Watch Mother Love Bone Play for the First Time in Eight Years at Seattle Benefit Concert
Mother Love Bone reunited this past Saturday (May 5) during a benefit show at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle, Wash. Featuring Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, it was the first time the band performed together in eight years. Fan-filmed footage of the show can be seen above.
Rounded out by fellow original Mother Love Bone members Greg Gilmore on drums and Bruce Fairweather on guitar, the show had a slew of guest singers filling in for their late frontman, Andrew Wood, including Carrie Akre from Hammerbox and Goodness, Adam Czeisler of Sweetwater, Shawn Smith from Brad and Pigeonhead, Robb Benson of Stereo Embers and Om Johari from Hell’s Belles among others.
Put on by the non-profit Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare (SMASH), it was the first annual benefit concert by the organization and paid tribute to the hometown rock pioneers. SMASH is a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping the local music community healthy and thriving by providing health education, advocacy, and access to preventative healthcare to Seattle area working musicians.
“The Seattle music scene has always been about community,” said SMASH co-founder Steph Fairweather in a statement. “Music is our culture, it’s one of the things that defines us. Many of our region’s musicians find it hard to balance the cost of living with paying for routine doctor visits, and who often prioritize sparking emotion through making art over self-care. This is our way of supporting the health of those who give us so much”.
Pegged to be the "next big thing" out of Seattle, well before the city's '90s grunge explosion, Mother Love Bone came to an abrupt end with the 1990 heroin overdose of Andrew Wood. Gossard and Ament went on to form Pearl Jam, but also joined Chris Cornell to pay tribute to their late singer in the Temple of the Dog collective with an eponymous LP in 1991. Mother Love Bone last reunited in April of 2010 for four songs at the Showbox, also in Seattle.
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