clean.' The room was full for Mudhoney, and then cleared out as soon as they finished, which happens sometimes.1/29/89 Club Soda. Vancouver, Canada
Supported By: Blood Circus
In an interview with Seattle's KISW-FM on 1/30/89, the guys discuss this show:[discussion of whether anyone's parents have seen Mudhoney, and how Mark's mom likes opera]
Mark: [My mom] would think [Yngwie Malmsteen] is a bastardization of classical music.
Dan: Speaking of bastards, I was drunk as a bastard last night.
Host Damon Stewart: What a segue! [Laughter by all] Vancouver will do that to you, won't it? Lots of Foster's.
Mark: Foster's seemed like one of the cheapest beer up there.2/1/89 The Vogue. Seattle, WA (CANCELLED)
Supported By: Swallow, Love And Respect
Notes: Seattle music publication The Rocket reported that Mudhoney didn't make the show due to snow. Swallow and Love and Respect did play.2/10/89 UC Davis Coffee House. Davis, CA
Supported By: Cat Butt2/11/89 Marsugi's. San Jose, CA
Supported By: Nirvana, Vomit Launch
Notes: During Nirvana's set, Kurt Cobain balances on his head while playing guitar. Steve tries to imitate him during Mudhoney's set, but doesn't have any success at it. This is Steve Turner's favorite Nirvana show. Steve:
We played a small show with them in this place that was like a storefront with a big plate glass window and a tiny stage. And Kurt was rolling around on the stage and he kind of rolled backwards and somehow managed to be balancing on his head and still playing guitar - it was the weirdest thing because he was like magically balancing on his head without using his hands. There was not a big crowd in there, maybe 50 people, and the guys were cracking up at the absurdity of it. Nirvana were a wreck but in a really great, chaotic way.2/13/89 The I-Beam. San Francisco, CA (45 min)
Supporting: Soundgarden, Dope
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride/Here Comes Sickness, You Got it, Chain that Door, This Gift, In 'N' Out of Grace, Sweet Young Thing, Hate the Police
Notes: They play 'Magnolia Caboose...' 'Come to Mind,' and 'This Gift' for the first known time. They might have also played a show at the I-Beam on 2/12/89, with Soundgarden and The Wipers. The stage banter is limited to Steve saying "Blue Cheer" to the crowd - when they start, and then before 'Touch Me I'm Sick,' 'In N Out of Grace,' and 'Sweet Young Thing.' 'Sweet Young Thing' and 'Hate the Police' weren't on the written setlist. Steve talked about the show in an 8/90 Maximumrocknroll interview:
MRR: (To Steve) The funniest thing you ever said was "Blue Cheer" over and over between songs at the I-Beam.
Steve: Well, I was hoping that they were there! Or at least that people would recognize the pure genius of their first two records.2/14/89 The Kennel Club. Sacramento, CA
Supported By: The Walkabouts2/17/89 The Burro Room. Chico, CA
Supported By: The Walkabouts2/18/89 The Covered Wagon Saloon. San Francisco, CA
Supported By: The Walkabouts, Blood Circus
Notes: This show was a Sub Pop Records showcase.2/19/89 Berkeley Square. Berkeley, CA
Supporting: Soundgarden
Supported By: Christmas
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, You Got it, This Gift, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: Mark and Steve talked about the show in an 8/90 Maximumrocknroll interview:
Steve: Berkeley Square was really fun.
MRR: It was funny when everyone left before Christmas played.
Mark: I guess there are a lot of close-minded, one-dimensional fucks in the area.
All: (laughter)3/1/89 The Vogue. Seattle, WA
Supported By: The Fluid
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, This Gift, Touch Me I'm Sick, Chain That Door, Come to Mind, If I Think, Mudride/Here Comes Sickness, By Her Own Hand, Burn it Clean, (You Got it), (In N Out of Grace), You Got it, (You Got it), In N Out of Grace, Happy Birthday
Encore: (Jam) (encore incomplete)
Notes: Mark hits the stage and announces, "This is a song about you. Thank you for coming out." Then he introduces Touch Me I'm Sick with, "This song's a dream date between [Nirvana's] Krist Novoselic and [then manager] Bob Whittaker." He tries to get the stage divers off stage: "Get out of the house before I fucking call the cops, man! You guys smell!" During a tuning break, Mark says, "I had this really nice tricked out Kramer with a Floyd Rose [preferred by big hair '80s metal dudes] that never went of tune, but, you know..." He sarcastically administers crowd control while the band starts up 'Mudride:' "You wouldn't mind backing up a bit, would you? Every inch of this fucking place is mine. Since you paid to see me, you're mine, too." Then while Steve starts up, 'Here Comes Sickness:' "you guys wouldn't even like us unless we were big in England! Thanks to England, you like us. I'm bigger than Morrissey in England!" And Steve keeps playing the intro while tech stuff is dealt with: "We're without the Big Muff! My God, we're without the Big Muff!" After the song: "I can't wait until the only time we come to this shitty ass town is to play The Paramount or The Coliseum [much bigger venues], and you have to sit in your seats. It's really hard for a guitar virtuoso such as myself to hit the exact notes that I'm trying to hit. We're all real technical players here. This song's called, 'Ode to All the Dudes at The Vogue and Their Ladies, In Augmented Seventh E Flat.'" Mark introduces 'Burn it Clean' with, "This song's called 'If We Want Beer You Got It.' ... No no, wait, it's called 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill,'" while Steve does vaguely country-style noodling. During another tuning break, Steve plays a little of 'You Got it' to check on his tuning, while Mark plays the intro to 'In N Out of Grace.' After 'You Got it:' "OK, we're gonna have to do that last song over again, because we're doing a video for that last song. See that video camera over there? And what we're hoping is that everyone in the audience will be doing rabbit ears for the whole song. Rabbit ears. So, we're gonna have to do that one all over again so we get it right for the camera. You paid to come down so we hope you get it right for our big MTV video. OK, rabbit ears!" Then they play a short, slow version - mostly Steve, with a little from Dan and Matt. During the breakdown for 'In N Out of Grace:' "OK calm down, calm down. Do you remember how to sit Indian style? We're gonna play a total acid jam Grateful Dead type solo, but we're not going to play it until everyone sits down ... What's the matter, you afraid to sit? Chickenshit." As they're wrapped up with the main set, someone shouts that it's friend-of-the-band Libby's birthday, so Mark sings her a bit of 'Happy Birthday,' with Matt joining in. Mark, Matt, and Steve come back for an encore, but no Dan, and a long break ensues. Mark: "Dan's like really sick. If you can convince him, we'll play." Matt: "I'll play some more songs for some quarters. I need some quarters for laundry." Steve: "He tried this in California, too, and it didn't work. ... I've got bus fare back to Mercer Island. Thanks." Then Dan and Matt jam out a bit, with Matt singing a few lines about a woman who has quarters for him.3/9/89 The Pyramid Club. New York City, NY
3/11/89 Maxwell's. Hoboken, NJ (55 min)
Supported By: Soundgarden, Sylvia Juncosa
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, (unknown snippet), Come to Mind (w/By Her Own Hand), Touch Me I'm Sick, (Take the Money and Run), You Got it, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Burn it Clean, This Gift, Chain that Door, Need, Hate the Police
Encore: (Magnolia Caboose...), (Take the Money and Run), In 'N' Out of Grace, (Take the Money and Run)
Notes: After 'No One Has,' Mark jokingly admonishes the crowd about not breaking things, saying their ruining the scene. Steve starts playing a little bit of a hardcore punk song, and Mark joins in to sing briefly ("You don't hear"). This is the first known version of Come to Mind that has the lyrics to Come to Mind and the music of By Her Own Hand and the rave-up part of The Farther I Go. The Come to Mind that they played as early as 2/11/89 is probably this version. Additional songs might have been performed between Need and Hate the Police. Mark introduces Touch Me I'm Sick with, "This is our newest song, it's called Let them Die Slowly." After the song, he says, "OK, now you can go home. Everything else that we're doing is either a Grateful Dead song or one of ours that you haven't heard before." Matt adds, "Now we're going to do a Steve Miller song," and sings, 'A-wooo-gah!' just like in the Steve Miller Band's Take the Money and Run. Before Burn it Clean, Mark announces, "We're only playing one more song, thanks to this guy. We were going to do six more, instead we're doing one. What's your name? Kevin. You can beat Kevin up." After Need, Steve asks the crowd if they know that the band is going to Europe for two months, then starts laughing while saying, "I'm making my living as a professional musician." They close with In 'N' Out of Grace and after the song, Mark says, "Thus goes the dying art form of punk rock. Watch for our next record on Geffen." There's no backstage area, and the band has to exit through the crowd, so Mark finishes with, "We're done. If you want to make way for us, that'd be great. We don't want you to touch us." The DJ throws on a Sammy Davis Jr. record, and Matt and Mark stay on stage to comment about the record into their mics. Mark talked about the venue in an 8/90 Maximumrocknroll interview:
MRR: Other than Seattle though, what stage can't you wait to step onto?
Mark: Maxwell's.
MRR: In Hoboken?
Mark: Yeah.3/12/89 The Court Tavern. New Brunswick, NJ (45 min)
Supporting: Das Damen
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., Burn it Clean, Sweet Young Thing..., Chain that Door, Come to Mind(w/By Her Own Hand, The Farther I Go), Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, This Gift, You Got it, In 'N' Out of Grace
Encore: By Her Own Hand, Hate the Police
Notes: Dan immediately goes from Magnolia Caboose... to Burn it Clean, only, the other guys don't join him. After a second, he starts back up, and everyone is on board. The ceiling in the venue is low, and before Touch Me I'm Sick, Mark points to the ceiling tiles, and says, "Each of these will cost us twenty dollars if its fucked up." Mark introduces Hate the Police as being T.V. Eye. As they're finishing the show, Steve points to a ceiling tile above the audience and shouts, "Who broke that?! That's twenty dollars right there!"3/14/89 The Pyramid Club. New York City, NY (45 min)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Sweet Young Thing, Chain that Door, You Got it, This Gift, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: In a slightly strange move, they play two shows at the Pyramid Club, but space them out by a week. During the breakdown of 'In N Out of Grace,' Mark announces, "This song's called 'Nick Zed's dick up my anus. It goes something like this. ... [Dan drums] Oh, yeah."Spring 1989 European Tour Notes: They play nine weeks in Europe, which causes them to go a bit crazy. The guys comment on this for the I'm Now documentary:
Dan: Once we left Sonic Youth and hit the mainland on our own, it got to be pretty grueling.
Erik Mans, tour manager: I remember very well that people would ask us where we were last night, and me even being the tour manager, knowing the whole schedule, I had to, like, "Well..."
Matt: We bit off more than we could chew on that first tour of Europe. We were there for way longer than we should've. We should've split it up into two or three tours, probably. But, they just kept asking, "Do you want to go here? Do you want to go there?" Yeah, sure. So, then they'd add on another 12 shows. "You want to go to Poland?" Sure, yeah, we'll go to Poland. "Well, we're gonna have to add at least 15 more shows in Germany to pay for the Poland trip." OK, then we don't want to go to Poland, then. Forget about it. We've already played 15 shows in Germany. And 12 in Holland. 12 in Holland! That's like playing 12 shows in Seattle. Holland's no bigger than my backyard.
Dan: I mean, after a while we were just doing shows, they were just strange and weird, and it was just kind of pointless, and kind of brutal, and the crowds were not there. We'd play a show in some weird mountaintop town in France.
Mark: Sometimes we'd find ourselves in Europe being the only band on the bill, and we had maybe like 12 or 14 songs. We had Superfuzz, the first single ['Touch Me I'm Sick'/'Sweet Young Thing'], 'Twenty Four,' a couple of songs that came out on Mudhoney.
Erik: People didn't accept only a 40 minute show. So, they were not allowed to leave stage.
Dan: We'd go to leave the stage, and the 15 people who were there would lock arms and not let us leave, and we were just like, "Oh, Jesus." So we started making up songs, or in our van ride we had one cassette tape on our trip because none of us brought any music with us. On that tape was the song 'Revolution' by Spacemen 3. And after listening to that tape over and over and over because that was the only music we had, we decided we could start doing a version of 'Revolution.'
Mark: We'd end up playing 15 minute versions of that, just crazy shit. And we did not get the right amount of sleep, I don't think. You know, we spent a lot of time drinking, and staying up late, and generally being irresponsible, and we kind of went crazy.3/17/89 Riverside. Newcastle, England
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Notes: A great show. The crowd is crammed into the venue, and it's hard to move around, so Mark jumps into the crowd with his guitar and plays from there for a while. This show made the band hot in Scotland. Mark tells the crowd that all the guys in the band have bought some new Doc Martens boots. Then he christens them on audience members' heads for a laugh (like how a stage diver will hurt other people with his Doc Martens, but gently).3/18/89 Strathclyde University. Glasgow, Scotland
Supporting: Sonic Youth3/19/89 Strathclyde University. Glasgow, Scotland
Supporting: Sonic Youth3/20/89 Manchester University. Manchester, England (40 min)
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Soundcheck: Twenty Four
Set: Twenty Four, Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Here Comes Sickness, You Got it, This Gift, Chain that Door, In 'N' Out of Grace, (The Rose), By Her Own Hand(w/Come to Mind), Twenty Four
With Sonic Youth: I Wanna Be Your Dog
Notes: Twenty Four is performed for the first known time. Before Come to Mind Mark told the crowd, "in New York, it's just starting to get cool to spit on the bands. So, Sonic Youth really appreciates getting spit on. It's like, you know...it's not cool in Seattle where we're from, but Sonic Youth, they know you like them if you're spitting on them." Later, Sonic Youth comes on stage to a hail of spit. Mark sang the lyrics to Come to Mind while everyone played the music to By Her Own Hand. At the end of Sonic Youth's set, the guys come out and play "I Wanna Be Your Dog" with the band and finish the song by all stage diving.3/21/89 Polytechnical. Leicester, England
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Set: Touch Me I'm Sick, Sweet Young Thing, No One Has, Need (set incomplete and out of order)
3/22/89 Kilburn National Ballroom. London, England
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Supported By: UT
Set: Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, No One Has, If I Think, Burn it Clean, Sweet Young Thing, This Gift, Touch Me I'm Sick (set incomplete and out of order after the first three songs)
Notes: This setlist might be from 3/23/89.3/23/89 Kilburn National Ballroom. London, England
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Supported By: Sperm Wails
With Sonic Youth: I Wanna Be Your Dog
Notes: For Sonic Youth's encore, Mark and Matt come out and sing on The Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog with the group. Thuston Moore of Sonic Youth introduces Mark as Iggy Pop. The guys start throwing Kim Gordon and the rest of Sonic Youth around, and it turns into a big noisy mess, with people and instruments flying.3/24/89 Fullham Greyhound. London, England (50 min)
Supported By: Snuff, Playground
Set: Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, No One Has, Chain That Door, Need, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, This Gift, You Got it, In 'N' Out of Grace
Encore: Sweet Young Thing, Twenty Four
Notes: This is a great performance. Matt, Mark and Steve all play with an especially raucous amount of energy during this show. After 'Here Comes Sickness,' Mark tells the crowd, "Aside from being what you guys call a brilliant band, Snuff are very nice guys. Thank you ... I'll give 50 pounds to the first person who pukes his guts out." Then, "We came all the way here to show you we don't know what the fuck we're doing." While Steve finishes up tuning his guitar before they play 'Need,' Mark announces, "I'm sorry, we're professionals. We have to be perfectly in tune before we do a song. On this next song you'll notice Steve's use of anal arpeggiation in his chords. It's one key in D minor, then we kind of shift it to kind of a A major scale. I hope you guys don't miss it." After this some of the crowd begins to chant, "You're shit, You're shit...," which prompts Steve to yell back "Hey!," before Mark chimes in with "This song's called, 'You Can't Leave Until You Buy Me a Beer, Each and Every one of You." This causes the crowd to begin cheering for them. After 'Need,' Steve defends his tuning his guitar again by stating, "We kind of forgot to bring all of our spare guitars. We got like 15 or 20 of them, I don't know what was in our heads." Mark, with a brown guitar strapped on, adds, "I've never played a brown guitar before in my life." Mark sings the last refrain of 'Touch Me I'm Sick' with, "Touch her, she's 6." After 'Touch Me I'm Sick,' Mark states, "We're not playing another song until they put a barrier in front of the stage. Sorry. We're just not playing another song until there's a barrier in front of the stage. Everybody step back. OK?" Steve adds, "If everybody in the club takes like, five steps back, it'll be fine. Really. Only five! What's the big deal?" Mark comes back in with, "Has anybody vomited yet?" Steve then says, "Mark did." Then Mark goes, "We're not gonna have a good time until everybody vomits! Make the people who work here earn their money." After 'You Got it,' Mark yells at someone to "shut up" based upon whatever the person said. Mark then adds, "Like I can understand a single word any of you fuckers are saying." When they come back out for the encore, Mark says, "Maybe those bands with synthesizers have something." After 'Sweet Young Thing,' Mark tells the crowd, "There's a hunk of spit right here on my shirt. And for the person who spit it, it's got blood mixed in it, so you might have some shit or something. So I hope you're OK." Steve then asks, "How many of you people here were born in 1977?" Mark falls backwards into the crowd near the end of 'Twenty Four,' followed by Matt. After they get back on stage, when the song ends, Mark jumps back into the crowd. Matt then does a handstand back into the crowd, and that's the show.3/25/89 De Vooruit. Gent, Belgium (40 min)
Attendance: 1,000
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Set: Touch Me I'm Sick (set incomplete)3/26/89 Paradiso. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Supporting: Sonic Youth3/28/89 Old Daddy. Duisburg, Germany
Attendance: 150
Supported By: Dead Fish Go Bananas
Notes: In a 1997 interview with B.B. Gun, Mark remarked about this show, "There are all kinds of bad band's you'll never hear of like Dusseldorf's Dead Fish Go Bananas, who poured liquids over Steve's amp protesting the fact that the audience didn't like them."3/29/89 Negativ. Frankfurt, Germany (65 min)
Attendance: 90
Supported By: (no one)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, This Gift, (Jam), Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Burn it Clean, By Her Own Hand, Twenty Four, In 'N' Out of Grace
Encore: Hate the Police, Come to Mind (w/Burn it Clean), Sweet Young Thing, You Got it, Chain that Door
Notes: After 'This Gift,' Steve announces that both he and Mark have broken strings and will be taking a second to change them - which is impressive because there's not a lot of string bending on that song, so they must've just strummed REALLY hard. Dan and Matt entertain the crowd with a jam. When they stalk, Mark and Steve start talking among themselves about which strings they broke and how. They take so long that finally sandman Erik yells at them to get on with it. Mark starts singing a few beats early on 'Mudride,' but makes a save by holding "dirt" until it's time to sing the second line: "I've got a mouthful of diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirt." Mark, after 'Here Comes Sickness:' Did I ever tell you my mom's from Frankfurt? It doesn't matter. Not like you really care where my mom was born. She doesn't live here anymore, though. [Steve: where's she live, Mark?] Kirkland fucking Washington, USA." He then introduces 'By Her Own Hand' with, "This song's about a sweet lady I once knew, man." In an unusual take on 'In N Out of Grace,' Steve keeps soloing coming out of the breakdown, while Mark sings the third verse, and solos all the way through the end of the song, which everyone jams out. Steve explains afterward that he broke a string, and Mark leaves the stage for the encore break by telling the crowd, "Thanks for coming out. My mom is proud of you." When they come back out, Mark talks to the audience about bad German grammar in underground rock: "You ever see these guys, Das Damen? They're stupid, they don't even know which article to use. It should be Die Damen. They're good guys, but they're stupid. They speak bad Deutsch." Then they play 'Hate the Police,' and Steve breaks another string. He announces that he doesn't have another guitar, and he's not going to change this string. Steve sings the entirety of 'Chain that Door' along with Mark.3/30/89 Rose Klub. Koln, Germany (70 min)
Attendance: 200
Supported By: (no one)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, This Gift, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Burn it Clean, By Her Own Hand, Twenty Four, In 'N' Out of Grace, Sweet Young Thing, Chain That Door
Encore: Hate the Police/(Jam), Need, Dead Love
Notes: Mark introduces Twenty Four with, "This song is about loving your mother, and loving your father, and everything they stand for. Thank you for hanging out." Before Sweet Young Thing, he tells the crowd, "In case you care, tomorrow we're playing in Enger Rock City. They finish up Hate the Police by transitioning into a lengthy and structured jam that is has acquired the bootlegger's title Manic Repression. Mark then announces, "I need two things: one is a microphone stand, and the other is a goddamn beer! I need a beer! I need a beer! Put some more echo on this Erik! I need a beer!..." After that song, they take a long pause and Steve asks, "So, Mark, what should we make up right now?" Mark introduces Need with, "This song's on the U.S. version of Superfuzz, and a live version will be on the next issue of Howl! [issue #3]." The early Dead Love has three breakdowns, delimited by the chorus.3/31/89 Forum. Enger, Germany
Attendance: 320
Supported By: (no one)3/31/89 The Pine Street Theater. Portland, OR (CANCELLED)
Supporting: Poison Idea, Napalm Beach
Notes: This show couldn't have happened, since the band was in Europe at the time, but a flyer advertising it exists.
Show Flyer4/1/89 Ecstasy. Berlin, Germany
Attendance: 450
Supported By: The Hype
Notes: A great show. The opening band was the quietest metal band that Mudhoney has ever seen. There may have been a second opener.4/2/89 Markthalle. Hamburg, Germany
Attendance: 1,200
Supporting: Sonic Youth4/3/89 De Vereeniging. Nijmegen, The Netherlands (50 min)
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Set: Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think, Twenty Four, By Her Own Hand, This Gift, In 'N' Out of Grace
With Sonic Youth: I Wanna Be Your Dog
Notes: Here's how Mark remembers the show and the events preceding it, from a 1997 interview with B.B. Gun (and elsewhere he's referred to it as his worst show):"I had this horribly embarrassing freakout/tantrum ten minutes into our set in Nijmegen opening for Sonic Youth during our first European tour. Earlier that day, Steve sliced open his palm on a broken car antenna in Hamburg [on the way back from a record store]. After he got out of the hospital it seemed like there was no way we were going to make the show. Dan, Matt, and myself hit the vodka during the frantic drive. This was our third or fourth week of a nine week tour. We only knew twelve songs which went over very well in England (where the Sub Pop hype machine was working its voodoo). The continent, especially Holland, was a different story, because our booking agent was from Holland and we played 14 shows there. This is a country that takes three hours to go top to bottom and two hours to go East to West. We arrived at the venue 10 minutes before we were supposed to play. I wish we'd gotten there 15 minutes later. I was drunk and freaking out over Steve's hand and trying to make it to the show. The tour seemed like an eternity and we weren't even half way through it. The next thing I know, we were on stage in front of hundreds of Dutch people politely waiting for us so they could see Sonic Youth. Well I was having none of that. These motherfuckers were gonna rock if I had to beat up everyone in the place. I jumped into the crowd, threw a few drunken waterlogged punches and got back on stage. No response, except maybe for confusion, so I cursed 'em and stormed off the stage expecting my boys to follow. They didn't. They were as baffled as the audience. So I'm backstage and they're playing the rest of 'You Got It,' [note: it was 'Here Comes Sickness'] then they go into 'Need.; I'm thinking, 'Great, they're gonna play the rest of the set without me. I could stay here like an ass or I could go out there like an ass and pretend like nothing happened.' After they played another song I sheepishly went out and joined my band. Did I tell you Steve played the whole set sitting down with a big ol' bandage on his hand? It must've been a strange show to watch. Nijmegen never invited us back."Mark's memories are accurate! The venue is a completely-seated small concert hall. Mark comes on, and starts yelling at the crowd before they even play a note (gutsy for an opening act):
"...and I wanna know why? ... I'll take you all on, motherfuckers! Come on! Come on! You wanna fight? Come on, let's throw down. Check this shit out, man. [unintelligible]. Fucking wimps. ... Before we play any numbers, we want you to sit down like Steve here. So if you all sit down, maybe we'll play a song. Steve is the guitar player, he has a hurt hand. That's why he's sitting down, his hand hurts. When he stands up, his hand hurts. But when he sits down, it feels OK. You don't even understand a single word I'm saying, so why am even I talking to you pricks?"After two minutes of this, they finally start a song - 'Mudride.' Mark stops playing guitar during the intro to do something else [possibly the water-logged punches] and the crowd starts cheering! They're not even done with the song and he has some more for the crowd: "You fucking pot-smoking morons!" Perhaps to prevent Mark from sharing any more of his thoughts, Steve immediately starts up 'Here Comes Sickness.' They're not lined up on when to transition from the intro to the verse: Mark and Dan go for it, while Steve keeps playing the intro (and Matt's part is the same during both sections). But, it doesn't matter, because Mark essentially doesn't sing on any of the song - its limited to him shouting "Fuck!" Into the mic a few times. This rendition gets big applause from the crowd! This is the point at which Mark leaves the stage, without the other guys joining him - they go into an instrumental version of 'Need.' This actually gets less-enthusiastic applause from the crowd. After that, there's a break while Mark comes back on stage and they figure things out. From this point on, things get more conventional, inasmuch as Mark doesn't jump into the crowd and start throwing punches. He's got a few stray comments here and there, but otherwise they're actually playing songs. Someone shouts out a request toward the end of the set, and Mark responds: "I don't believe any of that. We changed out minds. We're not going to do that one, your favorite song! We're not going to play your favorite song tonight, like you ever know what your favorite song is! Did I ever tell you you have the most beautiful eyes that I have ever seen?" They hit the breakdown of 'In 'N' out of Grace' and Mark announces: "Do any of you people fucking realize how many times we've played this exact same song over and fucking OVER again? [unintelligible]. See, ya!" - faking like the song is over, just to veer back into the song proper. They all come out for 'I Wanna Be Your Dog,' during Sonic Youth's encore. Getting organized takes a while, and Mark and Steve start chanting Matt's name. After a long version of the song, they go back to chanting Matt's name, and that's it for what Mark calls his worst show.4/4/89 Ausweg. Giessen, Germany
Attendance: 140
Supported By: (one band)4/5/89 Exil. Koblenz, Germany
Attendance: 130
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, Revolution (set incomplete)
Notes: What with the German audiences expecting at least 90 minutes of music from the headliner, and Mudhoney barely knowing half that amount, trouble was brewing. They extend their set by repeating some songs, and playing a long version of In 'N' Out of Grace. The path to and from the stage is through the crowd, and the audience won't let them leave without playing longer, so they jam on Revolution for the first time live.4/7/89 Circus. Gammelsdorf, Germany (70 min)
Attendance: 310
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Need, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, (You Got it), Come to Mind(w/By Her Own Hand, The Farther I Go), You Got it, Chain that Door, This Gift, Sweet Young Thing, In 'N' Out of Grace
Encore: (Cinnamon Girl), By Her Own Hand, Twenty Four, Hate the Police, Revolution/(Jam)
Encore 2: Dead Love
Notes: When they come out for the encore, Steve jams on Cinnamon Girl, focusing on the part that they late nick for Broken Hands. For the only known time, Mark promotes the merchandise from stage: "Before I forget, we have t-shirts." They come out for the first known second encore, and after some patter with Erik, their soundman, go into an early Dead Love. The song has an especially long breakdown, then they come back into the main riff in a different, slower groove. They finish and the audience is cheering for another song, so Mark says, "If you like us so much, buy a t-shirt."4/8/89 Konkret. Hohenems, Austria
Attendance: 100
Supported By: (no one)
Notes: A very drunk audience. At least ten people pass out in front of the stage during the show.4/9/89 Riverhouse. Fiberbrunn, Austria
Attendance: 90
Supported By: (no one)4/10/89 Arena. Vienna, Austria (85 min)
Attendance: 299
Supported By: (no one)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, You Got it, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, Touch Me I'm Sick, Chain that Door, This Gift, Twenty Four, In 'N' Out of Grace, Hate the Police
Encore: By Her Own Hand, Come to Mind (w/By Her Own Hand), Burn it Clean
Encore 2: (Jam), Dead Love (w/Black Sabbath), (Jam), Revolution
Notes: If you want improvisations and Central European politics, this is the show for you! Mark hits the stage with a history lesson for the crowd: "It's time to relive the nation of Tyrol from the evil Austrian empire. Long live, Tyrol! Long live, Tyrol!" Then, at multiple points during the night, he changes the lyric of songs to mention Tyrol. Tyrol was absorbed into what's now modern-day Austria in 1803 (with some small changes over the years), and apparently Mark is passionate about returning Tyrol to independence. Note that they're playing the show in Vienna, and Vienna isn't located in the state of Tyrol, but it is the capital of Austria. Steve sings along with Mark for the entirety of 'Chain that Door.' Mark comes back to the plight of Tyrol before 'Hate the Police:' "...as long as you fucking think, whatever. Free Tyrol! Free Tyrol! Get your grubby Austrian hands off the free nation of Tyrol! Let the mountain man be alone with a goat." And he keeps going, and going. Like before 'By Her Own Hand:' "If you noticed the fine Tyrolian hats we were wearing earlier, they're the official hats of the Tyrolian Liberation Front. Fuck you people in Vienna telling people in Tyrol what they can do." They do 'By Her Own Hand' and the early version of 'Come to Mind' that uses 'By Her Own Hand's' music back-to-back. When they come back out for the second encore, Mark announces, "OK, we're gonna do 'Louie Louie.' ... Are you guys big on the blues here?" The band starts up something resembling the blues, and Mark sings:
I called my baby on the, on the telephoneBy now, Dead Love has reached something close to its final form. The lyric isn't finalized, but they've got the structure there, with the mellow jam breakdown that Mark speaks over. He also sings a line and a half of Black Sabbath's song, 'Black Sabbath:' "What is this that stands before me? / Figure in black." They jam out the end of 'Dead Love' way longer than they do once they settle on a structure for the song later. Then Dan lays down a beat, and Mark asks, "Have you guys heard of rap? We're gonna do a little Tyrolian rap for you."
She said, she don't even answer 'cause she's never home
I call her and she gets me, she gets me mad
I say, Fuck you and I play cribbage with my dad
Oh, the telephone
Well I'm up on the mountain, playing with my goatSteve and Matt join in after the first verse, and Mark plays guitar after the second verse to jam it out. Then he asks, "You want more of this? You can leave anytime you want." Steve adds, "Is this a normal Monday night for, uh, Wien? [using the Austrian pronunciation for Vienna]. Then it's a nine-minute long version of 'Revolution' (after the 10-minute long 'Dead Love') where Mark goes back to singing about Tyrol over the second half of the song (sample: "Pretty baby, won't you understand? We gotta free Tyrol.").
All I'm trying to do is sew my wild oats
When a mean old Austrian comes to my town
Say, hey dude, gonna put you downSay no motherfucker, we watched Heidi
(Unintelligible)
We're not Austrian, we're from Tyrol4/11/89 Kapu. Linz, Austria
Supported By: (no one)4/13/89 Isola nel Kantiere. Bologne, Italy
Attendance: 120
Supported By: (no one)
Notes: A dirty venue with weird people. At one point during the show, a girl gets on stage and strips.4/14/89 Slego. Rimini, Italy
Attendance: 2504/16/89 Hirsoshima Mon Amour. Torino, Italy
Attendance: 200
Notes: The guys finish their set and walk offstage, and the audience just sits there without applauding. They figure that the audience doesn't like them and decide to not do an encore, until the promoter convinces them that the crowd really did like it.4/18/89 Zone Interdit. Grenoble, France
Attendance: 30
Supported By: (no one)
Notes: The club is the home to a motorcycle gang, with a Harley above the bar and reserved seats for club members. As a result, people not in the gang are afraid to go there, and only thirty people are in attendance. The guys thought it was more likely that they would be beaten up than paid for their performance, but things worked out.4/19/89 Gibus Club. Paris, France
Attendance: 178
Supported By: (three bands)
Notes: An experience for the band at least as bad as the previous night's. The P.A. is horrible, and the dressing room for all four bands is as big as a toilet. The guys play while fearing getting beat up after the show. To top it off, the guys end up in the worst hotel they've ever been to, with feces all over the toilets and disgusting rooms.4/20/89 Le Balthazar. Thiers, France
Attendance: 25
Supported By: (no one)
Notes: After the horror of the last two shows, this one feels great. It's a strange little club, but the people there are very nice, and the guys get good food and clean beds. In a 9/24/98 Seattle Weekly article, Steve said of the show: "There was no stage; we just played in the corner of the room. After we finished our 12 songs or whatever - they actually locked arms, and said, 'You cannot leave this corner.' So we had to play some of the songs again." (The article link contains more information about the show.)4/21/89 Frison. Fribourg, Switzerland
Attendance: 400
Supported By: Epileptic Animals4/22/89 Le New. Geneve, Switzerland
Attendance: 70
Supported By: (no one)4/23/89 Kulturwerckstadkaserne. Basel, Switzerland
Attendance: 9,100
Supported By: (no one)4/24/89 Local Disko. Villingen-Schwinningen, Germany
Attendance: 150
Supported By: The Fluid, Loveslug
Notes: The show is moved to this venue from Bourdons on the day of the show. There's no food or drink at the club, so all the bands get really drunk from the liquor in their tour vans. All in all, a great performance. After the show, all three bands stay at the promoter's house, which results in a bit of a mess. During their next show, on 4/25/89, Mark tells the audience that the next time they're in Villingen-Schwenningan, if a guy offers to let them stay in his place, they should kick him in the groin. The venue may have been Bourdons.4/25/89 Juze. Backnang, Germany (90 min)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Need, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, You Got it, This Gift, Chain That Door, Sweet Young Thing..., By Her Own Hand, In 'N' Out of Grace, Burn It Clean, Twenty Four, Revolution, Hate the Police/(Jam)/(Dead Love)
Encore: (Good Enough), Touch Me I'm Sick, (Louie Louie), Wild Thing, (I Wanna Be Your Dog), (T.V. Eye), Come to Mind(w/By Her Own Hand, The Farther I Go), Dead Love
Notes: Before Burn it Clean, Mark says, "we're going to do a couple Stooges songs for you." After the song, he explains that, "these are songs from the Stooges' Live in Seattle album." Hate the Police turns into a slow jam where Mark sings about not being sorry for what he's done. After a few minutes, it's sped up into the main riff of Dead Love while Mark continues to sing. During the set break, someone in the crowd asks Matt about Port Orchard. Matt says that that's where Jim [father of Bob] Whittaker lives, and that he was the first American to climb Mt. Everest. He asks the guy in the crowd whether he's ever been to Port Townsend, adding that he bought his shoes there. When he comes out for the encore, Steve addresses the crowd, "here's the deal. We don't know any more songs, so I think we can cash in our one-hit-wonderness and do Touch Me I'm Sick again, then we'll do what you want, because we don't know anymore...and we don't know Halloween!" and they play Touch Me I'm Sick for a second time. After the song, he asks the crowd what they want, and everyone shouts out songs that the band doesn't know. Finally, Mark tells the crowd, "we don't know any covers except for Hate the Police by the Dicks, and we already played that!" and Steve adds, "the only songs we'll do are our own because they're the only good songs that we like." After they jam on Louie Louie and Wild Thing Steve jokes, "I guess we do know some covers." They seem to throw in bits and pieces of other punk songs, as well. Dead Love features different lyrics from the album version.4/26/89 Musictheater Bad. Hannover, Germany (CANCELLED)
Notes: This show was scheduled for the same day as a Holland-Germany soccer game, which may have influenced the cancellation.4/27/89 Vera. Groningen, The Netherlands
Supported By: (no one)4/28/89 Patronaat. Haarlem, The Netherlands
4/29/89 De Melkweg. Amsterdam, The Netherlands (55 min)
Supported By: Big Dipper
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Need, Sweet Young Thing, Chain that Door, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Burn it Clean, By Her Own Hand, Touch Me I'm Sick, This Gift, In 'N' Out of Grace, Hate the Police, Twenty Four, Dead Love
Notes: After 'Here Comes Sickness,' Mark addresses the crowd: "Most of you should've been here earlier to see Big Dipper. Too bad for you. ... This is a Meatloaf song. You should all know the words. Because I think that everyone in Holland knows the words to 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light,'" and they go into 'Burn it Clean.' Before 'Touch Me I'm Sick,' Mark says, "They don't call this place Amsterdam Rock City for nothing." After the song, Mark makes reference to how they're playing Amsterdam for the second time on this tour: "It's so good to be back in Amsterdam. It's one of my favorite cities in the whole world. Every time we play here, we get good crowds. Thank you, thanks for coming out." During the breakdown in 'In N Out of Grace,' Mark makes references to the film Blue Velvet: "Heineken? Fuck that! I'm talking Pabst Blue Ribbon" (Heineken being from The Netherlands).4/30/89 Burgerweeshuis. Deventer, The Netherlands
Supported By: Boegies5/1/89 Rockfabrik. Ubach-Palenberg, Germany (60 min)
Supporting: The Miracle Workers
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, Chain that Door, Come to Mind (w/By Her Own Hand)`, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Burn it Clean, Need, Twenty Four, Touch Me I'm Sick, By Her Own Hand, Dead Love, Revolution, Hate the Police
Notes: They come out, and while they're getting ready, they announce that they've got Mudhoney shirts for sale ... and also the shirts off their back if you're willing to pay enough. Steve sings the entirety of 'Chain that Door' with Mark. Mark introduces 'Come to Mind' as, "This is a song by Anal Fortification. I know you can all get into that." People are cheering loudly after 'Need,' and Mark comments, "It's amazing the power of Howl magainze (which had recently released a 45 with 'Need' on it). Just before, we played the song a week ago and no one knew what it was. We'll play this song (the unreleased 'This Gift') now and you won't know what it is." Before 'By Her Own Hand:' "Hey in a few minutes, The Miracle Workers. Fucking rock out." After 'In N Out of Grace,' they're taking a while to retune their instruments, and Mark interacts with the crowd while they do this: "We've got really bad ears so it's really hard for us to tune. In fact, you could probably say we're tone deaf. Otherwise, we'd be playing something else beside this shit. If we knew how to play, we would. But since we don't, we do this."5/2/89 Nighttown. Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Supported By: (one band)5/3/89 Tivoli. Utrecht, The Netherlands
Supporting: Big Dipper5/4/89 Willem 1. Arnhem, The Netherlands
5/5/89 Het Bolwerck. Sneek, The Netherlands
Supported By: Dier5/6/89 De Effenaar. Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Supported By: Big Dipper5/9/89 "John Peel Sessions". Wessex Studio. London, England (15 min)
Set: By Her Own Hand, If I Think, Here Comes Sickness, You Make Me Die
Notes: They play 'You Make Me Die' for the first known time. Mudhoney recorded four songs that were later broadcast nationally. Host John Peel had tirelessly promoted both the Seattle scene in general and Mudhoney in specific.5/10/89 Norwich Art Centre. Norwich, England
Attendance: 299
Supported By: Basti5/11/89 Barrel Organ. Birmingham, England
Supported By: Smoking Mirror, The Thanes5/12/89 School for Oriental and African Studies. London, England (70 min)
Attendance: 1,000
Supported By: Soundgarden, Sharkey's Machine
Set: Magnolia Caboose Babyshit, No One Has, (Sweet Young Thing), Sweet Young Thing, Chain that Door, If I Think, Mudride, (The Witch), Here Comes Sickness, Need, Touch Me I'm Sick, This Gift, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: This is the show that made Mudhoney big in the United Kingdom. 150 journalists are on the guest list to witness the spectacle, courtesy of Mudhoney's UK press agent, Anton. Their last performance in London, on 3/24/89, created a lot of expectations for this show. Everything runs smoothly, for at least 25 or 30 seconds. Then, Mark dives into the crowd, loses his guitar and is MIA for the rest of 'Magnolia Caboose Babyshit' (at least it's an instrumental). Stage divers take mark going into the crowd as their cue to go onto the stage, and things get hectic from here on out. Dan is laying down a beat while people get organized for another song, then he finishes up and waves like the show is over while pretending that he's walking off stage. That's the point at which Mark says, "I'd like to take this opportunity to invite all of you up on to the stage. Come on, everyone come up right now! Everyone!" And the crowd takes him up on his offer! The guys are all pushed back against their amps, and the crowd isn't going anywhere. Since the stage is small, the front monitors have been set up on big tables, which collapse when the audience gets to them. All of this chaos results in a 15 minute delay. Steve somehow has the space to noodle around on the guitar, Matt and Mark try to get in tune, and Dan plays a beat here or there. By the time they all get off the stage, the monitors and two microphones have disappeared and most of the P.A. isn't working. The P.A. guys can't repair the system because they're too busy keeping the P.A. from falling over due to pressure from the crowd. And after all that and nearly 15 minutes into the show, a second song - 'No One Has.' Then Mark has another idea: "For this next number, I invite everyone on top of the PA columns! We're not playing until each one of you is up there and up there! But don't you get near the stage! ... There are some people here with a serious lack of humor." Well, it's pandemonium all over again, and five minutes before they can play their third song. Mark then introduces 'Sweet Young Thing' with, "... Shh, everyone quiet. This next song's called 'Empty Your All Your Pockets of All Your Money and Give it to Me.'" The crowd is less receptive to this idea than Mark's previous ideas. They've still got some time before they're ready for another song, so Dan is back to playing a beat. This is the point at which Mark shifts to trying a little crowd control: "Hey hey hey, this guy's telling me if you don't step back a little bit, security is going to get all mad and kick your heads in." So, they make it halfway into 'Sweet Young Thing,' and now have to take a 7 minute break. Mark is less inclined to joke at this point: "If you want us to play some songs, take it easy. People aren't going to let us play until you mellow out, understand? ... Ain't my problem. I don't want to be your fucking parents, but you should know what you're doing ... Steve has to change a string, so we're gonna take a little time so he can change a string. You can't wait that long? You already waited this long ... Where we come from, people are a little less gullible." And a guy in the crowd has a good comeback: "Where we come from, people just play some music, OK?" They finally redo 'Sweet Young Thing' from the beginning. It's been 35 minutes for three short songs, but now they take a zero second break and go right into 'Chain that Door.' 10 seconds after that song, they're into 'If I Think,' and they're building some momentum. During that song, Mark flips his mic stand around so he's facing Dan, and sings with his back to the audience. Eventually, he angles it so it's a little more toward Steve (who is still stage right at this point - he and Lukin haven't yet flipped their standard stage positions). Mark continues to sing away from the crowd during 'Mudride.' Steve needs another guitar after that song, so Mark starts playing The Sonics' 'The Witch' on guitar, and Dan joins in. Later, Mark asks, "Hey! You guys ever heard of the Screaming Trees?" This gets moderately large cheers from the audience. "OK, you ever heard of the Buttfucking Mallards?" That gets far fewer cheers. During the breakdown in 'In 'N' Out of Grace,' Mark takes the time to highlight Matt: "I'd like to re-introduce Matt Lukin. Step into the light, Matt. He's come out of retirement. He'd been replaced by photographers," etc. They close with Mark telling the crowd, "Thanks so much! You guys rule! You guys fucking rule, man!" Where can you go from there? So, there is no encore. The entire show is a beautiful riot, and the first big grunge experience in the UK. Because of all the journalists present, everyone ends up hearing about it.5/13/89 Poly Student Union. Portsmouth, England
Supported By: Soundgarden, Sharkey's Machine
Set: Touch Me I'm Sick (set incomplete)
Notes: Touch Me I'm Sick is introduced by Mark with, "Here's one I wrote with Geezer (Butler) and Ozzy (Osbourne)."5/14/89 Leeds Warehouse. Leeds, England
Supported By: Groovin' with Lucy, Purple Eternal
Notes: Mark from support act Groovin' with Lucy remembers:After this gig we all went back to Karren Ablaze's (author of the Ablaze! Fanzine) house for a party where the interview for her magazine took place, so we were there with Bruce [Pavitt] and the tour manager as well. Mudhoney let us drink their rider then the promoter got angry at us for drinking it! The gig is also documented in the interview but also if you can get hold of the book The City Is Ablaze it has some more information in it that Karren added about Mudhoney and the whole night. They were really nice guys and put the whole of Purple Eternal on the guest list for Manchester a couple of nights later, that was a packed gig and Thee Hypnotics were brilliant in support.5/15/89 Knights. Chester, England (60 min)
Supported By: The Mega City Four, (one other)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, Chain that Door, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, Touch Me I'm Sick, This Gift, By Her Own Hand, Burn it Clean, In 'N' Out of Grace
Encore: Revolution, Hate the Police
Notes: This is the show contained on the unlabelled Fuzzbusters bootleg. Steve (stage right) and Matt (stage left) are set up in a reverse of their usual on-stage spots. Steve sings the entirety of 'Chain that Door' with Mark. Before If I Think, Mark asks, "could you cut down on the smoke machine, please? It's already hard enough to breathe." Steve: "It's really weird, ever since we played Leeds [the night before], the smoke's been following us around." Mark: "We play one guest show with Andrew Eldritch [of goth band Sisters of Mercy, who's from Leeds] and this is what we get." Mark then sings the song, "I forgot how to BREATHE!" During the ending of In 'N' Out of Grace Mark repeatedly thanks the audience while processing his vocals through an echo and a delay: "Thank you, thank you, we love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're the best audience ever. You're beautiful. Thank you..." Mark introduces 'Revolution' with, "This is a song we learned from Ian McDonald when we were touring with Foreigner. It's an old King Crimson song. We're totally into progressive shit, as you can probably tell."5/16/89 Polytechnical S.U. Manchester, England
Sypported By: Thee Hypnotics, The Creature Comfort5/17/89 England
Notes: They may have filmed a performance for Channel 4 television or played a show on this date.6/9/89 "Sub Pop Lamefest '89" The Moore Theater. Seattle, WA
Attendance: 1,400
Supported by: TAD, Nirvana
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, (Need), (Jam), Need, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love, If I Think, You Got it, By Her Own Hand, Touch Me I'm Sick, This Gift, Twenty Four/In 'N' Out of Grace
Encore: Revolution, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness (encore incomplete)
Notes: The good news is, Seattle bands sold out the Moore Theater, which is easily the biggest draw they'd had to this point, and the first all-ages gig they'd played in Seattle (at the time, the city had onerous restrictions on all-ages concerts). The bad news is, kids are trying to stage dive, and security is having none of it, which ends up taking precedence over the music. Ed Fotheringham introduces the band. And then things immediately go downhill. Steve pushes a security guard during the second song, 'No One Has.' And Mark admonishes the security for roughing up would-be stage divers: "A lot more people probably get hurt by you fuckers grabbing them in midair than by them landing." Matt shoves one guy in the butt with the headstock of his bass at one point, and Mark kicks a security guard to try to shove him off stage at another point. Eventually, one of the security guards gets on Mark's mic to tell the audience that they're not trying to hurt anyone. At some point, Steve jokes, "We're all a bunch of wimpy faggots, remember that." And Mark holds his arms up and adds, "Welcome to Lame Fest '89, home of the wimpy faggots!" By the time they get ready to play 'Need,' Mark needs to fix his amp, so Dan lays down a bit of a beat while Steve and Lukin try to calm everyone down:
Steve: "Man, some people have to simmer down in a big way. Look, OK, it's like you can be friendly, you can be cool, and jump off the stage. But don't fuck with the equipment, don't fuck with them - obviously - and don't fuck with us, and we'll be cool. Just simmer down, everybody. We don't mean to be negative and pissed off because of the fucking bouncers. But they have to simmer down a little bit, and maybe you do, too - a little tiny bit. Like, don't break equipment, don't take the monitors home with you."
Matt: "Be careful, be careful, just don't break anything, OK. You can come to my house after the show."
Steve: "It's not a fight. Remember that, it's not a fight."
Matt: "Oh, this smells bad for you, don't eat this. You'll have to excuse Mark, he's having a little bit of a problem tonight. So, how you doing? Don't break anything. Just jump off, be a good guy, gal, whatever. Short hair, it's a guy. OK, let's just bring this microphone right down here, and we'll be like James Hettfield [of Metallica]. [Lukin growls into the mic, while Steve rapidly plays heavy, distorted power chords.]. Really, Mark's a good guy, he's just having a little bit of a problem tonight. I don't know what his problem is tonight, we just have to kick back and figure out what it is. Mark has a problem every night, it's just a matter of figuring out what it is. Our good friend, Tad, is trying to figure out what it is, too. The biggest and loudest man in any band, ever. The Meatloaf of new wave - let's have a hand for Tad! I just found out what Mark's problem is: he just spilled all his beer on stage, so that's the problem. But his amp doesn't work, so we've got to figure out what that is, too."Mark:
"There was this really weird thing, we went to Europe in '89 and Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt at Sub Pop decided to put on this thing called the Lamefest at the Moore Theater, which was us with TAD and Nirvana opening, and I just thought they were crazy to book an all-local show at the Moore Theater. I mean the Moore Theater, my god, you know. I don't - I couldn't think of any local show that would - had any kind of draw there. And the show sold out. It was astounding. And it would have been a great show except that the security they hired was totally fucked. And they were - the kids were trying to hop on stage and jump off and they were just trying to - it was a fight between the security and the kids. And then we got involved because we were just getting sick of it and it would have been a great show had these assholes not been working. There was no need for security. There was absolutely no need."Mark and Steve talked about the show in an 8/90 Maximumrocknroll interview:
MRR: Who put the Lame Fest together?
Steve: Sub Pop.
Mark: It was like, "Hey Jonathon, let's get an all ages show going in Seattle" because we had no idea how many people who were under 21 would come to see us because we really never had an all-ages show in Seattle before. It's hard to get them up there. So they set it up with TAD and Nirvana. I was kinda hoping that it wouldn't be all Sub Pop, but that's the way it worked out.
Steve: It would have been really cool to have some band like The Nights and Days that isn't really a part of our "group."
MRR: Some Velvet Sidewalk...
Steve: That would have been really great! I saw them with the Go Team, they were really good.
MRR: So, the Lame Fest was really well attended?
Steve: twenty-three-hundred people.
Mark: Totally sold out.
MRR: Doesn't that make you think that maybe you should do more all ages stuff?
The guys in interviews for the I'm Now documentary:
Mark: Everything seemed to go really, really well during Nirvana's set and TAD's set. And then, when we came on, kids started wanting to really get up on stage and stage dive and shit. Security got overly rough, unnecessarily so. They couldn't just stand back and let things happen. They had to get involved.
Bruce Pavitt, Sub Pop Records: Mudhoney was really taunting the security.
Matt: I wasn't helping by jamming my bass in the back of some guy's ass. He turns around and waves at the other guy, "We're out of here. These guys don't appreciate us."
Pavitt: I do remember Mark kicked a security guard in the back [near the end of 'No One Has']. The security guard was waiting for Mark after the shot. Things were going to get ugly. So there was a lot of tension there.
Dan: That show was pretty much ruined by security. They got more attention than the bands got. That's the bummer about that show. What I remember more about that show is hassling with the security guys and having to stop songs in between to yell at them.
Mark: I actually remember being kind of pissed off and bummed out by that show, by the facts that we couldn't just do what we do without getting into a war with the security6/30/89 The Pine Street Theater. Portland, OR
Supported By: The Obituaries, Crackerbash7/14/89 The Ritz. New York, NY (40 min)
Supporting: Sonic Youth
Supported By: Laughing Hyenas, Old Skull
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think, Here Comes Sickness, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick
Encore: Mudride, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: When they hit the stage, Mark points to a light shining on him from above and to his right: "Would you please make that light stop? The bright one that's hurting my eyes? It's my show, and I don't want to have any problems." The crowd applauds their performance of 'Here Comes Sickness,' and Mark tells them, "Thanks, man, that means more to us than anything in the world. I swear." They then play 'Come to Mind,' and for the first known time, it's 'Come to Mind' like you hear on the record, rather than the lyrics to 'Come to Mind' over the music to 'By Her Own Hand' (they recorded Mudhoney this month). They might've played more songs between 'Mudride' and In 'N' Out of Grace. The guys in Nirvana came to this show.7/18/89 "New Music Seminar". Maxwell's. Hoboken, NJ
7/22/89 Port Townsend American Legion. Port Townsend, WA
Supported By: Britt & Kristin, Pounding Serfs8/11/89 "Sound Out Northwest Tour". Eagles Hall. Anacortes, WA
Supported By: Beat Happening, Mecca Normal
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., Here Comes Sickness, Flat out Fucked, Sweet Young Thing, Running Loaded, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, If I Think, Mudride (set incomplete)
Notes: This was the first of a few shows organized by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records to bring rock concerts to small towns in the Pacific Northwest. There's a chance that this setlist is for one of the other Sound Out Northwest shows.8/12/89 "Sound Out Northwest Tour". Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall. Everett, WA
Supported By: Beat Happening, Mecca Normal8/13/89 "Sound Out Northwest Tour". Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Olympia, WA
Supported By: Beat Happening, Mecca Normal8/26/89 Center on Contemporary Arts. Seattle, WA
Supporting: Nirvana
Supported By: Catbutt, The Black Supersuckers
Set: Touch Me I'm Sick, Dead Love (set incomplete)
Notes: This was part of a two day show that featured most of the Sub Pop bands at the time. During 'Touch Me I'm Sick,' show organizer Larry Reid opens up plastic bags of sugar and heaves the contents at the audience. It's late in a show that's occurring during the Summer, so everyone is sweaty, and now they're immediately sticky. They try to come out of the breakdown in 'Dead Love' and get as far as Mark singing, "Dig it a hole," when they find themselves ending the song early.8/27/89 W.O.W. Hall. Eugene, OR
Supported By: Solomon Grundy, Snakepit8/29/89 Berkeley Square. Berkeley, CA (50 min)
Supported By: The Lemonheads
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., Get into Yours, No one Has, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think, Here Comes Sickness, The Father I Go, Come to Mind, Chain that Door, Flat Out Fucked, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: In 'N' Out of Grace, Touch Me I'm Sick
Notes: Get into Yours, The Farther I Go, Flat out Fucked and When Tomorrow Hits are performed for the first known times. Come to Mind is played for the first known time with the music that appears on the recorded version, and the rave-up of The Farther I Go had previously been played as part of the music to the early Come to Mind. After The Farther I Go Steve is asking for some adjustments to be made to his monitor. Someone in the crowd is shouting about Mudhoney manager Bob Whittaker while he's doing this, so he shouts, "Bob's in jail, shut up!" to which Mark adds, "Free Bob! Free Bob!" It's apparently sweltering in the club, and before If I Think, Mark announces, "You can turn off the lights if it'll make it any colder." After Come to Mind, they're still having a little trouble with the on-stage monitor mix, so Mark and Steve play the main riff to Chain that Door, while working on the levels. Matt jumps into the conversation just as they're starting When Tomorrow Hits, asking that Mark's guitar be turned up a little bit. Mark sings the song in a really mellow voice.8/30/89 The Kennel Club. San Francisco, CA
Supported By: The Lemonheads, Downsiders8/31/89 Bogart's. Long Beach, CA (55 min)
Supporting: The Lemonheads
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think/Here Comes Sickness, Flat out Fucked, Come to Mind, This Gift, The Farther I Go, Touch Me I'm Sick, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Madride, In N Out of Grace
Notes: When they hit the stage, Mark has a request for the person running lights: "Would you please make that light stop? The one that's hurting my eyes. [Sarcastically] This is my show and I don't want to have any problems." During the breakdown in 'In N Out of Grace' when it's just Matt and Dan playing, Mark introduces them: "Major Matt Lukin on the four-string motherfucker! ... ... [Subdued] That's Dan." They do a long noisy outro for the song, and the show is over.8/??/89 Fullerton, CA
Notes: Fullerton is in the L.A. area like Long Beach and Hollywood, for which there are confirmed shows, but also far enough away from those places that it's unlikely that they'd be confused for each other.9/1/89 Spirit. San Diego, CA
Supporting: The Lemonheads
Supported By: Whei Whei T'nango, Bad Radio
Notes: Bad Radio was Eddie Vedder's pre-Pearl Jam band. It's unclear what the former members of Whei Whei T'nango are up to.9/2/89 Club Lingerie. Hollywood, CA (45 min)
Also on Bill: The Lemonheads, The Mr. T Experience
Set: (Jam), In 'N' Out of Grace, Here Comes Sickness, (Jam), You Got it, Running Loaded, COme to Mind, This Gift, Touch Me I'm Sick, The Farther I Go, Get into Yours, If I Think, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Notes: They come out and noodle something approximating free jazz. Mark tells the crowd that, "Dan used to play with Ornette Coleman. Matt played with Albert Ayler for a few years. So, we're not without the true heart of jazz." They break for a few minutes after 'Here Comes Sickness' so that Dan can attend to his broken drum pedal. Eventually, the Mr. T Experience loans Dan their pedal, and the show can proceed. Only, they play some more jazz for the audience. They might've played more after 'Dead Love.'9/3/89 Club Me!. Sacramento, CA (60 min)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, Flat Out Fucked, Come to Mind, Here Comes Sickness, This Gift, If I Think, Get into Yours, Touch Me I'm Sick, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: The Farther I Go, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: This show might've taken place at the Cattle Club. They start the show with Mark dedicating it to Alex Shumway of Green River, who's from Sacramento, and Greg Gilmore of Mother Love Bone, who were recording their LP Apple in the Bay Area at this time. The other guys make continuous references to Dan being ill throughout the show, including Mark saying this just before 'If I Think:' "We lost our drummer about two days ago, and in replacement, we got Excrement Boy. You can call him Shit Boy, Piss Boy, [etc. etc.]" When they come out for the encore, they say they're going to do a (Sacramento's) Tales of Terror cover, which turns out to be 'In N Out of Grace.' During the breakdown of that song, Mark announces, "We'd like to do some free jazz for you. You can only copy the stooges for so long," as they all noodle around, including Dan dropping the steady 4/4 beat to go free time on his drums.9/4/89 The Burro Room. Chico, CA (50 min)
Set: Here Comes Sickness, The Farther I Go, Come to Mind, Running Loaded, Magnolia Caboose Babyshit, No One Has, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Flat Out Fucked, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: 'Running Loaded' is performed for the first known time. Mudhoney's long-time soundman, Adam, opened and ran this venue from 1988 until October 1991. When they leave the stage for the encore break, Mark tells the crowd, "Steve's gotta pee, and I've got a food baby that needs to come out." Lukin adds, "I'm staying up here all night." Then, when they're all back, Mark introduces 'Flat out Fucked,' with, "This next song is a story about Cincinnati, and you can ask Bob Whittaker; he was there."9/23/89 The Backstage Tavern. Seattle, WA
Supported By: Gas Huffer, Love Battery, Dickless10/16/89 123 Arts. Spokane, WA
10/19/89 Whole Music Club, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN
Supported By: Bullet LaVolta, The Afghan Whigs, (one other)10/20/89 Gabe's Oasis. Iowa City, IA
Also on Bill: Nice Strong Arm, Bullet LaVolta10/21/89 The Cabaret Metro. Chicago, IL
Supported By: Soundgarden, Bullet LaVolta
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, Touch Me I'm Sick (set incomplete)
Notes: Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times about this show: "We've been all over Europe, the States. When we get together with the guys Mudhoney, we just look at each other and can't believe how far we've come in a few years. It's a long way from Seattle."10/22/89 The Unicorn. Milwaukee, WI (50 min)
Supported By: Bullet Lavolta
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Flat Out Fucked, By Her Own Hand, Come to Mind, Chain That Door, Touch Me I'm Sick, This Gift, Get Into Yours, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: The Farther I Go, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: The performance of Touch Me I'm Sick from this show appears on the Crack-Uzis-'N-Safe Sex bootleg.10/23/89 The Blind Pig. Ann Arbor, MI
Supported By: Bullet LaVolta, Big Chief10/24/89 Apocalypse Club. Toronto, Canada
Supported By: The Fluid10/25/89 Foufounes Electriques. Montreal, Canada
Supported By: The Fluid10/26/89 Manray. Cambridge, MA
Supported By: The Fluid
Notes: Dan remembers having Boston on this tour, though Boston and Cambridge are essentially the same city, since they're so close to each other.10/27/89 City Gardens. Trenton, NJ
Supporting: Gwar
Supported By: The Fluid, Steel Pole Bathtub10/28/89 Maxwell's. Hoboken, NJ (45 min)
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, Touch Me I'm Sick, Come to Mind, You Got it, The Farther I Go, Get into Yours, If I Think, Here Comes Sickness, Flat Out Fucked, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love, Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has/(Jam)
Notes: They finish up their opener 'In N Out of Grace,' and Mark goes, "Thanks a lot! This is our last song!" Then they play that one more song, and "Thanks a lot, good night! [Crowd shouts "one more!"] One more. Thanks for bringing us back. OK, we'll do one more for you, then fucking Sabbath is up next." Mark says that 'Here Comes Sickness' is, "a song about starving children without parents," and Matt adds, "This is a song called 'Starship!'" Mark introduces 'When Tomorrow Hits' as, "This is from our new record called Ultramega Love" (a play on Soundgarden's Ultramega OK and Louder than Love records). Mark introduces 'Magnolia Caboose...' As, "This is the American Ruse [a MC5 song] as originally written by The Turtles." They finish their set with a long, noisy ending off of 'No One Has.'10/29/89 9:30 Club. Washington, D.C.
Supported By: The Fluid
Set: Hate the Police (set incomplete)
Notes: They end their set with 'Hate the Police.'10/30/89 RAPP Arts Center. New York City, NY
Supporting: Gwar
Supported By: The Fluid, Jot10/31/89 Cat's Cradle. Chapel Hill, NC
Supported By: The Fluid11/3/89 The Masquerade. Tampa, FL
Supporting: The Meat Puppets
Supported By: The Fluid11/4/89 Einstein A Go-Go. Jacksonville Beach, FL
Also on Bill: The Meat Puppets, The Fluid, Shadowland
Notes: The club was a block from the beach and Steve slept on the beach that night.11/5/89 Cotton Club. Atlanta, GA
Supported By: The Fluid
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, No One Has, Flat out Fucked, Running Loaded, The Farther I Go, This Gift, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, You Got it, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: (missing)11/??/89 Rockafella's. Columbia, SC
Supported By: The Fluid11/??/89 Austin, TX
Notes: Mark and Steve meet Tim Kerr at this show, leading to the formation of The Monkeywrench.11/14/89 The Backstage Tavern. Seattle, WA (CANCELLED)
Supporting: The Cosmic Psychos
Notees: This show was cancelled at least several days in advance when someone in the Cosmic Psychos got sick.11/22/89 Edwards No. 8. Birmingham, England
Supported By: The Membranes
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, Flat Out Fucked (set incomplete)
Notes: They open with 'In N Out of Grace.'11/23/89 Riverside. Newcastle, England (65 min)
Supported By: Senseless Things
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., Get into Yours, Need, No One Has, If I Think, Flat Out Fucked, Running Loaded, The Farther I Go, Come to Mind, You Got it, Touch Me I'm Sick, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Mudride, In 'N' Out of Grace, Sweet Young Thing, Hate the Police
Notes: During the first half of the main set they barely take breaks between songs, going from one to the next as fast as they can. After Flat Out Fucked, Steve asks, "has anyone seen my passport? I lost it today. I'm going to have to stay in England." Mark introduces Touch Me I'm Sick with, "this song is about Dan's baby-sitting problems." During the break in In 'N' Out of Grace, Mark tries to get the audience to wiggle their butts, and then tells Dan to solo with only his snare drum. When Dan complies, Mark tells the crowd, "one handed! And he's wiggling his butt!"11/25/89 Calton Road Studios. Edinburgh, Scotland
Supported By: Cateran
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Get Into Yours, Need, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Running Loaded, Flat Out Fucked, This Gift, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, In 'N' Out of Grace11/26/89 University. Sheffield, England
Supported By: More Fiends11/27/89 Bierkeller. Bristol, England
Supported By: Telescopes11/28/89 Warehouse. Leeds, England (CANCELLED)
Notes: This show was listed on a flyer announcing the tour, and later cancelled.11/29/89 Trent Polytechnic Gymnasium. Nottingham, England
Supported By: Snuff, Meatfly
Notes: Mark, in an interview with Drowned in Sound in 2016: "I remember that show too. That was the show where they had a queue for stage divers, right? ... Because MTV hadn't really shown that sort of thing and no one knew what the protocol was. So it was really funny to see the Nottingham interpretation of that. ... Their reaction was priceless too! There was a queue until everyone politely jumped off the stage, which was actually super sweet. I thought it was really nice. It was only later where the whole stage diving thing became violent. I remember playing Woodstock in '94 [note: Mudhoney didn't play Woodstock '94 or really any US festival around that time] or whatever festival it was, and there was a bunch of jocks beating the shit out of one another, trying to rape girls and stuff. It all became quite unpleasant very quickly." The gig is in a a gymnasium, so they're delayed for load in and soundcheck until a basketball game finishes up. The bar is located a long way from the room, so people loaded up on cans. Then, what to do with the empties? Shoot baskets with them, of course. It's a raucous gig, and gets so hot that condensation is running down the walls. The sprung floor is awash with beer, cans, abandoned clothing, and people.11/30/89 Polytechnic. Liverpool, England
Supported By: Membranes12/1/89 International I. Manchester, England
Supported By: Walking Seeds
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, No One Has, Flat Out Fucked, Running Loaded, The Farther I Go, This Gift, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, You Got it, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love (encore possibly missing)
Notes: This show might have taken place in Liverpool.12/2/89 Polytechnik. Portsmouth, England
Supported By: Thee Headcoats12/3/89 "Sub Pop Lame Festival" (aka "LameFest UK"). The Astoria Theater. London, England
Attendance: 1,600
Also on Bill: Nirvana, TAD
Set: In 'N' Out of Grace, Touch Me I'm Sick, No One Has, Running Loaded, This Gift, You Got it, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Flat Out Fucked, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Chain That Door, Baby Help Me Forget, Get Into Yours
Notes: Baby Help Me Forget is performed for the first known time. Steve, talking about a gig-specific shirt:
This is an Original, Vintage "Lame Fest UK" Concert T-Shirt from 1990 [sic]. The historic show with the three biggest Sub Pop bands at the time: MUDHONEY, TAD, and NIRVANA. The consensus was that Nirvana blew the others away. I don't know, I was drunk.12/4/89 The Astoria Theater. London, England (60 min)
Supported By: The Cosmic Psychos
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., (Get into Yours), Get Into Yours, Need, If I Think, Here Comes Sickness, Flat Out Fucked, (Jam), Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, You Got it, Sweet Young Thing, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Baby Help Me Forget, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: They stop 'Get into Yours' when they get to the first verse and Mark tries to sing, but the P.A. isn't there for him. When Mark takes a minute to re-tune his guitar after 'Flat Out Fucked,' the other guys do an upbeat country jam, and Mark joins in with big distorted chords when his guitar is ready. They come out for the encore, and aren't quite sure what to play. They ask the audience for ideas and talk amongst themselves before settling on a plan. They close with a long, sloppy 'In N Out of Grace.' Coming out of the breakdown, Mark starts to sing, but stops short after "Oh God how I love to hate." So, Lukin picks up the slack for him and sings that final couplet, with Mark getting it together to join in for "Sliding in n out of grace." By the time the last bit of feedback dies down, they've gone on for almost 9 minutes.12/5/89 Demo Crazy. Gent, Belgium (60 min)
Attendance: 150
Supported By: The Alabama Kids, Archbishop Kebab
Notes: This show was originally scheduled for the day before and was moved back a day to make room for a second London gig. People from the crowd constantly stagedive, which is hilarious given that the stage is only two feet high.12/6/89 Live Station. Dortmund, Germany (CANCELLED)
Notes: This show was listed on a flyer announcing the tour, and later cancelled.12/7/89 Willem II. Den Bosh, Holland
Supported By: The Hippies
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Flat Out Fucked, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Running Loaded, Get Into Yours, Touch Me I'm Sick, Need, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love (encore possibly missing)12/8/89 Tivoli. Utrecht, Holland
Supported By: The Hippies, The Nozems12/9/89 Vera. Groningen, Holland (80 min)
Supported By: The Hippies
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., Get Into Yours, This Gift, If I Think, Touch me I'm Sick, Running Loaded, Flat out Fucked, You Got it, Come to Mind, Need, The Farther I Go/By Her own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love, Baby Help Me Forget
Encore: Mudride, In 'N' Out of Grace, Chain That Door, Hate the Police
12/10/89 Melkweg. Amsterdam, Holland
Supported By: Loveslug12/11/89 Cafe Europa. Bielefeld, Germany (75 min)
Supported By: (one band)
Set: Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, (You Got it), (Sweet Young Thing), You Got it, Flat out Fucked, If I Think, Get into Yours, Running Loaded, Need, This Gift, Come to Mind, Touch Me I'm Sick, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Magnolia Caboose..., The Farther I Go, In 'N' Out of Grace, Sweet Young Thing, No One Has, Hate the Police
Notes: They try to start 'You Got it,' and Dan doesn't quite get there, so they let it devolve, and Mark takes it as, "I guess this gives us more time to drink beer while you watch us." Steve starts up a riff that sounds something similar to a major-key 'Sweet Young Thing,' and Mark joins in on vocals. They get through about two verses, then Mark joins in on distorted slide guitar, and they conclude with a third verse. Major-key 'Sweet Young Thing' runs about 2 minutes, and they get around to playing the regular version during the encore. Mark alters the last line of 'Touch Me I'm Sick' to "Bob Whittaker's a fish!" They come out for the encore and someone is shouting for 'Halloween.' Mark: "We're not gonna do 'Halloween,' that's one damn thing ... No matter how much money you give us now. Come on..." He then introduces 'Magnolia Caboose...' with, "This is our song, kinda" [it's a short instrumental, like Blue Cheer's similarly-titled 'Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger]. Then he announces, "OK we got a special deal tonight. Anyone with a number 7 tattooed on the back of their head gets a free t-shirt ... any other number does not count." And later, when they're playing 'No One Has,' he changes the lyric: "I ain't looking for the easy way, I just wanna play 'Hate the Police!'" and "No one I know has / Not even Bob!"12/12/89 The Loft. Berlin, Germany
Supported By: Thirsty Justice
Notes: Lenny Kravitz played there the previous night, and they put up anti-Kravitz graffitti all over the dressing room. This continued on the tour, and eventually Kravitz sent word back that his "homies" would "get" the band. To Mudhoney's amusement, the backstage toilet is continuously unavailable due to the sick girlfriend of Thirsty Justice's drummer. Post-gig, things have moved to a different bar, and when they walk into the room, Mark sees the girl and drummer and shouts for everyone to hear, "Ewwwwww...he's kissing her!" Die Seuche may have played in addition to or instead of Thirsty Justice. More on the Lenny Kravitz beef, from ... someone:
Mudhoney were apparently right on the tail of Kravitz's scheduled European tour, at mostly the same venues at that, just by coincidence. So Mudhoney decided to have fun with this and put fake Kravitz graffiti around the venues they played saying things like "We rocked you and love you, Berlin.. Kravitz" or just faux-asinine things like that.Apparently, Kravitz caught wind of these pranks and left a messenger graffiti to Mudhoney at a venue saying something to the effect of "don't think i don't know the shit your're pulling. once you're caught, me and my homeys will take care of you." Mudhoney were falling off their asses laughing at the "me and my homeys" part.
12/14/89 Barbue. Kopenhagen, Denmark (60 min)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Flat Out Fucked, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, You Got it, Touch Me I'm Sick, Running Loaded, Get into Yours, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Come to Mind, Baby Help Me Forget, This Gift, In 'N' out of Grace (w/Black Sabbath)/(Jam)
Notes: After three songs, Mark says to the crowd: "If you could manage not to knock the mic stand into my teeth, that'd be cool, because I like my teeth." 'Dead Love' is a bit shorter than normal - 4 minutes - and 'In N Out of Grace' is way longer than normal. At the normal ending to 'In N Out of Grace,' they go into a feedback jam for several minutes, with one of the guys playing the main riff to Black Sabbath's 'Black Sabbath' for a bit, then they bring it back to the main riff to 'In N Out of Grace,' and wind the song back down, and back into the 'Black Sabbath' riff. And 13 minutes after they start, they're done with the song, and the show.12/15/89 Fabrik. Hamburg, Germany
Supported By: Louder than God12/16/89 Ruhrersaal. Nurnberg, Germany (75 min)
Supported By: (one band)
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., Get into Yours, No One Has, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, This Gift, Touch Me I'm Sick, Running Loaded, Flat out Fucked, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love, You Got it, The Farther I Go, Sweet Young Thing, In 'N' Out of Grace
Notes: They get a bit jumbled during 'Get into Yours, but power through. Mark changes a line to, "I don't know where the fuck I am!" People are shouting for 'Revolution,' and Mark and Steve humor them. Steve: "OK, 'Revolution,' here we go. One, two, three, four!" ... and it's 'Running Loaded.' They do an extra-long ending to 'In N Out of Grace,' and during the breakdown, Mark tells, "the story of a poor boy who had to walk 10 miles to pet his dog each morning."12/17/89 U4. Wien (Vienna), Austria (35 min)
Set: Sweet Young Thing..., If I Think, Mudride, By Her Own Hand, Need, You Got it, Touch Me I'm Sick, In 'N' Out of Grace12/18/89 Kulturstation Oberfohring. Munchen (Munich), Germany
Also on Bill: Soul Asylum
Notes: This is a Soul Asylum gig where Mudhoney isn't on the bill. Mudhoney joins Soul Asylum during their encore for multiple songs together.12/19/89 Theaterfabrik. Munchen (Munich), Germany (75 min)
Supported By: First Things First
Set: Magnolia Caboose..., No One Has, Flat Out Fucked, Sweet Young Thing, If I Think, Mudride, Here Comes Sickness, Need, You Got it, Touch Me I'm Sick, Running Loaded, Get into Yours, By Her Own Hand, When Tomorrow Hits, Dead Love
Encore: Baby Help Me Forget, This Gift, Come to Mind, In 'N' Out of Grace/(Jam)
Encore 2: Hate the Police
Notes: After the third verse in 'Sweet Young Thing,' Dan finishes the song up, while the other guys play a bit of an Eb chord waiting for him to get back into it. Matt: "I think we forgot something." Mark: "Do you want to pick up where we left off?" And they decide against that, moving on to the next song after talking a bit about seeing Soul Asylum the night before. They come back out for the encore, and Steve talks about it a bit more: "So, last night, we went and saw Soul Asylum. We all got really, really, really, really, really, really, really drunk. I don't know if you can tell that." They do a long noise ending to 'In N Out of Grace,' and then that becomes a jam, extending the song to about 10 minutes. Mark introduces 'Hate the Police' with, "This was a song written by Soul Asylum when they were in their original incarnation of Loud Fast Rules [a punk band that went on to become Soul Asylum]."12/20/89 Rote Fabrik. Zurich, Switzerland
Supported By: White Zombie12/21/89 Cirque Anne Frateline. Paris, France
Supporting: Thee Hypnotics
Supported By: Under Neath What, White Zombie12/24/89 Seattle, WA
Notes: This show might've taken place at The Vogue, or they might've played two shows in Seattle in late December, with the other one being at the Vogue.
