The Loud Family Tour 1998:

Photographs on this page courtesy Sue Trowbridge.

From: Sue Trowbridge
Subject: [loud-fans] Seattle!

...There are a few little variations which it would be fun to report. For instance, during "Spot the Setup" Scott varied the opening line: "I used to go out with Mary Lou Lord, but it didn't make my life OK" in Portland, and "I used to go out with Natalie Imbruglia..." in Seattle.

The Seattle show was killer -- they did indeed play the full set, the sound & lighting were tremendously improved over Portland, and there was a HUGE crowd, though I suspect most of them were there to see the headliner. We split after the LF's set since Thurs had been such a late night, so I can't say whether or not they were worth the hype. Anyway, the LF got a most enthusiastic response and Joe and I sold lots of merch after the show :) Weird thing: a few people came up to the stage during the show and placed dollar bills on the wooden case that holds Scott's pedal set. Is that some kind of bizarre Seattle tradition?

Pre-show, we went out to dinner at Hattie's Hat and it was an enormous group: Simone and Todd, Andrew Hamlin, John Dylan Cooper, Paul Quin and two friends from Canada, Matthew Amster-Burton and his wife, Steve, Lorrie and Stefan, Joe and me, Ken Stringfellow and his gf Amber, and the band were all there at various points.

Well, I'm at a public access Internet terminal at Pike Place Market so I don't have my notes with me (I actually did take some after the show...) but perhaps someone else should post about the show for a change!! :)

Off to see the sights of downtown Seattle...

--Sue Trowbridge

From: Steve Holtebeck
Subject: [loud-fans] Into GT/LF + my rambling northwest travelogue

My Scott timetable in a nutshell, from long ago to now..

Fall 1985: I bought was REAL NIGHTTIME, motivated by the "produced by Mitch Easter" credit and raves by people I kind of knew and trusted (Nick Rudd of the band Turning Curious) and didn't know but still trusted (Byron Coley of FORCED EXPOSURE and SPIN). Something clicked with that album, and I remember playing both it over and over again during my college years.

Fall 1986: BIG SHOT CHRONICLES came out and I saw my first GT concert in Champaign IL, right after Gui and Donnette joined the band.

Fall 1987: I move from Illinois to California right before LOLITA NATION came out. LN was the album that changed GT from a band I liked to a band I absolutely loved -- the soundtrack to young adulthood! By living in the Bay Area and planning my life around gigs, I've been able to see a lot of GT/LF shows over the years, and never tire of seeing Scott & co!

Winter 1994: I join the loud-fans list and discover that there's a whole Internet full of like-minded souls. Even though I've had limited luck turning my friends into LF fans, I've had very good luck in reverse, turning LF fans into my friends over the past three and a half years.

July 1998: The first two shows of the DFD tour, in Portland and Seattle. Talk about fun. It's always great to visit the Pacific Northwest, even more so when seeing Loud Family shows in between the beautiful scenery! Joe & Sue & I flew up to Portland on Thursday, and checked out the downtown Powell's Books, a huge store where I found a copy of WITHOUT YOU, the Badfinger bio, for $19.95 without sales tax (God Bless Oregon). We met up with Lorrie, Stefan, Julianne, and (later) the band at a Greek Restaurant, and sat around eating and chatting before making the trek across downtown to Satyricon, a very weird place to say the least. Our Oregonian loud-fans had very limited experiences with the place, since from the stickers on the walls, they mostly book punk/hardcore shows and it's in a rather scary part of town. After two opening bands, the Loud Family took the stage after midnight and played to a smallish but enthusiastic crowd. Their setlist (which I'm NOT disclosing) was a bit of a surprise, especially the DFD songs chosen and not-chosen. The sound at Satyricon was also not very good, with loud instruments and no vocals for the first few numbers. Elliot Smith was there checking out the band, looking nothing like the rock superstar he's become -- a very normal guy, not that I had the courage to *talk* to him or anything ;)

On Friday we headed up to Seattle for the second show at the Tractor Tavern, a much better sounding/better attended gig, even though most people were there to see the headliner Sycophant, who are apparently a big deal in Seattle. I only saw a few of their songs (imagine the Violent Femmes if Gordon Gano was a bit less annoying) but I'm pretty sure that sharing a bill with the Loud Family will be the highlight of their career! The pre-show dinner at Hattie's Hat was really enjoyable, as all loud-fan meetings are, and almost everyone who was there for the Seattle show in November was also there on Friday, with the exception of the VIP who maintains the server that deflects all these messages across the Internet and lets us IRC without outsiders crashing our party (we missed you JF)... I counted seventeen people at the Seattle pre-show gathering, including the four bandmembers, Ken Stringfellow, and a dozen assorted loud-fans and loud-friends.

Don't forget! Before Jeff's End-of-year loud-gathering in SF is the Middle-of-year SF loud-gathering for the weekend of August 7th-9th. We took a rough count during the drive back to Portland, and I ran out of fingers and toes, so there should be at least a dozen out-of-state, out-of-country folks plus a like number of SF locals out here for the Summer loud-fan jamboree, so make your reservations now!

Steve

top row: Sue Trowbridge, Joe Mallon, Stefan Apperson, Lorrie Smith, Steve Holtebeck, Simone Jarzabek, John Dylan Cooper, Matthew Amster-Burton, Laurie Amster-Burton, Andrew Hamlin, Paul Quin
bottom row: Amber, Ken Stringfellow, Scott Miller, Chris (Sponge) Shelton and Sussex Davis.
Click for bigger pic.

From: Lorrie Smith
Subject: [loud-fans] portland/seattle

well--here i am, finally, weighing in on the nw loud family events!

dinner before the portland show was indeed great fun; it was wonderful to finally meet sue and joe, and new list-member julianne, and to see steve h. and the band again. opa!

the show at satyricon was also pretty fabulous. yes, the sound was lousy, the vocals practically non-existent. however, that there were a greater number of enthusiastic fans there than is usual in portland. It seemed to me that the band was buoyed along by this. i always feel like portland's being the first show of their tours, and the small number of dedicated fans hereabouts, leaves the shows there slightly lacking.....something. i guess this was a long-winded way of saying I agree with grant about the quality of this particular show! i have to thank the SF contingent for coming up for this one, and grant for bringing along our dear friends dan and sharon. it was so great to have all those people in the audience! (and, yes, elliott smith.....even though i didn't know he was there!)

dinner at hattie's hat in seattle the next night (once stefan and I finally straggled our way there) was also a blast. can i say again how awesome it is to hang out with other loud-fans? anyone contemplating attending a pre-show gathering on this tour--do it. you'll be so glad you did!

as the others mentioned, the tractor tavern was packed for the show that night. even if they were there to see the headliner, at least they were seeing/listening to the loud family as well, and we can hope that the LF won some fans. the sound was far better than in portland, and as sue reported, they played the same set (with the exception of the encore). i was genuinely impressed that the band was able to stump our andy hamlin with their cover song. ;) i too was wondering what was up with the money being placed on the stage while they were playing. seattleites, do any of you know?

after the band finished their set, it looked like sue and joe were positively mobbed at the merchandise table. we too departed before the headliner came on; andy's friends tried their best to convince us we should stay, but sheer exhaustion compelled us to decline. andy's take on syncophant: "they were....uh....okay." doesn't sound like we missed much!

set highlights for me both nights were the GT songs, "where they go back to school....", and my new DFD favorite "good, there are no lions....". sigh.....beautiful! the band appeared happy to be up there playing.....alison is such a blast to watch on stage, she really lights a spark in the band.

and speaking of alison, everyone should buy her cd _the fog show_. it's absolutely lovely. stefan bought it along with a t-shirt at the portland show (and got that free poster!), and, well, perhaps he'll get to take it out of my cd player some day! ;) i too bought one of the very stylish t-shirts, as well as bumper stickers. anyone who has seen my bumper will understand why i'm not putting the sticker there ;), but it should make a nice addition to the decor in my cube at work.

by the way, stefan mentioned to me how much he enjoyed not only the shows, but meeting all of you. he's quite impressed with the little community we have here. i was again reminded how special this is. :)

the LF should be rocking (or about to rock) salt lake city as i speak! i look forward to the reviews of this and the subsequent shows. Also looking very forward to the SF show august 8.....worlds will collide!

lorrie

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