Botch

— by Joe Seats

In the mid-90s, Seattle made itself known as the home of grunge. Grunge music was among the most notorious things to come out of the Pacific Northwest, birthing bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It generated a fusion between metal and punk, building a new rock style with heavy distortion and hoarse vocals. Seattle is seen as the blueprint for grunge and garage rock, but Tacoma is often excluded when referring to musical excellence. Despite that, Botch is arguably one of the most influential hardcore bands to come out of Tacoma.

Botch was formed in 1993 in Tacoma with Dave Verellen on vocals, Tim Latona on drums, Dave Knudson on guitar, and Brian Cook on bass. All of the members were in high school. Botch’s bassist, Brian Cook, was introduced to punk while living in Hawaii and he began playing bass and played for local bands when he relocated to Washington with his family. According to Cook, the other three members grew up in the same neighborhood and were exposed to heavier bands such as Faith No More, whereas he was more into Minor Threat. Tim Latona, then a jazz drummer, was approached by Dave Knudson in their high school cafeteria and asked if he wanted to form a band. “I brought my amp over to Tim’s house and we played on his deck for a few hours,” says Knudson. Brian was bribed into joining the band by Knudson with the promise of recording a Dead Kennedys cover, which was Brian’s favorite band at the time. Dave Verellen was the last addition and he became the vocalist, only because he had no instrumental abilities. Verellen states  “we’d get together and jam after school every day because in a lot of ways we were opposites and we were trying to sort it all out.” After all 4 members attended an Undertow concert in Seattle, they had a set idea of what style they wanted to follow.

With the members’ music tastes combined, their earlier output was candidly hardcore. In Botch’s early days, Dave Verellen’s dad drove the band around in his old van, taking them on small tours around the Seattle-Tacoma area and near Canada. They had little to no support until John Pettibone, the then-vocalist of Undertow, praised Botch for stepping out of their comfort zone. Pettibone stated that Botch was one of the first to “push it their way” and deemed them a “next-generation band.” In 1995, Botch released their first 7-inch EP “Faction.” They continued playing shows and releasing multiple demos and Eps, eventually signing with Aaron Turner at Hydra Head Records after catching his ear. After signing with Hydra Head in 1998, they sent Aaron Turner a demo album they had been recording. Turner states that it was “more than what he was expecting from them” even though he already believed they were good. “I gave them about six or seven grand for the record, which is more than I had given abt other band we had worked with,” he states. They had the demos remade at Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard’s studio. These re-recorded demos were released as Botch’s debut album, American Nervoso. It was this album that helped the band define their style and find their path. The following year they released their second studio album, We Are the Romans. According to Knudson, the group only had one week to record the album but they still managed to get everything done just in time for the album’s release.

Botch’s sound could be described as “dark, heavy, and chaotic” (Tacoma News Tribune, 1999). Their music falls under the categories of metalcore and math rock. Botch’s style was characterized by atypical rhythm structures and odd time signatures, which are attributes of math rock. The band was known for their heavy guitar riffs, complex harmonies, and Verellen’s rough vocals. Regan Hagar, a member of Brad and Satchel states “You can’t go to a Botch show and come away unchanged,” It was common for Botch to thrash around frantically onstage during their prime, yet they still managed to nail all the minute intricacies with ease. Their shows were described as exhilarating and intense. On October 27th, 1999, Botch played their first show promoting We Are the Romans at the Rkcndy all-ages venue before its closing and renovation into a hotel. Despite Rkcndy being demolished, Botch’s performance is still remembered and talked about to this day. The Botch members always applied pressure and avoided the mainstream, whether this was through their musical approach or presentation. Their overall vibe was often compared to straight-edge bands. Straight Edge is a punk subculture characterized by abstaining from drugs and alcohol. When asked about their influences Brian states, “We thought straight edge was cool at first because we didn’t like drunken frat boys but when the youth-crew stuff started becoming more popular and bands like Earth Crisis started taking over the straight-edge scene, we thought, ‘Ugh, these are the frat boys,” At the time, people viewed the band as too complicated.

Botch’s song topics and titles poked at the toxic masculinity and societal issues within the punk scene. They often joked about other bands being too self-righteous, overly political, or not political enough. Their playful demeanor pushed back the conservative nature of the scene and it continued to be one of the main aspects of the band’s persona throughout their career. Drummer, Tim Latona states “We weren’t the cool kids. We sounded relatively weird and we pushed some buttons and fought to get to where we were,” Botch wasn’t well received by the Washington punk and hardcore scenes. Brian Cook recalls not being welcomed into the Seattle scene because they were viewed as “new jacks” and “some weird kids from Tacoma” even though their music technically fit into hardcore standards. “Well, this is not a perfect world and a lot of people in the Seattle hardcore scene seem a little closed-minded and that sucks.” But all the bands that we were sort of obsessed with weren’t trying to win people over, they were doing their thing, and if it clicked with people then it clicked, and if it didn’t then who cares?” Cook states.

Regardless of the disheartening reactions they garnered, the band had very little commercial success, but this did not stop them from receiving love from their fans and critics. Well-known artists like Owl City have expressed their admiration and credited Botch as an inspiration. Unfortunately, In June 2002 after holding a show at the Showbox, Botch decided to call it a career after two full-length albums and numerous tours. Dave Verellen and Brian went on to go play in the band Roy, while Knudson focused on his other band Minus the Bear, which had already been well-known around Seattle. Tim decided to put his drum skills to rest and attend flight school. Before breaking up, the band released a six-song EP titled, An Anthology of Dead Ends. Botch’s breakup caused a shock in the hardcore scene, mainly from their younger fans whom they deeply influenced. Tensions between Tim Latona and Dave Knudson began brewing during the We Are the Romans recording sessions and progressed to the point where none of the members were no longer communicating with each other. In an interview, Tim reflects on his mindset during the band’s falling out and states “I don’t think I’m an easy person to get along with in general, so I do think that there was some tension, creative and otherwise,” Verellen expressed that he thought it was best for the brand to break things off rather than continue to torture themselves.

When questioned about a possible reunion in a 2009 interview with Brian Cook, he stated that the Botch members would get asked to play reunion shows frequently. Cook stated that he would never want to reunite the band; the reason for this is a mystery, but he revealed in 2014 that the other members felt the band ended “too early”. He also mentioned that the other 3 Botch members urged him to stop saying “never” in regards to a possible reunion. With that being said, in 2022, Botch performed at a birthday show for Minus the Bear producer, Matt Bayles. There was no prior indication that they were going to perform. A video of their performance went viral, causing fans to speculate about a possible reunion. In early 2023, This led to eventual headlining dates in Seattle and Tacoma. The week after the video spread, Botch announced Seattle shows on February 24th and 25th, 2023. The tickets for both dates sold out immediately in 13 seconds. After seeing the speed at which the tickets were sold, Botch announced another show in Tacoma on February 17th, 2023. It is uncertain if Botch will ever come back completely as they haven’t done any shows after their winter 2023 tour, nor have they stated anything else about the band. Nonetheless, it is impossible to exclude Botch’s impact when speaking on acts from Washington. While they weren’t as popular as Nirvana, they still are remembered amongst many Washingtonians and artists throughout the scene.

Further Reading

Four Math Rockers and a Funeral (Seattle Weekly)

BOTCH (Supercorrupter)

Botch’s Dave Knudson on Reunion Shows, Lost Guitars, and the Return of the Honeywell Rectifier (Buttondown)

The History of Tacoma’s Metal Scene: The ’90s. (UWT Ledger)

An Interview with Northwest Metal Legends Botch Ahead of Reunion Shows, Tour (The Stranger)

The Best Boy Band Ever (Creem)

Pillars of the 90s: Brian Cook Talks Botch’s We Are the Romans (Machine Music)

Punk-band Botch Comes to the End of the Road (Seattle Times)

Botch Announce First Shows in over 20 Years! (Brooklyn Vegan)

About the Author

Joe Seats prepared this article as her final project for TARTS 225: Musical History of Tacoma, taught by Kim Davenport at the University of Washington, Tacoma. At the time she took the class in Autumn Quarter 2023, she was a senior majoring in Arts, Media and Culture.