On a national and international level, not much. For the sake of people’s understanding — those who only know life in the Pacific Northwest from grunge records and movies starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan — it’s often easier for bands — and people — to simply say they’re from Seattle. Everyone knows Seattle, so when a person or band omits their Tacoma roots in favor of namedropping the more popular city to the north, there’s no need for explanations. Sometimes avoiding an explanation is worth stretching the facts.

But, when it comes to sleeping at night and being true to one’s roots, for a person or band from Tacoma to ignore the town that helped make them and claim Seattle as home is blasphemous. Bands from Tacoma should be proud of Tacoma, and if they’re not, well, we should just kick them out. Let the bastards pay rent in Seattle if they want to call it home.

Zeke, perhaps one of the best and most influential underground hardcore punk bands in the last 20 years, is proud to call Tacoma home. They always have been. Even during the height of their popularity, perhaps while playing dates with Pearl Jam or being lumped in with the s***load of ’90s acts that benefited from Seattle’s success on the national stage, Zeke has always been straight up. 

This is a band from Tacoma. They’ve got the stains on their clothes and devilish and dirty guitar licks to prove it.

Saturday, Oct. 25, Zeke, along with Kevin Seconds, the Insurgence and the Mopars will play Hell’s Kitchen as part of the fourth annual Hell’s Kitchen tattoo contest. If ever there were an opportunity to see a true blue Tacoma band in the proper environment, this would be it, my friends. 

“The thing about Zeke is we’re from Tacoma,” says drummer Donny Paycheck — who is also a co-owner of Supernova Hair and Tattoo. “We never wanted to be from Seattle, and we never wanted to be lumped in with a bunch of grunge bands.”

Sure enough, if you search “Zeke” on the World Wide Interweb and do a little reading about the fast as hell, burnt rubber, gas and cigarette smelling four-piece, nearly everywhere you look states it proudly. Wikipedia. Myspace. The list goes on. Zeke claims Tacoma as home.

Even so, a Zeke show at Hell’s Kitchen isn’t an everyday occurrence. While the band may call Tacoma home, they’ve made it a goal not to over-saturate the market, and every time they do plug-in in T-town they do so with a goal of making it special.

 

“We’ve been trying to only play here once a year, so it’s always a great show,” says Paycheck. “We always try to keep the door price low, and make sure everyone has a good time.”

 

Saturday’s fourth annual tattoo contest at Hell’s Kitchen should deliver just that. Along with music from Zeke, the Insurgence, Kevin Seconds and the Mopars, plenty of tattoo artists and tattoo enthusiasts will be on hand to show off their ink and throw back some beers. It doesn’t get much more Tacoma than that.

 

“Tattoo shows always turn out to be a lot of fun. It’s always a good crowd, but it’s a good vibe too,” says Paycheck. “In Zeke, we like tattoos.”

Zeke also likes to rock your face off, which is exactly what they’ll do at Hell’s Kitchen this weekend.

[Hell’s Kitchen, Saturday, Oct. 25, 9 p.m., $8, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]