Team Dresch, Sleater-Kinney, and Cee Bee Barnes at the Old Firehouse, Redmond, WA, August 26, 1995

Redmond’s pioneering Old Firehouse Teen Center has hosted many bands over the years, internationally famous and garage bands alike. On August 26, 1995, they hosted notable Northwest LGBTQ+ bands Team Dresch and Sleater-Kinney, with Cee Bee Barnes. 

Team Dresch is a Punk band from Olympia, Washington. In the early 1990s, Donna Dresch (b. unknown), a bassist and guitarist, met guitarist and vocalist Jody Bleyle (b. unknown), and in 1993 they formed an “all-dyke” band called Team Dresch, alongside Kaia Wilson (b. 1974) on guitar and vocals, and Marceo Martinez (b. unknown) on drums. Team Dresch heavily influenced the Queercore movement, which gave voice through zines and music to the interests and concerns of LGBTQ+ people in the Punk scene. Queercore began in the mid-1980s and Dresch had roots in the movement as a contributor to the zines J.D.s and Outpunk, as well as writing her own, Chainsaw, influencing the band’s style and involvement Queercore from its inception. The band was featured in Lucy Thane’s 1997 documentary She’s Real (Worse Than Queer), which showcased the 1990s Riot Grrrl and Queercore scenes. 

Team Dresch first released the single “Seven” as part of an Alternative Rock compilation called Rock Stars Kill in 1994, which allowed them to start booking shows across the United States. In January 1995, they had released their first album, Personal Best, with Dresch’s label, Chainsaw Records, and Bleyle’s Candy Ass Records. In 1994, Team Dresch had toured with self-defense instructor Alice Stagg, who gave demonstrations prior to the band’s performances. After Personal Best, the two labels released a compilation, “Free to Fight,” a double LP of all-women bands which addressed issues such as sexual harassment and assault. Later in 1995, after this Redmond performance, Melissa York (b. 1969) replaced Martinez, and the new quartet co-released Captain My Captain, which is often considered to be a more outwardly queer album than their first.  

Team Dresch disbanded in 1998 but reunited in 2004 to headline the Olympia Queercore festival Home-a-Go-Go and have toured and performed occasionally in the years since. In 2019, the band, with Jealous Butcher Records, reissued their entire catalogue in honor of their 25th anniversary, which allowed Martinez, who had recently come out as transmasculine, to have their name corrected in the credit. Though Team Dresch released only two albums, those records deeply bonded listeners, many of whom were fellow Punk musicians or struggling LGBTQ youth. 

Sleater-Kinney is a Rock band also formed in Olympia, Washington in 1994, originating from the Riot Grrrl movement and often featuring feminist and left-leaning lyrics. Corin Tucker (B. 1972) and Carrie Brownstein (b. 1974) both vocalists and guitarists, formed the band as students at The Evergreen State College, where they named it for Sleater Kinney Road in Lacey, near where they first practiced. At the band’s inception, Tucker was in the Riot Grrrl band Heavens to Betsy and Brownstein was in Excuse 17, but when these groups disbanded, the two turned their focus to Sleater-Kinney. Between 1994 and 2005, the band released seven studio albums and have since released No Cities to Love (2015), Live in Paris (2017), The Center Won’t Hold (2019), produced by St. Vincent, Path of Wellness (2021), and Dig Me In: A Dig Me Out Covers Album (2022). Various drummers joined the band early on and in more recent years, but Janet Weiss (b. 1965), who also played harmonica, stayed the longest, joined Sleater-Kinney in 1997, until her departure in 2019. 

The Old Firehouse Teen Center, which opened at 16510 NE 79th St. in Redmond in 1992, is one of the longest standing teen centers and all-ages music venues in Washington. The center provides activities aimed at teens through high school graduation, who are provided leadership opportunities and space to connect with their community, including sports, arts, music, cooking, cultural events, and, at one point, counseling services. While serving as Redmond mayor from 1991 to 2007, Rosemarie Ives (b. 1946) advocated for a teen-centered organization which would engage young people who weren’t connecting with the Redmond mainstream. Kate Becker, who later founded the Vera Project in Seattle, started an arts and recreation program called Nightlife, which revealed a widespread desire for a place to enjoy and perform music, in part due to a teen dance ordinance in the 1990s which had cut off minors from the burgeoning Rock music scene. The first Nightlife show was on September 26, 1992, featuring three Eastside bands: Rikki Tikki Tavi, I Forget, and Systematic Discipline, at the Redmond YMCA. Thanks to youth who convinced the city council to provide a budget after nearly two years of putting on well-attended shows in numerous local venues, the building became the Old Firehouse, a full-blown teen center and the area’s only permanent all-ages Rock venue. The venue helped launch the careers of bands such as Modest Mouse, The Blood Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and Minus the Bear.