Like many venues in which I’ve seen concerts, the Bash On Ash does not exist any more. It was on the NE corner of Ash Ave and 5th Street in downtown Tempe, Arizona. I think it’s some kind of school now. This was one of the many times I saw Stereolab in concert. The first time I got to hear them perform was at the second stage and Lollapalooza in 1994, I think, right before Shonen Knife. I’ve seen them in Tucson and Phoenix, most recently in 2019 at the Crescent Ballroom in Downtown Phoenix. I’ve gone to California to see them, if they didn’t make an Arizona appearance.

I first discovered Stereolab when I was taking art classes at Arizona State University to complete my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the mid 1990s. The professors let us play music during our studio time in class. One of my classmates, Matt Kruse, played some of their music in one of our classes and I fell in love with their sound.

In addition to drawing and painting, Matt was also a musician. He played guitar for a local Phoenix shoegaze band called Half String. He invited me to hear them play at a local venue, but don’t remember which. It might have been Hollywood Alley in Mesa. I’m a fan of shoegaze, and I thought this band was really great. We have several of their cds and play them often.

At that time, Matt was dating one of the members of the band, drummer Kimber Lanning. She later went on to open a record store in Tempe, called Stinkweeds, then a second location in Phoenix. Sometime after that, she opened an art space in Roosevelt Row in Downtown Phoenix called Modified. Modified also eventually featured live bands, and the first time I saw Low live was there. In 2003, Kimber went on to start a local-focused non-profit organization called Local First Arizona, which is still helping local Arizona businesses.