To the Dead Moon and back

A double LP box-set of a lesser-known but legendarily influential US punk band’s gig at an Invercargill tavern 30 years ago is about to be released. If you don’t want a copy one or two famous musicians might.

Picture the Foo Fighters raging to teeming thousands in 2018. Dave Grohl points emphatically to one guy, wearing a T-shirt and roars out an exultant challenge to his solo-ready cohort to lift his game.

“ . . . The guy in the Dead Moon shirt! Make him proud, right now! … You’ve got a lot to live up to!… Tough customer right there!… You gotta give him some extra!’’

Dead Moon’s own concerts weren’t remotely that scale. The trio from Portland, Oregon, comprising husband and wife Fred and Toody Cole and drummer Andrew Loomis, received deep respect from denizens of DIY garage rock but generally thinly-spread membrane of international recognition.

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To a rising generation up Seattle way, the Coles were the godparents of grunge.

And they did burn up those tiny stages. One of which was Invercargill’s Glengarry Tavern in 1992, a gig now to be commemorated in a double- LP box set package Going South.

By that time, in the United States Pacific Northwest, the Coles were already their 40s and proud grandparents. They were also heroes to ardent young fans, some of whom were about to become collectively known as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

Pearl Jam covered their songs – It’s OK for one – and singer Eddie Vedder put it this way: “In a day and age when authenticity is harder to come by than an honest Republican, legends Fred and Toody Cole deliver on every record and at every show.’’

Just as Nevermind was detonating worldwide, Nirvana invited Dead Moon to join them for some major gigs.

But they’d already said yes to an offer from to ardent Kiwi fan John Baker, to organise a tour of New Zealand them.

Towns as exotic as Invercargill, Greymouth and – sure, why not? – Haast beckoned. The trio knew what they were turning down, but they also knew that the alternative would be breaking faith, so Nirvana would have to be nicely thanked, but left disappointed.

Fred died in 2017 and Loomis in 2016. To this day, Toody confirms what they all said many times since. No regrets.

“One of Fred’s key rules,’’ she says, “was never cancel a gig you committed to for a better one. Basic work ethic, but important.’’

And as it turned out, the Kiwi tour also lived up to their chief expectation.

Which was that they’d have a good time.

For all the years that the band played throughout the States, Europe and worldwide, that first NZ tour is still the one she remembers as the most fun, sew-your-wild-oats foray they ever did.

“Wow, what a ride. …prehistoric-looking forests, mountains and geyser pools on the beach, then icy realms near Invercargill, complete with penguins . . . .and all the crazy characters we met.”

Sorry, penguins? Yep, on their southern sojourn one of the locals invited along to see some.

Trouble was, this would involve getting up early. Not always a strong point for touring bands, regardless of their work ethic. The Coles couldn’t quite manage that.

“One more reason for a return trip some day,’’ Toody adds.

The band had a fondness for illuminating their gigs with candles jammed into whisky bottles. So this was music by candlelight at the Glengarry Tavern.

They opened the set with a minor hit Fred had with an earlier band, Lollipop Shoppe You Must Be A Witch and finished with Animal, segueing into a barnstorming version of Led Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown .

See, although best known as a punk band, Dead Moon’s influences were widespread. From swampy rhythm and blues to country and rockabilly.

Fred and Toody had even been folk-hippyish in the 1960s. Not the wimpy hippy type, though. Fred shared a bottle of Southern Comfort with Janice Joplin. That kind of hippy.

Come punk, they formed The Rats, sharing billing with the likes of The Ramones and Tom Petty. A country interlude occurred after that, and by 1987 Dead Moon had brought it all together.

The music they took to New Zealand was primal and urgent, though within the storm the Coles were never averse to tunes.

Even so, it was reportedly all a bit much for a tiny audience in Haast.

Seems Toody recalls that kind-of fondly.

“Haast is Haast, so use your imagination.

“Let’s just say if your band can play Mustang Sally you’ve got yourself a gig there!’’

Every tour, she says, is a mixed bag of amazing gigs and ones not so hot. Of long drives, longer hours, being elated and exhausted.

“But that hour-plus up on stage makes it all worth it. You make it back home completely spent, hoarse for a week and ready to do it all over again.’’

The devotees of Dead Moon aren’t likely to bat an eye that the upcoming LP package was recorded in a town like Invercargill, whose own cult credentials are . . . well, they’re now enhanced a bit, aren’t they? The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East. The Who Live at Leeds. Cheap Trick at Budokan. Jimi at Monterey. And now Dead Pool in Invercargill.

Toody is entirely at peace with that sort of comparison.

Their own Portland home had always been overshadowed by Seattle, and considered less important.

Which meant the trio always had that underdog wait-till-I-show-you-what-I-can-do mentality going, she says.

“I love that Invercargill is a bit obscure, just like our live European LP Hardwired in Ljubljana.

“That’s in Slovenia,’’ she adds, helpfully. “Bet you never heard of that town either! ‘’

Toody Cole’s bass playing is famous among her peers, who are themselves a diverse bunch. Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister counted her a favourite of his.

Nowadays, she still occasionally gets up on stage with friends’ bands, but most of the time she’s on her property at Tombstone in Clackamas, operating the Paypal site deadmoonusa.com and trying to finish up many of the projects she and that man of hers started together in those touring years, which extended past Dead Moon’s retirement in 2006 to that of a new band, Pierced Arrows.

For a long time, there, Fred was making his music through challenges of sickness, and the need for hearing aids. Deafness couldn’t easily confound his famed creativity but it did become a real challenge.

She misses him, of course.

“I still love,’’ says Toody, “going to the Indian casinos at the beach once a month and playing (the casino version of ) Keno. I miss the competition with Fred but always feel like he’s around there somewhere, looking over my shoulder and making sure I’m OK.’’

Going South – Dead Moon live at the Glengarry Tavern in Invercargill – will be released in a limited edition box set double LP package for NZ only through Electric Alchemy EA08 on Saturday September 10.

Mississippi Records from Portland Oregon will release the double LP for ROW later this year. Kiwi company Flying Out distribute Mississippi locally.

It’s pretty much a resolutely retro deal. No iTunes, no Spotify, no YouTube.

As for that long-ago tour manager John Baker, whose exploits would go on to include duty as White Stripes tour manager, he’s been the driving force behind the LP package release. As he puts it, if you connect with Dead Moon you’re a fan for life. Him, Grohl, Vedder and lots of others all over the place.