The writing of Jen B. Larson and a new reissue by Bric-a-Brac Records have burnished the legacy of Seattle band Bam Bam and their powerhouse front woman, Tina Bell. | imLeor
ran a segment on Bell featuring interviews with Johari, Ledgerwood, Cameron, and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker T.J. Martin, who’s Bell and Martin’s son.As Larson’s Bam Bam story made the rounds, Ledgerwood was talking with Lemasters and Mayor about reissuing an expanded version of the band’s 1984 EP. They finalized a deal in February 2021.
Bell’s authority over her siblings went unquestioned, but it didn’t prevent her from bonding with them. Stepney recalls one Christmas when she asked Bell how Santa would be able to deliver gifts, since their family didn’t have a chimney—and Bell built one. “It was amazing,” Stepney says. “It was like, where does she think about that? How does she think to help me believe in Christmas? Even though she was older—she knew mom and dad were Santa—she never spoiled that for me.
Bam Bam made their live debut alongside Room Nine and Tse Tse Force. “It was exciting—it was the best time of my life,” Ledgerwood says. “We were at the center of this shit and didn’t know what was going on.” Few venues would book punk or new-wave bands, and those that would didn’t last long. Bam Bam formed at around the time a trio of such venues sprang to life in Pioneer Square. The Metropolis opened at 207 2nd Ave. S. in April 1983 and lasted till March 1984. About a block west at 311 S. Washington St. was Graven Image, an art gallery and basement venue operated by Larry Reid, who managed proto-grunge group the U-Men; it hosted shows from October 1983 till August 1984.
Stepney wasn’t sure what to make of her big sister fronting Bam Bam. “Being Black and singing rock and punk? We’re just like, ‘What is going on?’ But she owned it,” Stepney says. “She just showed me, don’t hold yourself back. You can do what you want to do—if you’re strong in what you want to do, you should at least try it. And I feel like that impacted everything for me.”
Ledgerwood counts just a few occasions when concertgoers hurled racist invective at Bell, including an incident at the Metropolis when a couple people in the crowd confronted her aggressively enough that she hit them with her mike stand and Martin dove into the crowd with his guitar. “It was very muchthe typical Metropolis show,” he says. “Metropolis was, like, our home base for a while—for an incident like that to occur at the Metropolis, or for that matter any club, was unheard-of.
Martin wanted Hendrickson to focus on simple, driving beats, and let him decide what to play within that directive—with a few exceptions. “For some of the songs, he preferred not to have any hi-hats,” Hendrickson says. “He preferred a more open, uncluttered sound, without a time meter that way.” “We were all pretty cordial and friendly with each other,” Hanzsek says. “But at some point something transpired, and one day I got a message from Tommy letting me know they were done recording at Reciprocal and were going somewhere else that was more ‘professional.’ I was flabbergasted and didn’t know what to make of it.”
Over time, Martin had come to dominate Bam Bam’s creative process, and the resulting tension contributed to the souring of Ledgerwood’s feelings about the band. “Tommy was a control freak,” Ledgerwood says. “The thing is, unlike most control freaks, what he said was valid. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the way it should be done. Especially when you’re playing from your heart.” He gave his bandmates a heads-up about his intention to quit in late 1984, and finally left in early 1985.
Endino did eventually find a used copy of Bam Bam’s debut EP, though without its eye-catching cover or its insert. “I didn’t know who they were or what they looked like,” he says. “None of my friends knew them. I didn’t grow up in the city, so I assumed they were another band that had already run its course before I got here. I think there might have been a generation gap, because an old musician buddy of mine told me he had known about them but thought of them as ‘married parents with a band.
Bell had a rough time in Bam Bam after Ledgerwood left. The band’s stint in Europe was plagued by immigration hassles and worse, and when they returned to Seattle in 1988, they barely recognized the lay of the land. “The scene was just really starting to accelerate,” says Preston Singletary, a Native American glass artist who briefly played bass for Bam Bam upon their return. “There were a lot more bands moving to town, trying to get discovered.
While in Vegas, Bell remained in close contact with her loved ones. She’d sometimes spend hours on the phone with Stepney and her children; Ledgerwood would talk to her as often as five times a week. But the distance intensified the tragedy of her death from cirrhosis of the liver in October 2012. By the time T.J.
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