Fastbacks And Vatican 3 To Play Mother’s On Saturday

You’d think that after spending 15 years in the Fastbacks, bassist/vocalist Kim Warnick would be unconcerned about whether or not people will show up to the Fastbacks’ show with Vatican 3 at Mother’s Pub on Saturday.

But she is a bit anxious.

“You think people will go?” Warnick asked during a recent phone interview.

Of course, the Fastbacks is only one of Seattle’s, if not the country’s, greatest pop-punk, punk-pop, poprock - whatever you want to call it - bands.

“We always play these kinds of towns when people are on vacation for some reason or another,” she said. “What normally is a great college town is a ghost town by the time we get there, a lot of times.”

Even when college is in session in Spokane, crowds can be rather unpredictable.

One thing’s for sure, however: The Fastbacks is going to rock, the way the group has for years.

The band - rounded-out Warnick, guitarist/vocalist Lulu Gargiulo and guitarist Kurt Bloch - formed in 1980, before Seattle even had a music scene.

In that 15-year span, little has changed about the group’s musical approach. The seasoned quartet continues to pack a tight-fisted guitar punch coupled with mouthwatering vocal and guitar hooks.

The only thing that’s maybe changed about the band is its drummers and its audience - the one thing that makes Warnick feel as if she’s been in a band for a long time.

“At times it could seem like that, when people come up and say, ‘I saw you guys back in ‘83,”’ said the musician.

“Or, weird, professional people downtown will stop me on the street, ‘Ah yeah, I remember when you guys used to play at blah, blah, blah.”’

The Fastbacks have had more drummers than you can count on two hands. In fact, Guns ‘n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagen once beat the skins for the Fastbacks during the ‘80s.

On the band’s most recent album, 1994’s “Answer the Phone, Dummy” on Sub Pop, the Fastbacks seemed to have found a solution to their perpetual drummer problem.

Willougby will be behind the kit at Saturday’s show.

Seattle’s Vatican 3, which plays the middle slot, will be releasing its first wave of seven-inch singles in August.

The two releases were recorded and produced by the Fastback’s Bloch.

And that’s not the only tie this band has to the Fastbacks.

Bassist/vocalist and former Spokanite Mary Ellen Cooley played in a side-project with Warnick and Gargiulo called Motorhoney.

Before forming the Vatican 3, Cooley played in Goodness (the band featuring ex-Hammerbox and ex-Treepeople members) and another band Count Foxy along with fellow Vatican 3 drummer Tom Karjieck.

Guitarded opens.

Music starts at 9:30 p.m. The cost is $6. Bring your ID.