I saw Sweet Water at the Puyallup Fair when I was 14. I followed them religiously for three or four years after the experience.



Sweet Water is a tale of a band that was on the brink of enormous success and yet, somehow, fell short. A band that came into the Seattle grunge scene around the time the Seattle band Mother Love Bone morphed into Mookie Blaylock (who later changed their name to Pearl Jam). A band that never experienced the success that many Seattle bands saw during the early ’90s. Sweet Water tells the tale of a band that was lost in the obscurity of commercial interests and business minded music selectors. Sweet Water had a chance to be as big to the world as they were to me.



Sweet Water reunited two years ago and will return to Hell’s Kitchen Friday night with a new full-length, Clear The Tarmac (Golden City Records) and opening bands Top Heavy Crush and New York Rifles. I caught up with Sweet Water lead singer Adam Czeisler for his thoughts on the band’s beginning and eventual reunion.



WEEKLY VOLCANO: You were originally known as S.G.M. What does that stand for?


ADAM CZEISLER: Oh my god, yeah, that’s way back. You know it didn’t really stand for anything in particular. It’s kind of like, we were sort of a punk rock band and that’s a punk rock sort of name. Over the years we made it mean different things but it never had a true, true meaning.


VOLCANO: Why the name Sweet Water?



CZEISLER: Richard Credo, our guitar player, sort of came up with the name. Man, that takes me back. We were kids, and we all went to this tiny little school together called Bush High School (the same school Dave Dederen and Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America attended). We actually used to play shows in the International District at a combo club that was Grow Gardens and The Rock Theater. Then we sort of disbanded and went off to school, but rock couldn’t keep us away. So Richard met this guy, Dudley Taft, who played guitar, and we jammed and it just worked out. So we formed Sweet Water. There really isn’t any meaning behind the name; it just sounded like a raunchy southern kind of name for a band.



VOLCANO: Were you aware that a band called Sweetwater was the first band to play Woodstock?


CZEISLER: (Laughter) The hippy band! Yeah, well, you have to understand that this was a time before Internet. It’s not like we could just get online and look this stuff up. So, we didn’t know they existed, but we eventually found out. Actually, after we signed our first big record contract someone brought us a record of the old Sweetwater band and on the back there were these band member bios. In it, one of the people said something about where they were from and it was “in that peanut butter octopus that is Los Angeles.” So, yeah, they’re a pretty weird group of people.



VOLCANO: On the song “Superstar” off of Superfriends you sing, “number 137, yeah you know what I mean”. What does that mean?



CZEISLER: That was a line written by Cole Peterson, our bass player, and it’s a secret. He hasn’t even told me what it means. Cole is kind of the master. He writes all of our pop songs. He’s got kind of a knack for that.



VOLCANO: Why the reunion in 2007 after such a long hiatus?


CZEISLER: Drummer Paul Uhlir had everyone over for a barbeque and during the party he told us that he had a practice pad and that we should all get together some time and try to play a show. So, I decided that would be cool, but I would want to practice a lot so I wouldn’t look bad on stage. Finally, after practicing for a while, we started putting new songs together, which eventually led to us recording Clear the Tarmac, which I believe to be our best work to date.



VOLCANO: I saw you guys play at the Puyallup Fair when I was too young to completely consume half of an Earthquake Burger. Does that make you feel old?


CZEISLER: Good question. I don’t actually feel old. I probably should but I think being in a band arrests your development a little bit. So, emotionally, I feel like I am at least 10 years younger than people my age. It is kind of weird though ’cause we will be practicing and it’s like, “whoa, we’ve been together for 17 years.”



Join me Friday night to witness Sweet Water’s ultra-hooky and supercharged show at Hell’s Kitchen. I’ll bring the elephant ears.



[Hell’s Kitchen, Sweet Water, Top Heavy Crush, New York Rifles, Friday, May 15, 9 p.m., $10, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]