So okay, we started too early and it was my dumb idea. But we didn't know what the situation would be so I wanted to get there before the crowd. None of us had ever been to Marymoor Park. And in a way it worked out, even though we were all dead tired, because the traffic was almost manageable. For the past week. I'd been looking at enough on-line areal maps, trying to spot a good location for this little stunt, that I felt like I knew the place. We drove the old GTmobile, just the four of us, to the first parking lot. Mr. Ed, filmmaker Isaac Olsen and assistant Andy Stark followed in Ed's Canadian Funmobile. Our special GT one-man security squad and Iraq war vet, Josh Crabtree, met us early too. There was lots of discussion on how to proceed and lots of crabbing from me as to where was the best spot to play our "show".
The day before Dale had taken it upon himself to buy a bunch of colorful hydrogen filled party balloons to mark our spot. He thought we'd need it. I christened them "the Nerd Balloons" but it was still a good idea. They bounced around all over the van on the way to the park.
As luck would have it, we actually knew someone who offered to assist us. Our longtime Tacoma buddy, Bennett Thurman, had moved up the promotion ranks and was now the venue manager for concerts at Marymoor Park! We had no idea! The day before Bennett emailed with a couple of his best choices and also gave us his cell . Man, this was an awesome break!
So we went to another parking lot that seemed possibly closer to the drive-in traffic but not the venue itself. We sat around wondering what to do when the rest of our posse showed up, including Deb and Tim Olsen, Fred (Fred-Steve) and Karen McElrath, and Kon (the other half of the Bon and Kon show). Deb is a take-charge kind of gal, mom of filmmaker Isaac and Freakout Sam, maker of Spam-&-Pickles (the Girl Trouble tour food)...and she said we were too far away from where the action would be. Deb had spotted a better location and insisted we try it. Well, she was right on the money! We parked in the venue parking lot, everybody grabbed equipment and we set up under an impressive maple tree just down from the main gate. The sun was blistering but the shade kept us cool all day. Unfortunately, we were in such a hurry that Dale's special balloons got away from us and floated into the great beyond. We were hoping that wasn't a bad omen.
To our amazement, lots of people started to gather around. We quickly set up our official sign which reads "Now Playing - Girl Trouble" and started our Hit It or Quit It set to avoid the acoustic guitars VS. festival PA that we knew was coming. Quite a crowd built up, including some security guys who were looking panicky as they all talked over their headsets. Holy Crap! I didn't think we were causing that much of a problem! I mean, don't people go to the park to picnic and maybe play guitar? I guess not. Our plan was to keep playing until they told us otherwise. As we started our set I caught a glimpse of Bennett looking on. Our pals in Seaweed took time from actually playing the real event to stop by and hang out, old Tropicana friends like Dave Todd and Chris Pew, Tacoma biz guys Steve Gaydich of Rocket Records and Rick King of Guitar Maniacs came by. Ree Ree from Head actually rode his bike to the park (obviously to demonstrate how the Head boys are in far better shape than GT) and met up with Fallouts' Dave Holmes and scenester Kenny the Gardener. We saw Tracy Thompson, Helen Halloran and Rich Evans, Rod and Tina Moody, T-Man, Jason Wells and his son Jackson, and friends too numerous to mention. It was like an Oly-Tacoma-Seattle reunion of old rock buddies. Very cool indeed!
And then came THE MAN. Just as we were finishing up our last couple songs to complete our Hit It or Quit It set, a King County Sheriff made a bee-line for our little party looking pretty pissed-off - or at least in a really serious mood. We'd just played "My Baby's Gone" and only had "Where's the Loser" to go when the KC deputy broke in. K.P. Kendall said "We have just one song left," hoping he'd give us a little break. The sheriff said, "No, you don't have one more song!" At that point I thought we'd had it. Then he continued, "You have four more hours. Bennett says so!" and he walked away. The crowd roared with laughter and we all cheered. Wow, Girl Trouble punk'd by Bennett! Gotta hand it to him, we were ready for the big shutdown, and that deputy deserves an Oscar for his fantastic performance. I later told Bennett he just about gave old Bon a heart attack.
From that point on, our little K/SP-20 couldn't have been a better success. We kept meeting more old friends who'd stopped by to hear a couple of songs and say hi, our Tacoma homies Seaweed gave us a shout-out during their set, we heard that even the Fluid mentioned our little show (thanks to both!), we got interviewed, made some new friends, passed out 40 complimentary bags of assorted chips and discovered that playing acoustically was pretty cool. Hell, we even met Johan, an old Girl Trouble fan who'd last seen us in Rotterdam! How's that for international?
We ended up playing through the Hit It or Quit It album a couple of times and played a bunch of extra stuff too. By the end, we even boldly took a few requests, although the heat might have been getting to us at that point! Even though we never did see Bruce or Jonathan or any official Sub Pop reps, we felt like we were part of the Sub Pop celebration anyway.
In their statement to the Seattle Times, reporter Marian Liu got this quote from Sub Pop:
"We at Sub Pop are honored to share the park with Girl Trouble and look forward to their first-ever acoustic performance. It's just this sort of IY ("Invite Yourself") attitude that we hope will make SP20 a memorable event. Plus, Girl Trouble has promised a complimentary bag of chips to the first 40 attendees. Just try to get there before we do." That's from Chris Jacobs, Sub Pop general manager.
That was nice and all, but we know the real reason we got to stay and it had nothing to do with Sub Pop. It was because a Tacoma guy "had our backs". Thanks Bennett! Girl Trouble owes you one!
So we accomplished what we set out to do. We pulled it off and played the party. It was fun but we couldn't have pulled it off without a whole lot of help. Thanks to everybody who made it happen. We'll see you at the SP/40!