Mudhoney and Das Damen at The Court Tavern (03-12-1989)

On March 12th, 1989, Seattle’s Mudhoney and New York City’s Das Damen played at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick, NJ! The two bands were on the road in support of two relatively new records. In 1988, Das Damen released their third album (and their final one on SST Records) Triskaidekaphobe, while Mudhoney had released their legendary Jack Endino produced debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff in October of 1988. Mudhoney also released a split single with Sonic Youth in November of 1988, where they covered the Sonic Youth song “Halloween” and Sonic Youth covered one of Mudhoney’s most well-known tracks, “Touch Me I’m Sick.” Mudhoney included “Touch Me I’m Sick,” along with other classics like “Here Comes Sickness” in their set on this night at The Court Tavern, and after one final stop with Das Damen on March 14th at the Pyramid Club in New York City, they’d head to Europe for a series of dates in support of Sonic Youth.

In October of 1989, Das Damen would release their fourth album, Mousetrap, on Twin/Tone Records. For this record, original bassist Phil Leopold von Trapp left the band and was replaced by David Motamed. Das Damen’s final release was the High Anxiety mini-set in July 1991, which was co-released by City Slang and Sub Pop. Motamed would later join the band Cell, who released two albums on Geffen Records in the 1990s. Das Damen drummer Lyle Hysen and Motamed are currently both members of the Hoboken-based The Royal Arctic Institute, who just released their second EP, From Catnap to Coma.

The night before this show, Mudhoney played at Maxwell’s in support of Soundgarden. We posted both sets previously on the site (Mudhoney’s in 2018 and Soundgarden’s in 2020). So, you can check that gig out as well.