In the summer of 1999, I talked my friend into driving 1,000 miles with me from Los Angeles to Olympia, WA at the last minute to attend a DIY festival he knew little to nothing about. It was called Yo Yo A Go Go and I was excited to see The Make Up, Thrones, Sleater-Kinney, Batmobile. Dub Narcotic Sound System, Tullycraft and Dead Moon. But the main attraction was, without a doubt, Elliott Smith. When we arrived at The Capitol Theater, we learned that the show was sold out.
Determined to get in despite the odds, I walked down the side alley of the theatre and saw Elliott standing by the back door. He was wearing a trucker hat that said WHO’S THE BOSS? and he was pulling from a cigarette just as you’d expect him to be.
I explained to him our situation, to which he replied something along the lines of, ‘Well I’ve got two guest passes and no friends, wanna be my friend?’ And like that, he finished his smoke and led us through the back door. We walked past several bands who were setting up their gear, to which Elliott asked each of them, ‘Who’s the boss?’ – as if on cue, they shot back, ‘You are Elliott!’.
Afterwards, we went to a bar with Elliott and chatted. It was only my second time in a bar ever but he was beyond sweet, seemed generally interested in what I had to say and lets be honest he could have been hanging out with anyone that night but here he was talking to us - a couple of kids. After a few beers it got a little darker he started talking about how ugly he was and I just didn’t know how to respond. I was so young I didn’t fully comprehend what was really going down at the time.
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