Tacoma Rock City!

The Sonics "The Witch"

by Mike Brett

You finally get the nerve to ask out your chemistry partner, and you decide to take her to the KJR showcase booked at the local VFW hall. You talk your dad into letting you take the Fairlane, and you get dressed up in your finest powder blue suit. Cherie happens to be wearing powder blue as well, except it is fitting those teenage curves of hers like a cocoon about to pop. You didn't pay attention to the bands playing tonight, although the headliner is Paul Revere and the Raiders who Cherie absolutely adores.

At the show, everything goes well. The first two bands do passable Beach Boy imitations, with the second band closing their set covering some folkie from New York City. The third band catches your attention because it takes them a good hour to get all their equipment on the stage. Lots of speakers. They're called the Sonics. You've never heard of them, but they are compromising your ability to talk to Cherie what with the incredible volume they are tuning their guitars. But it wouldn't matter anyways, because from that first chord blast Cherie's eyes do not leave the stage. When they begin their set, it sounds like the test run of one of Boeing's new supersonics. The old hall shakes loud enough to give veterans in the front bar flashbacks. Someone splashes Coke on Cherie. You turn to see who it is. Someone splashes Coke on you. Now you're pissed and you shove the guy next to you. He turns around in his leather jacket and just sneers at you. Meanwhile Cherie has let her hair down. When you look at her you don't see much but a sea of teenage lust, her shaking hips calling you farther out from shore. You can't tell what the Sonics are saying. You take Cherie's hand, and the same electricity through those amps shoots through your body. Thank God that Fairlane is a big car, because tonight Cherie is going to be your butterfly.

The year is 1964, the city is Seattle, and the Sonics have just released "The Witch".