Maybe Enclumclaw is Tacoma's last band. by Charles Mudede I visited Tacoma recently. I stayed at the McMenamins Elks Temple hotel, which is old (completed in 1916) and can be categorized as a part of the late Beaux Arts craze in the USA. (The arts beautiful movement believed that the sight of beautiful buildings alone could morally improve those with low morals.) My room was, like the whole building (lord knows how many bars and restaurants it holds), huge. The Temple is very much like the hotels John C. Portman Jr. designed in the 1980s (a city within a city) but done in a Pacific Northwest style: Lots of folk art on acid, walls painted every which bold way, a monkey puzzle tree peaking into this room or that bar. "I almost never left the place," one person said to me around 4 in the morning. But I did. Indeed, I had to. Not only was there the Tacoma Film Festival, which concluded with the documentary about Devo called, of course, Devo, but there was also the art TUPAC. and, finally, the food at Peterson Bros. 1111. The reason for visiting Peterson Bros. 1111 had everything to do with the Tacoma rock band Enumclaw. During a "Tour Tacoma With Enumclaw" episode of Evening, the band heaped lots of praises on Peterson Bros.’s sandwiches and salads. And because the band recently released an album, Home in Another Life, I came up with the idea of reviewing the work while eating at Peterson Bros. 1111. Two birds with one stone. You get the picture.   At around noon on Sunday, October 13, grabbed a seat at Peterson Bros., which has about it the aspect of a dive bar, but not that fallen. The customers on that afternoon were clearly regulars. There was a man with dreadlocks and Seahawks gear avidly watching a game on the screen, another man recovering from a long night, and a cool variety of men and women gathered around tables that face the bar. That day’s playlist included —“‘D’ for Dangerous” by the Reverend Horton Heat, “Such is Life” by Teenage Mortgage, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band—and the bartender bopped as he took orders. I selected a number of the place’s sandwiches: The French Dip, the Hot Deli Pastrami, the Rueben, and the Brutus, a grilled sandwich stacked with a bit of everything—pepperoni, salami, ham, cheddar, and Swiss. While I waited for the food to arrive, I cued up Home in Another Life. The Brutus at Peterson Bros. 1111. (Enumclaw not pictured.) CHARLES MUDEDE So, the new album is structurally a better, more consistent work than Enumclaw's 2022 debut Save the Baby. This is their first post-pandemic work, and arrives at a time when Tacoma is transforming politically (its city council has gone the left while Seattle's has gone to the right) and culturally (Tacoma is devoting a considerable chunk of change to the arts). The city is also, of course, gentrifying. Enumclaw’s new album is very even, with lead singer Aramis Johnson effortlessly returning to a perspective that captures a love affair in some state of confusion or difficulty. Has it begun or not begun ("Spots")? Or is it kind of falling apart ("Fall Came Too Soon and Now I Wanna Throw Up")? Or is it done with but not really done with ("Haven't Seen The Family In A While")? In "The Grocery Store," a friendship is totally ruined by leaving the safety of the friendzone. The variation from song to song is kept at a minimum. Indeed, one can see Home as really one long track about all the things that can go wrong, and are likely to go wrong, in a relationship.   So, what we have is a better album, Home, but with no standout tunes. Is this something like the uncertainty principle? You can have one but not the other? And I rate "2002," the pinnacle of Baby, as among the best post-2010 Pacific Northwest tunes: Erik Blood's "Rachel,"  Chastity Belt's "Different Now," Industrial Revelations' "Saying Goodbye (to rainbow socks and hair dye)," and the THEESatisfaction's "QueenS." It's really up there in this rarified zone of regional indie pop. And so is "Jimmy Neutron," the second-best track on Baby. None of the tracks on Home in Another Life, reach the local region of excellence.  But what about Peterson Bros. 1111? Is the food any good? It is. It's not that it's exceptional, but it does, to use a popular expression, hit the spot. The Caesar salad, as Johnson declared in the Evening story, is a must. And I'm one who only loves this kind of salad, and when it's done right, meaning, done without fuss, done with few to no distractions, and with a right balance of its elements (croutons, romaine lettuce, parmesan, olive oil, pepper, tomatoes), then you have got me. Johnson is 100% correct. Peterson Bros. 1111 has this salad down: Crisp, basic, fluent. The sandwiches also deserve praise. None, as far as I can tell, results in an experience that can be described as disappointing; but the best of the four I tried (Brutus, French Dip, Hot Deli Pastrami, Rueben) the Rueben last was the master of all. Again, not because it did something different or surprising; but it stuck with and focused on the basics. Also, the price, $13.15, was not bad. (In Seattle, I have become accustomed to $20 sandwiches.) There was also the bar's atmosphere. It reminded me of a Seattle that has, as we have heard over and over, vanished. But Peterson Bros. 1111 is surrounded by new apartment developments too. The Hilltop area is, day by day, being gentrified into a vanishing Tacoma. It is only a matter of years, if not days, before a place like Peterson Bros. 1111 is fighting to survive or adapting. Maybe Enclumclaw is Tacoma's last band. <a href="https://enumclaw6.bandcamp.com/album/home-in-another-life">Home in Another Life by Enumclaw</a>