My window's open, filling the apartment with the honks of traffic outside. It's annoyingly warm for September and I've been sitting on my bed for hours trying some acoustic riffs. It's now 2pm and I don't feel a creative spark hitting me anytime soon. Tiger still isn't up, or maybe she is she just hasn't come out of her room; I decide to lure her out by making some food.
Our apartment is right in the middle of Capitol Hill; only one bedroom but it's all we can afford. It means I sleep kind of right in the living room, with my bed pushed up next to the window. There's absolutely no privacy, but Tiger and I are so close so never mind.
I pat across the bare wood floor to the kitchen and start making us grilled cheese. Almost as soon as I opened the fridge Tiger appeared.
"Morning!" she said with a smile.
"It's 2pm" I replied.
"Two pm shmoo pm, what are you cookin'?"
"Grilled cheese."
"Sweet."
The phone rang then, and Tiger went off to answer. After a while of silence she groaned and hung up.
"That was Polly she said she isn't coming tonight because she's hanging out with Jason again", she walked back into the kitchen to grab her plate.
"Ugh... again?! Seriously, how can she be in a riot grrrl band and have a boyfriend it makes no sense." I said, this was the 5th time this month shed blown us off and it was starting to bum me out.
We ate on the couch watching cartoons.
"He was pretty cute wasn't he", Tiger said out of nowhere.
"Who? Jason?" I asked confused.
"No, no the guy we met last night, the tall guys friend."
"Oh... Kurt. I don't know about cute I hardly saw his face."
"Awww you don't think he was nervous of us 'powerful girls', do you?" she joked.
"Ha! Maybe. I guess we'll see tonight. I'm totally hyped."
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We arrived at the gig just in time to get a parking spot. It didn't look like much from the outside, it was just a covered parking garage but everyone around knew you weren't a Seattle punk band until you played at the Motor Sports International Garage – catchy name I know. We paid out $10 at the door and went in. On a normal night, there was about 1000 people, but tonight there was at least triple that, it was so crammed by the time we actually made it to the crowd the Melvins had already started. They opened with Vile, everyone was jumping, screaming, the whole place was alive, a flipside to the concrete shell it was on the outside.
I see a guy next to Tiger lean in to her and say something.
I pulled her close to me "Is he bothering you?!" I say, even though she's older than me and probably wiser, she's also smaller and I always feel a need to protect my friend from potential danger.
"No, NO!" She shouted above the noise, "HE SAID HE'S FRIENDS WITH THE MELVINS!"
I wave a 'Hi' at the guy and we start chatting, although not much could be heard over Buzz's deafening performance. The guy's name was Dave and he was drummer in a band from D.C. called Scream. He came to watch the Melvins and Nirvana, he heard they needed a new drummer.
Another band I'd never heard of came on after and the singer threw a can of Pepsi into the crowd, it hit a kid in the face standing right in front of me. He got a bloody nose and seemed knocked out. His friends dragged him out, but I saw he got blood on my Doc Martens. Gnarly.
Then Nirvana came on. Everyone was full on screaming mental. Dave lifted Tiger onto his shoulders and we all bounced of each other singing to every song at the top of our lungs. Kurt was not the guy I'd met the night before. He was intense, he screamed and he played and he owned the stage. After 40 minutes, they'd wrecked every piece of equipment and the show was over.
We decided to get some fresh air with Dave, Tiger's new friend and then meet up with the bands. We were all kind of in the same boat after all. I lit a cigarette while we stood in the parking lot, the night was still warm but the air wasn't as sticky as inside. I saw a guy being carried on a stretcher across the lot, but I don't think it was the Pepsi kid, probably a crowd surfer. Everything was wild, this city, the people, all high on punk rock and marijuana. Just the way we liked it.
