13/07/26. Adam Roberts

Excited doesn’t cover it. We’re on the way to mother f*ckin’ Seattle people! I was born in the heady days of 1983, meaning by the early 90s my musical awakening was beginning. Surrounded by neighbours who were a few years older than me, I started to experience the sounds and aesthetics of 90s grunge. I never had MTV growing up, so my older pals on the street served as a route in to understand what was happening in pop culture at that time. Listening to Pearl Jam on a boombox down the local park and watching episodes of Beavis and Butthead! It was so different to my Valleys norms. Nirvana were the biggest god damn thing on the planet, which for me was underlined by the number of Happy Face graffiti logos I’d notice sprayed on walls throughout the Valleys. Something different was happening amongst young people. The whole movement seemed a little weird to a young, fresh faced Welsh kid like me, but very intriguing and exciting. The older kids were dressing like Kurt Cobain, and even attempted to exude his air of mystique and trouble. I just found this whole buzz that was set alight by kids who connected with the music, a million miles away from America here in Wales, so utterly cool! My musical world was starting to open up and grunge was taking over.

The 90s was a big time for me, a decade I navigated with both love and struggle. Never really being a confident kid growing up, I always felt in the shadows others more popular and successful than me at school, and probably made an easy target of myself being so introverted. I lost my best friend Richie to a life long illness toward the end of the decade, a time that shaped me more than anything else before or since, an experience that left a pretty significant hole in my life that’s never really closed. But, as is such the case for so many other adolescent struggles, music was a big part of the escape. I found solace in ‘depressing music’ and would listen to the songs that really struck a chord with how I was feeling, on repeat. It helped. And it still helps. I got hooked on Counting Crows through my older Sister, with ‘Round Here’ becoming the song I always turned to when I needed to ‘feel’. Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple, The Cranberries, then of course the grunge bands that shaped the lives of the generation. I played in a covers band that adored the likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, The Foos and Modest Mouse, which proved to play a big part in me as a drummer, and probably a young man. At the time I had no idea these dudes were all from the same city in America, which was also the same city Fraser was set (I adore Fraser)! So I’ve always told myself, if I ever reach Seattle, it has to be to play music (being a radio psychiatrist was never really an option).

Before we get to Seattle, the end of a pretty modest drive from Portland, we make a fuel stop in Rochester. It’s been well documented how much I loathe the American truck stop coffee ‘culture’, but lo and behold there’s a cafe next door that actually looks like it knows what an espresso is! ‘Northwest Grind’ stands alone as a cute little whitewashed wooden house with an inviting drive-through. So whilst the others are purchasing the gold standard of the truck stop, the ‘Screaming Eagle’, I head over to the ordering lane. I’m welcomed by a smiling face and an extensive menu of hot and cold caffeine delights. It’s been pretty darn hot in this part of the country of late, so I go for an iced option. I’m usually a bit of a purist, and like my coffee to taste as such, but today it’s hot and I’m feeling a little saucy. So I go for the frozen mocha, LARGE. Whilst my return to the truck is met with the usual eye roll because of my distain for the screaming eagle, I’m totally happy to own my snobbery in this instance as this drink tastes f*cking INCREDIBLE! Possibly, probably, the best thing I’ve ever tasted! It turns out Seattle is good for coffee! Northwest Grind, I salute you!

As much as I’d longed to visit Seattle and speak some time drinking in the vibrant street culture, the usual confines of an afternoon load-in strike again. So in an attempt to see as much as I can, the first stop is Pike Place Market, which was every bit as good as I’d read. Incredible food EVERYWHERE. So, I grabbed myself some tasty Moqueca for lunch and bag full of Cannolis for the guys. These aren’t just your everyday cannolis by the way, these were monsters! Then, after a quick beer with the Liberty Truck, it was a rush to make van call. Just enough time to get the obligatory Seattle fridge magnet and a Supersonics cap.

Next stop Tractor Tavern for tonight’s show - a big dream pretty much fulfilled. Don’t f*ck it up!