Drain Blamage

A while back I was looking for something under the stairs and pulled out a box I hadn't opened in years.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting in it. Old papers. Photographs. Stuff I'd kept for reasons I couldn't remember.

And then I found the tape.

DRAIN BLAMAGE — MANDELA EFFECT.

I knew that name immediately.

Underneath it were a couple of old show posters and a handful of photographs. Four guys I'd almost completely forgotten about: Brian Damage on guitar and vocals, Danny Mercer on bass, Ricky Bell on drums, and Jesse Lane on guitar.

Drain Blamage.

I remember these guys.

They formed in Yakima in 1989 and played mostly around central Washington—small clubs, community halls, whatever rooms would have them. They made it over the mountains to Seattle a few times too. I know they did. One of the posters was still in the box.

They were loud and weird and didn't quite fit anywhere. Too slow for some of the punk bills, too strange for the metal bands, they never wore flannel so they were never really part of the Seattle scene, even when they were standing on one of its stages.

I remember seeing them.

At least, I think I do.

That's the strange part.

I put the cassette on.

There they were.

Five songs. Brian and Jesse's guitars. Danny's bass. Ricky beating the absolute shit out of his drums.

I started looking around online to see whatever happened to them.

There isn't much.

I've found their name in a couple of places. That's almost stranger.

One of the Seattle posters is pretty well known. People have reproduced it, traded copies of it, posted it online. Drain Blamage is right there on the bill.

Some people remember the name.

Most don't.

A few people I've shown it to swear Drain Blamage wasn't on the poster they remember.

I don't know what to make of that.

Maybe they were simply one of thousands of bands that existed for a year, played some shows, made a tape and disappeared.

That's probably all it is.

But I swear I remember them.

And now I have the box sitting next to me.