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Yattie Westfield
In 1991, when Yattie Westfield — then just a junior in high school — was tapped to play in Kings of the Killer Fish, he had no idea the run he was in for.
“These guys were not playing around,” he said of the Cleveland, Tenn.-based jam band, which played its last show in 1998. “When they picked up an instrument with them, it was like the NFL.
“They were bringing the heat, so you had to bring it, too. Otherwise you wouldn’t cut it. It was just a big mess of great musicians.”
Over the course of the band’s run, they rubbed shoulders with a number of up-andcoming artists in fervor for jam bands in the ’90s, playing on tours with everyone from 311 to Snoop Dogg.
Then, everything fell apart.
“The band just kind of fizzled,” Westfield said, citing poor management and weariness among the band’s members. “The music changed — the whole style of the music was changing, and we were changing our style.
“There was no goodbye, really. It just sort of went with the wind.”
The band was gone but not forgotten by fans who remembered the energy of their live performances and the caliber of the group’s musicianship.
Still, it surprised them to discover their music was still being played by people outside the area nearly a decade after their last performance. So when chance brought the widespread members back to the same area earlier this year, the possibility of playing again was too appealing to pass up.
That reunion will take place tonight at Rhythm & Brews.
“It’s going to be a reunion in more ways than just for us,” Westfield said. “For that whole generation back then, it’s going to be one big freaking blowout, and I’m going to see people I haven’t seen in years.”
Despite the amount of time since they performed together, Westfield said the band hasn’t lost its touch in the interim.
“When we played together again for the first time, it was like, ‘Wow, there’s the wind in my sails again,’ ” he said. “All of us were all smiling, and it had my heart beating so much I wanted to stage-dive.”
Casey Phillips has worked as a features reporter in the Life department for three years. He writes about entertainment, young adults, animals and people of interest. Casey hails from Knoxville and earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism and a bachelor of arts in German. He previously worked as the features editor for Sidelines at Middle Tennessee State University. Casey received the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists Award of Excellence for Reviewing/Criticism in ...
