Soundgarden / Mudhoney

  Mudhoney
  Soundgarden

Date:

Friday, May 12, 1989

Venue:

SOAS

Location:

London, England, United Kingdom

Notes:

5/12/89 School for Oriental and African Studies. London, England
Attendance: 1,000
Supported By: Soundgarden, Sharkey's Machine
Set: (unknown), (unknown), Chain That Door, Touch Me I'm Sick, Here Comes Sickness, If I Think, Mudride, In 'N' Out of Grace (set possibly incomplete and out of order)
Notes: This is the show that made Mudhoney big in the United Kingdom. 150 journalists are on the guest list to witness the spectacle, courteuosy of Mudhoney's UK press agent, Anton. Their last performance in London, on 3/24/89, created a lot of expectations for this show. During the first song of the set, Mark dives into the audience while playing. It takes a couple minutes to fish him out, and another couple to get his guitar returned. At this point, he jokingly tells the audience "I'd like to take this opportunity to invite everybody to join us on stage." The audience doesn't take it as a joke and comes up en masse. The guys end up pressed against the back wall with their instruments, and can't play anymore. Since the stage is small, the front monitors have been set up on big tables, which collapse when the audience gets to them. All of this chaos results in a 15 minute delay. By the time they all get off the stage, the monitors and two microphones have disappeared and most of the P.A. isn't working. The P.A. guys can't repair the system because they're too busy keeping the P.A. from falling over due to pressure from the crowd. At this point, Mark tells the crowd that they won't play another note until "each and every one of you gets on top of the speakers." Some people do, and then dive off of them. Mark then invites the crowd to throw all of their money on stage, but far fewer people take him up on this offer. By the time they start the third song of their set, Chain That Door, 30 minutes have passed. In 'N' Out of Grace ends the set and there is no encore. The entire show is a beautiful riot, and the first big grunge experience in the UK. Because of all the journalists present, everyone ends up hearing about it.

Photos

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