12 Saints: It Really Looked Good On Paper

X Who they are

Lisa Orth, guitar and vocals. Orth also works for the Rocket, Manna Records and Seattle Gay News.

Mitch Michieli, drums and backup vocals. Michieli comes by his grunge fashion honestly - he works at a gas station.

John Maroney, guitar and backup vocals. Maroney works at a travel agency.

X How they got their name

Orth: "To me, saints mean people who do weird, outstanding things that affect other people, which is what I'd like our music to do. I think the 66 just came kind of by accident, to say this isn't a religious thing."

Maroney: "Lisa called me and said, `What do you think of 66 Saints? It looks good on paper.' I wrote it down and it did."

X How they got together

Orth and Maroney were in a band together a few years ago, but "we broke up and swore we'd never play again together," Orth said. "We took the time off and learned how to play."

About two years ago they got together again as 66 Saints, with two guitars and a drum machine. They played as a duo for a year and a half until meeting Michieli over beers at the Comet.

Orth: "He created a whole new infusion of lifeblood. It was a real natural progression from what we had been doing with the drum machine."

Michieli: "You could feel kind of like you're on the edge of something really cool, and if I didn't jump on it I was going to miss out, so I did. My style fit perfectly."

Orth: "I think Mitch was the only person I've seen who could pound as hard and fast as a machine."

X How they describe their music

Orth: "I'd say intense poundings and buzzings in your skull that you can't get rid off but that make you feel better."

Michieli: "I like that. I'd agree."

Orth: "And also technology from the future, and weird primitive cave rituals that you could never imagine, and everything in between."

Maroney: "I think that just totally sums it up.'

X If not for music

Orth: "I'd be working for a record label, I'd have my own record label and I'd be writing for magazines. I'd be doing everything I'm doing now except for being in a band."

Michieli: "I'd be probably holed up in the country in a little garage with a typewriter and a bottle of booze."

Maroney: "I just don't know. It isn't my whole life anymore, but it's my main love. If I didn't have the band, I would never leave my room."

X What makes a show click

Michieli: "The determining factor is the energy going between you and the audience. You know a show's going good when you think you just (screwed) something up and you look out and they're going, `Yeah!' When you're so full of that intensity it doesn't matter what you're playing."

Maroney: "When I'm sweating so much I can't see, when my whole body is kind of achy and I look up and I can see people going for it."

Michieli: "When you hurt at the end of the show, that's always fun."

X Music for a cross-country road trip

Orth: Opal's "Happy Nightmare, Baby" and Sonic Youth's "Sonic Youth."

Michieli: "The Jack Kerouac Collection" and Adam and the Ants' "Kings of the Wild Frontier."

Maroney: The Birthday Party's "Junkyard" and Philip Glass' soundtrack to "Mishima."

X Recordings

66 Saints released a couple of limited distribution tapes on Orth's record label, Big Flaming Ego. They're no longer available.

X Best performance

Orth: "The coolest show we ever played was at St. Joseph's Hall, it was an all-ages show. The people that came . . . danced and they watched and you could tell that they'd go home and it would affect them."

X Where to hear them

The band will perform at the Re-Bar next Tuesday. On March 31 they'll play the Crocodile Cafe, and April 1 they'll play the Off Ramp.