We arrived very early at the Melkweg, just to make sure we would not miss Tribe After Tribe. We only knew they would play at the festival that was held that night, but we did not know what time...
Then we heard that the band would perform at 1 o'clock at night! They had not even arrived at the venue, so we decided to go into town. No other cool bands would be performing that night.
We got back around 11 p.m. and saw Robbi Robb walk through the venue and entering the backstage area. We decided to find a good place to sit at the venue. I wanted to record the show and needed a good spot.
We found the venue almost empty. Most people were there either because they played in a band or because they were a friend of a band. Pretty stange, we seemed the only paying visitors.
The band started at 1 a.m. and I was surprised to see Doug Pinnick from King's X and Richard Stuverud (three fish)in the band. I had not expected that!
Although only about 50 people were there, the band played a very inspired show. A picture of Mother Theresa (she just died) and some candles were on the stage.
Lazarus was my personal highlight of the show. Also the long percussion impovisation that ended the show was really great. Too bad they did not play Nikita, one of my favorite tracks. Most songs were played in extended versions, most ended in long percussion improvisations which were really cool!
After the show Richard Stuverud came up to us. He saw the Three Fish shirt a female friend of mine was wearing and he told her she was his inspiration during the show. Yeah right! He was just trying to score, but he did not succeed. He was really friendly though. He invited us into the dressing room and told about the shows they had done in London, about the possibility of another Three Fish album and basically all you needed to know if you ever thought about visiting Seattle. We got free food and free drinks and basically had a good time hanging around. Robbi was also in the dressing room, but he was being occupied by a girl who was desperate to get his attention. She also started drumming along near the end of the show, unfortunately her sense of rythm was not very good. We talked to drummer Mike (he used to work for the Pointer Sisters!) and he was very friendly, too. He told us he had to drum on someone elses drumkit that night and that his own drumkit was sounding much, much better. Unfortunately we did not have the chance to hear that. They would play another show the next day, but that was on the other side of the country. Too far of a drive for us. By then it had gotten almost 4 o'clock in the morning and we decided to leave. I had to go to work two hours later and I was planning on one hour of sleep. It was worth it though. The Tribe After Tribe show was probably one of the best of 1997!