Green River reunion powers Sub Pop party

By Jason Cohen

SEATTLE (Billboard) - It was the birthday present everybody wanted from the start.

Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam and Mother Love Bone. Mudhoney's Mark Arm and Steve Turner. Mother Love Bone/Love Battery guitarist Bruce Fairweather. Drummer Alex Shumway: The original members of grunge band Green River performed together for the first time in two decades during Sub Pop Records' 20th anniversary fest at Seattle's Marymoor Park on Sunday.

Some rock 'n' roll reunions fall flat when musicians can't regain the spark of youthful energy and DIY not-quite-incompetence. But Green River's anthems sounded better with a touch of polish and precision. The 1985 classic "Swallow My Pride" (re-cut by the band in 1988, and also covered by Soundgarden, Fastbacks and Pearl Jam) sounded almost pop.

Freed from the guitar he plays in Mudhoney, Arm could indulge his outer Iggy, stalking the stage in a white ringer t-shirt from something called "Green River Summer Camp." Turner and Gossard were almost twins -- similarly cool glasses, shaggy hair and groomed full beards -- and faced each other the entire set, bonding a la Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt, while Ament grinned ear-to-ear each time he joined Fairweather on backing vocals.

Other highlights of the set included "P.C.C.," the Dead Boys cover "Ain't Nothin' To Do" and "Leech" an unreleased track that was later borrowed by the Melvins (as "Leeech"). Or was it? "We wrote this song in 1984," Arm said from the stage. "It was just a demo tape we passed along. The Melvins later, in Led Zeppelin-like fashion, recorded the song and credited it to themselves -- making us the Willie Dixon of grunge." As if they weren't already.

Beyond the closing set from adored indie rockers Wolf Parade, Sunday was a day for cultists and the cognoscenti, with a roster made up of another band from Sub Pop's infancy (Les Thugs), a pair of mid-to-late '90s favorites (Red Red Meat, Beachwood Sparks) and eight current artists, including Kiwi combo the Ruby Suns, space-rock heavies Kinski and pop classicists Grand Archives.

Reuters/Billboard