Blake Babies History Part 11

Juliana and I decided to follow Mike Watt’s credo by not canceling our shows after Freda’s sudden departure. That meant immediate action. Juliana called her younger brother Jason, a student at Reed College in Portland, to fill in—possibly for the rest of the tour. We had no time to practice, or even for Jason to learn the parts. It was a total mess at first.

We had to follow through on a nice paycheck to play on the UCLA campus. I stood next to Jason throughout the show, attempting to give him cues with raised eyebrows and exaggerated gestures. It was pretty embarrassing, and thankfully lightly attended.

Our second show together was Olympia, Washington. We had some had deep connections there, having toured New England a band called The Go Team. The Go Team was Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, along with Billy Karren and Tobi Vail, soon-to-be founding members of Bikini Kill. Beat Happening stayed at our house a couple years earlier, and encouraged us early on. We were excited to see some friends, but mostly we were excited to meet our favorite band, Nirvana, whose members we’d heard all planned to attend our show.

I was ashamed by our car crash of a set, but the Olympia audience didn’t seem to mind. In fact, many in attendance probably preferred a ramshackle, chaotic sound to a slick delivery. Olympia had a scene where technical proficiency in music is beside the point.

I briefly met the guys in Nirvana after the show, and I wish I’d paid a little bit more attention. They seemed friendly and complimentary. Embarrassed by the shaky set, we got out of there as fast as we could and drove to Seattle for the next show. We finally started to gel a bit more in Seattle, but it ended up being our last show with Jason.

After recovering from her flu following a brutal three-day bus trip, Freda decided to rejoin the tour in Minneapolis. She agreed to play the remaining shows, but she made it clear wasn’t back in the band. Freda was in better spirits for the rest of the tour, knowing it would all be over soon.

Later that summer we got a call through Mammoth from Nirvana’s management asking us to open the first European leg of their fall tour in support of their next album, their Geffen Records debut. Juliana and I wanted to do it, but Freda said no more shows. After initially agreeing to do the tour, we retracted and declined.