Harvey Danger Bassist Aaron Huffman Dies at 43

Seattle-based musician and Harvey Danger’s founding bassist, Aaron Huffman has passed away at the age of 43. The news was reported by the band’s frontman, Sean Nelson—who now serves as the the arts editor and music critic for The Stranger.

Nelson penned a touching tribute to his late friend, revealing that Huffman passed March 6 from respiratory failure attributed to a long illness. Huffman also worked for The Stranger, serving as the art director for 9 years.

Harvey Danger’s 1997 debut album, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? was the pinnacle of the band’s commercial success. Breakout single, “Flagpole Sitta,” enjoyed a spot at the top of the Rock charts and features in a few ‘90s films. Harvey Danger put out two more albums, but none reached the same level of success as their debut, and in 2009, the band parted ways.

“I’ve often said that Aaron’s distinctive distorted bass, which he often employed as a melodic lead instrument, was the signature element of the band’s sound,” Nelson writes of his former bandmate, adding, “Aaron dedicated so much of his life to making music and art, and though he liked when people liked it, what really meant the most to him was that his work be part of the fabric of the city. He drew essential life force from the rhythms and pleasures of Seattle, from the friendships he made while walking its sidewalks, drinking its drinks, seeing its art, reading its comics, hearing its music. The homemade subcultural life here in the early ’90s drew Aaron out of his intense shyness, and gave him a model for emerging as the smart, funny, gentle, discerning artist, husband and father he became.”