A very long time ago I was on the radio. I used to rig contests so folks in Tacoma would win - I felt I owed them something. Tacoma was the first place to embrace my early '90s rock outfit Squirt. We didn't make it big or anything, but Tacomans were the first to understand, and that was huge for nobodies.

Squirt had many ties to Tacoma. Our guitar player Eric "The Swede" Olson was from Tacoma. Lem Durant, the guy that booked Prosito (before it was The Central and the first Hell's Kitchen) was the first person to ever approach us for a gig. Squirt's first release on a compact disc (mind you getting a CD made in '93 cost a deep left nut) was courtesy of 253 label Wrecking Ball. And the first "cool" band to embrace/befriend us was Girl Trouble. It was different. Tacomans were ... nice.

Squirt sold tens of records back in the day. I like to think of "Pizza, Chicken, Burgers" as our first hit (at least T-town liked it at the time), followed by "Evel Knievel" or maybe "Does your ‘wife' like to ‘get it on'?" or maybe "Oregon Grape." Our stuff was done on the cheap, TEAC-four-track-style, in my basement sans processing, before sonically sounding like shit was deemed OK again. 

We were an odd lot.

Read guest writer Dick Rossetti's full story on his band Squirt in the Music section at weeklyvolcano.com.

THE NEW FRONTIER LOUNGE, SQUIRT REUNION WITH THE RESIDENT KINGS AND DJ KAHUNA, FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 9 P.M., 301 E. 25TH ST., TACOMA, 253.572.4020