A look back: Green Day amps it up in Peaceful Valley basement in early 1990s

Jun. 24—Before Green Day exploded through the stratosphere in 1994 courtesy of its breakthrough album, "Dookie," the trio was slated to perform on Oct. 10, 1992, at the tiny downtown club Pompeii. But the show, which was to also feature Britain's U.K. Subs, Spokane's Motherload and six other bands, never happened.

"It was a battle between two promoters, a good promoter and a bad promoter," Motherload vocalist-guitarist Scott Kellogg recalled. "The bad promoter, Scott Meyers, had a show that night, and he called the Fire Department and did all that he could to stop the show with Green Day that was promoted by Terry Grob, who was the best promoter in Spokane history. Grob was always fair and honest, but the Green Day gig he was putting on was canceled."

However, Green Day did perform in Spokane when it was grinding away as virtual unknowns on the punk circuit in a broken-down van. The future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers returned not long after the Pompeii fiasco to play outside the Peaceful Valley Community Center.

"That show was great," Kellogg recalled. "They were a lot of fun. (Green Day vocalist-guitarist) Billie (Joe Armstrong) and (Green Day bassist) Mike (Dirnt) were always great. They were always very nice guys."

Green Day returned to the Peaceful Valley Community Center on two other occasions. However, the can't-miss Green Day show was after one of the Peaceful Valley Community Center gigs. The pop-punk icons jammed away in a Peaceful Valley basement.

"They performed at somebody's house, and it was as loose as you can imagine," Kellogg said. "I remember the microphone being passed around. Billie and Mike could care less that people were singing into the microphone."

Kellogg, who owns Total Trash Records and Sound, opened some shows in California with Motherload for Green Day. "It was as fun as you think it would have been," Kellogg said. However, Kellogg never thought Green Day would become commercial monsters.

"I always thought that Green Day would make it and sell out theaters like the Knitting Factory," Kellogg said. "I liked them from when I first heard their songs back in 1989. But I never imagined that they would sell out 50,000-seat venues. But they paid their dues and wrote some great songs and became very successful.

"They pack the big venues these days, but I remember those early Spokane shows, and I'll never forget seeing Green Day play in a basement here. I look back at that and remember how much fun it was performing back then and watching a band in our town that was about to take off."

Back to Black Sabbath

On another note, last week's look back was at Black Sabbath, who played Spokane five times between 1972 and 1980. Spokane's Jerry Smith was kind enough to chime in with his memory of catching Black Sabbath at the Spokane Coliseum in 1978 after reading the feature.

"I wanted to share my Black Sabbath story. The opening band was this new L.A. band named Van Halen. They were so unbelievable. They got the crowd into a frenzy. Sabbath finally comes out. (Black Sabbath vocalist) Ozzy) Osbourne was hammered.

"The sound in the barn (aka Spokane Coliseum) sucks. Everyone is still Van Halened. People started booing and throwing stuff on the stage, and Sabbath walked off early, but we didn't really care. I love Sabbath, but they couldn't compete with Van Halen. Totally upstaged."

That's a great reminder of how different it was back during a time that was not as kind and gentle as today. It wasn't common to witness headliners jeered off the stage.

However, I witnessed my share of prominent opening acts get booed off the stage such as the Cars, who supported Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Journey warming up a vicious Rolling Stones crowd and the Clash performing before a hostile Who audience.