There’s an old Seattle joke that involves Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, and prototypical grungers Green River. It goes something along the lines of how, in the late ’80s, former Green River members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were known as the two guys who weren’t in the then shit-hot new band Mudhoney. And how, by the early ’90s, Green River alumni Mark Arm and Steve Turner are known as the two guys who didn’t end up in Pearl Jam.

Royalty cheques aside—who would you rather be a member of now? We’re picking Mudhoney, which can officially lay claim to being the coolest surviving unit from the grunge scene’s original big five.

The band that defined the Seattle sound with 1988’s “Touch Me I’m Sick” is still barrelling along as it closes in on its 30th anniversary, with 2013 having brought us a new full-length titled Vanishing Point. As always, the record sounds like stale Rainier beer, unwashed practice-space carpets, and an overheated Big Muff fuzz pedal.

You can revel in the grimy genius of Mudhoney at the Rickshaw on Saturday (November 22). Might we suggest you show up in a Green River T-shirt, if for no other reason than it will show you are in on the joke.