Grunge lives! Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear joined Mike Watt and his band for an encore tonight at the Triple Door. It was the second encore. Confidential to the people who left at the end of Watt’s set of rock opera: You are bad at life.

I recognized Grohl first–wasn’t hard, he’s got that long hair and immediately stationed himself at the drums, where he began whacking away as only Dave Grohl can. Next I noticed Smear, whose name I couldn’t recall, but whose face I remembered from early Foo Fighters, and from his brief time with Nirvana (he was present for Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York show). Then there was this short dude in a baseball cap playing guitar and occasionally chiming in on backing vocals.

“Holy crap!” I said suddenly to my lovely companion, “That’s Eddie Vedder!”

Watt, Vedder, Grohl, and Smear played “Big Train,” the first track from Watt’s 1994 album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, an album Grohl, Vedder, and Smear (and Flea, and Henry Rollins, and Ad-Rock, and Thurston Moore) all appeared on.

In 1995, the quartet toured together: Grohl and Smear as part of the nascent Foo Fighters, Vedder appearing with then-wife Beth Liebling as art-rockers Hovercraft, and Watt playing songs from the aforementioned album.

I was lucky enough to see one of these shows at now-defunct Tramps in New York City, a Crocodile Cafe-sized room where my Seattle transplant friends and I stood at the front of the stage and yelled “Lake City Way” and “Dick’s” and other Seattle-specific things until Nate Mendel acknowledged us. Also, my friend Stephanie somehow snuck backstage and hugged Vedder.

Enough reminiscing, let’s move ahead to today, sixteen years later. Vedder did a little soloing on guitar (after Watt’s guitarist Tom Watson plugged him in). Grohl whacked away aggressively. Smear stood off to the side like he does, occasionally firing off an awesome riff. When the song was finished, Vedder, Smear, Grohl, and Watt joined in a group hug at the back of the stage. It was a cute moment, like one you’d see from groomsmen at a wedding reception. So here’s a toast: To grunge! To life!