Charles Garish Whirlwind Seattle Tour '86 at Tugs, Seattle, WA, June 24, 1986, at Retro, July 4, at Ditto, July 10

After moving to New York City in 1984 with his Punk band The Fags, Charles Garish (d. 1990) returned to Seattle for this Whirlwind Tour in the summer of 1986. Garish, born Charles Gera and known sometimes as Upchuck, was a regular DJ at the Wrex in Belltown after it opened in 1979, and a member of many local Punk bands, including Clone, Wad Squad, and The Fags. He was dubbed the “gay Cobain” by The Advocate and was open about his sexuality throughout his career. Finding success in both Seattle and New York City, he once opened for Siouxsie and the Banshees, the English Rock band, at Seattle’s Eagles Auditorium and his band, The Fags, had a cameo in Madonna’s 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan. Garish was diagnosed with both tuberculosis and AIDS in 1988 and would spend the last two years of his life in Seattle before passing away on May 27, 1990. 

In 1984, Hank Ivan (b. unknown) bought what used to be the Silver Stein at 2303 5th Ave in Seattle’s Belltown, pulling out the tavern’s rug, painting the walls black, and installing track lighting. However, the venue started to attract a Punk clientele, and Richard Pauletti (d. 2019)—a newspaper and typewriter collector as well as an aspiring writer—became the owner, renaming the venue The Writer Boy’s Ditto Tavern, also known as the Ditto, in 1986. Located along the monorail, the tavern displayed local artwork and hosted various early Northwest Grunge and Art Rock groups, including Soundgarden, Green River, and Skin Yard, before it closed in 1998. The Retro, located at 1624 Eighth Ave in Seattle, was an all-ages nightclub that hosted artists like Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, and Lydia Lunch (b. 1959) in the 1980s. A popular Seattle gay bar, Tugs Belltown Tavern opened in 1977 at 2207 First Ave. In the late 1980s, Patrick Harrison and David Decker, the original owners, moved the bar to 518 E. Pine St., becoming Tugs Belmont, which was notorious for its underwear parties, including one attended by the Washington State Legislature's first openly member, Cal Anderson, in protest of the Liquor Control Board’s attempts to shut down the bar.