Tad
Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears
MVD Entertainment
Big boys don't cry
Tad Doyle, the man-mountain who fronted the band Tad, left a permanent mark on me as 1990 turned into 1991 and I was ringing in the new year at warehouse party near the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Skin Yard was on stage, the beer had been flowing freely all night—Red Hook, of course—and I was hammered. Positioned at the front of the stage, which was a roiling, writhing mess of sweaty bodies and long hair, I suddenly took one square on the jaw and was knocked on my ass. I looked up to see Tad looming over me, clutching his head, righting himself and then launching back into the pit. Soused enough not to be too concerned about the pulsing ache in my jaw, I held my position through the rest of Skin Yard’s set only to discover blood dripping onto the front of my t-shirt as I shuffled up toward my friend’s apartment on Capitol Hill. Sure enough, that motherfucker had split my jaw open and left me bleeding. (I have no idea if there was any reciprocal damage, but I doubt it.) Luckily, nothing was broken, but I did get a nice little scar in the deal.
Yeah, this DVD brought back some memories—some obviously more painful than others. More importantly, though, it reinforced what an amazing and devastatingly heavy band—Sub Pop’s heaviest, by far—Tad were. And it brings to light what a raw deal the foursome ultimately got, burned by easily avoided lawsuits when they were on Sub Pop and then dropped twice by major labels every time they started to get some momentum. There are, of course, the usual band dramas—drugs, drummers coming and going, and an acrimonious split with founding member Gary Thorstensen, who refused to participate in the film—but the real story is that this was a really great band that never got its due.
The production quality is good (not great), the editing a little clumsy, but it’s a testament to Tad’s popularity within the Seattle music scene that dudes like Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), producer Jack Endino and Sub Pop founders Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt (who is no longer part of the label) all participated in Busted Circuits and had nothing but positive things to say. Thayil, in fact, swears that in 20 years he’s never heard anyone say a single bad thing about Doyle. Well, if he woulda asked me, I’d have told him that the giant son of a bitch split my fuckin’ jaw open. —Adem Tepedelen
