ALMOST EVERY MORNING I have coffee in downtown Bremerton. More often than not that’s what sets my day up for success. Today is Sunday morning so downtown feels like a ghost town crossed with ‘One Flew Over The Coo Coo’s Nest.’ I do my best to remain anti-social, but you can only smile and nod to the same handful of people so many times before a conversation eventually ensues. It’s a beautiful fall morning, I have an empty calendar, and my OCD can’t really handle that, so I’m tapping my ink pen on a empty pad of paper. I need to make a list, I need to fill up this empty space in my life, in my head, on this empty pad of paper.
Out of nowhere, I get rudely awakened out of my thoughts. The short guy with missing fingers, and missing teeth who I always see riding an antique bicycle, says: “You nervous or something, why are you tapping that pen so loud?”
In a panic, I apologize.
Even the rude lady whose order is never right, or quick enough, is staring at me. (I’m pretty sure her name is Karen.) The old washed up musician has even stopped talking about how things used to be so much cooler 20 years ago. The coffee shop is loud this morning. The short missing fingers-n-teeth guy is now imitating the band guy, and his low but loud scratchy voice: “Hey the band’s not doing to good, can you spare a cigarette, maybe buy me a Pabst?” Ha. Ha. These two are mildly humorous this Autumn morning, but just a little too much right now. Now, the short guy is showing me a tattoo on one of his stubby fingers. He’s making the stubby finger tattoo talk like a finger puppet… And it’s time for me to go!
By the time I walk up to Quincy Avenue Park, I started googling the other guy’s band. I’ve sat through the band’s sets more than once over the years. I even own one of their cd’s that sits in a box in the back of my closet. I see that his band is still playing shows. Not only that, they are all local shows. How is this band still playing around town after all these years? There’s only so many places to play around here. By the time I walk to the Manette Bridge I’m on a streaming channel listening to those old songs. I am now a few two minutes long songs in, and it hits me: I haven’t done anything in the Smokestack for almost six months, this guy is right here, and it sure seems like he likes to talk. At the very least I bet the missing fingers-n-teeth guy has an interesting story to tell.
Bicycle guy is now gone. And I’m not going to lie, I’m bummed. I had some good questions for him. Of course the old rocker guy is still here though. I ask: “Hey, if I buy you some coffee could I ask you some questions for a local free press paper?” With a gravely voice that sounds like it hurts, he says “No.” I get instantly uncomfortable, and filled with regret. “But if you buy me one of these day old donuts I will. You see, this is the only place you can find Larry and Kristi’s doughnuts on a Sunday.” What follows is a small piece of my long, drawn-out, sugar-high conversation with Mike from the band Neutralboy:
(SARA): So November 2025, it looks like Neutralboy is doing a few local shows in the Kitsap County area. Is someone on probation or are you afraid to go that far from home due to old age? (Mike): “Ha ha, you’re funny, and you’re right. One of us works in the shipyard, another is on probation at this time. Right about now both are kind of the same thing… Neither be getting paid at the moment.”
I see that Nov. 21 Neutralboy will be at the at the Camp Union Saloon in Seabeck. Camp Union Saloon is a bar and restaurant out in the boonies isn’t it? How did this come about? “Camp Union is a few miles west of Silverdale out by Green Mountain. So yeah, it’s in the boonies. The bar/restaurant isn’t known for doing punk rock shows, but the owner Liz has a history of doing punk shows for sure. Back in the day, Liz was one of the owners of The Drift Inn in downtown Bremerton. If you know any Bremerton Punk Rock history or Neutralboy history you know that Punk Rock and The Drift Inn have had a long history together. Many years ago, there was this bartender Frankie that worked at the Drift. I got a kick outta her, so on occasion I would go down during the day, have a few drinks & bullshit with Frankie. We started joking one early afternoon about Neutralboy playing there sometime. Sure enough Frankie talked the owners Bill & Liz into letting Neutralboy throw a show. At that point we ran with it. The Drift became a spot for bands from all over the United States, and Canada to drift on into.”
Sorry to interrupt… But are we still talking about the Camp Union show? “It’s the coffee, and sugar, I’m sorry. So Neutralboy had a Christmas show booked at the Drift Inn, and it was canceled due to them no longer doing shows. I jokingly told Bill (owner of the Drift) ‘Fuck it, I’m calling your ex wife, and playing her bar, then.’ A month or two later we were getting ready to do a California tour, and wanted to do a send off show. So just for kicks, we went out an talked to Liz (at Camp Union) She was totally down as long as we did all the work. Now just how life happens, right after we talked Liz into doing a show out there our Roadie, and dear friend Ken “Metal” Hall died of a broken heart. So what started as kind of a joke between some old friends, now became a memorial show for “Metal.” It was fun so we decided to do it again. This time with our friends Citizen Z.”
I see that Saturday Nov 22 you’ll be playing the Quilcene Lantern with grunge/punk legends Coffin Break. For a girl that grew up running around Tacoma, Bremerton and Seattle in the early 90’s, seeing Coffin Break and Neutralboy is like some kind of an acid flash back. I think I saw you both play at a run down biker bar in Milton WA in the early 1990’s… “Yeah it’s a trip. I actually go all the way back to Fairview Junior High with Rob the bass player. My first punk rock band Toxic Slaughter pretty much played a majority of our shows with Coffin Break in the mid 1980’s. I think the first time I got turned onto Coffin Break was at a house party in Tracyton on Selbo road. Our friend Donovan’s parents let him throw these shows in their back yard. “Donny Stock” was where we got turned onto like-minded punk bands from all over the place. We were lucky to have “Donny Stock.” I remember it being a hot summer day, staring up on this back porch watching this three piece band just killing it. The guitar player was this long haired dude screaming his lungs out. It kind of annoyed me. Here’s the thing: Right when it had almost gotten to be too much, the short messy haired punk rock bass player dude I had homeroom with would step up to the microphone and sing these three chord, super melodic, pop punk songs. I feel like that’s what made Coffin Break a punk rock band more than a grunge band. Grunge was slow, druggie, and boring to me. Coffin Break was not that at all.”
So the last show on your huge local tour ends with an early Sunday 4pm show at The Manette. I feel like the Sunday 4 O’clock Rock Shows are kind of a Neutralboy tradition too, am I right about that? “Yes, and no. The 4 o’clock rock thing was a thing that our friend Jenny started at an old tavern in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. It was a bar called The Sunset Tavern. Yes, we were one of the first bands to play those shows, and we probably did more of them than any other band, but it was all Jenny’s idea. Now, did we steal her idea, and con The Manette into letting us try doing it there? Yeah I’m pretty sure one of us did.”
Ok we’ve dwelled on the past long enough. Quickly fill me in on the future of Neutralboy? “Let’s be honest Sara… If Neutralboy had any kind of future we wouldn’t be sitting here almost 35 years later talking about Neutralboy still doing local shows out in the middle of the woods. I will say this though: January 2026 we will have a new vinyl record being released on the Brema Low-Life Record Company label. It’s called “Rock Polishing Machine”. It’s named after this annoyingly loud rock tumbling machine my grandpa had. As loud, and obnoxious as it was, it spit out these polished little rock pieces.
Just like Neutralboy? Well, no Duh, Sara. // SARA DAVID
CHECK OUT NEUTRALBOY 11/21 w/ Citizen Z at Camp Union Saloon, 11/22 w/ Coffin Break and Trashfecta at Quilcene Lantern and 11/23 4 O’clock Rock w/ The Pathogens at The Manette. More on the socials @neutralboy
