TAD… those guys were one of the loudest and most solid bands to come out of Seattle.
I first heard them when a customer at the record store put on 8-Way Santa and I thought, “What the hell is this?” Tad Doyle was this big guy who played with so much power it felt like the floor was shaking. It wasn’t clean or fancy, but it felt real. Like they were just doing what they wanted and didn’t care who was watching.
I got to see them live on September 24th, 1994 at the King Cat Theater. The venue was small and the place was packed tight. They played loud as hell and the crowd was right there with them the whole night. By the end of the show my ears were ringing and I had this stupid big smile on my face. It was one of those nights that reminded you why you fell in love with this music in the first place.
They never got as famous as some of the other bands, and a lot of us who were around from the early days considered them one of the true cornerstones of the scene. They just kept showing up and doing their own thing no matter what.
The band broke up a couple years ago, around ’98 or ’99. Tad went on to do some other projects — he even had a band called Hog Molly for a bit. I still see him around town sometimes.
These days I still throw on 8-Way Santa or Inhaler when I want to remember those years. Some bands just feel like part of the foundation, you know? Even if they didn’t get all the attention, TAD was always there.