Secrets of the Beach

For its first-ever tour, Humble Cub enlists the help of some French friends on a journey filled with sand, empty clubs and cute tattoos.

It’s hard to know where to start. For a young band like Tacoma’s Humble Cub, filled with potential, piss and vinegar, a tour is a tantalizing possibility. But without music-industry connections, a flock of fans or money to burn, it is also a huge headache. With its full-length album, Spaced like Power Lines, in the can, the quartet knew it needed to lay those tracks on some fresh ears, while racking up miles and messing around in other towns. When the band found out that friends from Paris, Fat Beavers, were coming to the Northwest, they knew this was their time. Guitarist Carson Churchill got to work, calling acquaintances around the Northwest and setting up six days of shows all along the upper West Coast. This is the story of the good, the bad and the beaches in between. Illustrated and written by Jeremy Gregory.

(left) Humble Cub is Geoff Weeg on drums, Ryan Holbrook on bass, Allan Boothe on lead guitar and vocals and Carson Churchill on guitar. (right) Fat Beavers are Eric Bricka on lead guitar and vocals, Julie Appe’re’ on bass and vocals and Gautier Deschamps on drums and vocals.

After meeting up with the Fat Beavers in Portland on the first day of the tour, the members of Humble Cub broke the ice with a little trampoline time.

While jumping up and down, they discovered that the Parisian band members were unaware of the comedic impact of their name when translated into English. Later, the Fat Beavers inspired a mosh pit in a Portland basement while Humble Cub had the crowd pulsating to its grooves.

The second day of tour found the bands playing for a packed crowd at Grandma’s House in Olympia. “I was singing ‘Easier’ and a couple people in the back were talking softly,” front man Allan Boothe recalled later. “Some dude yelled ‘Shut the fuck up!’ way louder than they were talking. Caught me off guard. It was good. One of my loyal fans.”

The next day the band returned home for a Sunday-night show at the New Frontier Lounge. No one showed up and Boothe found himself singing to the chairs. On Monday morning the bands clocked some beach-time fun at Owens Beach, before visiting Tacoma’s legendary shop Guitar Maniacs, and heading off to Seattle.

On Monday night, the bands played the New Crompton house in Seattle. The show was good, but could not compare to the acoustic cover of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” delivered by Fat Beavers drummer Gautier Deschamps on acoustic guitar afterwards.

The next day the bands chilled out at Golden Gardens Park. Churchill sank his toes in the sand, bringing to mind the opening lines of the Humble Cub song “Secrets of the Beach”: “Imagining your feet, coddled by the sand. Forget about the days and months and weeks that crash together in your head.” Before they knew it, both bands were having a parking log dance off to the twang of a country song blaring from the car speakers.

The band woke up after a night of revelry and headed to Bellingham.

On the way, Fat Beavers bassist Julie Appe’re’ decided to have a drawing by Humble Cub drummer Geoff Weeg tattooed on her ankle at Deep Roots Tattoo in Seattle.

After a successful show at the Hoot House in Bellingham, second only to the Olympia show, the bands headed back to Tacoma, where the Fat Beavers departed and Humble Cub began planning the next tour. “I think we’re gonna be like the Grateful Dead, or Pantera,” Boothe said later. “We’ll tour three hundred and sixty-five days a year. We just need to find a good van.” •