Seaweed… man, those guys were one of the bands that just felt like home.
I first heard them around ’92 when a buddy at the record store put on Weak. It was fast, loud, and had this energy that made you want to move. Aaron Stauffer’s voice had this edge to it — not trying to be pretty, just honest. I liked them right away because they didn’t sound like they were chasing anything. They just sounded like Seattle kids making music.
I saw them live quite a few times once I was living here. One night at the Off Ramp in ’94 really stuck with me. The place was packed and sweaty, and they played like they were having the time of their lives. No big light show, no rock star bullshit — just the band going full speed and the crowd singing along. You left the show tired and happy. That’s the kind of night you remember.
They were part of that second wave — not the first big names like Mudhoney or Nirvana, but they were always around, always playing shows, always putting out solid records. They had that Sub Pop connection but never got as famous as some of the others. I always felt like they were one of the bands that kept the underground scene alive when everything else was blowing up.
They put out Spanaway in ’95 and then kind of slowed down. By the late nineties things got quiet. They broke up around ’99 I think. Some of the guys went on to other projects, but nothing huge.
These days in 2002 I still pull out Weak or Four sometimes when I want to remember what the clubs felt like back then. Seaweed weren’t trying to be the biggest band in town. They were just a really good Seattle band that showed up, played hard, and didn’t make a big fuss about it. And that’s exactly why a lot of us still have a soft spot for them.