The incident went down last month in Seattle while Howie -- who enjoyed enormous success in 2004 with the hit single "Collide" -- waited for his girlfriend of 8 years, Carrie Pencek, to pick him up.

According to a police report obtained by TMZ ... we're told surveillance video shows Howie throwing a tantrum before Carrie shows up ... slamming his guitar case onto the sidewalk. When she got there, Howie for whatever reason started slamming the hatch of his Toyota RAV4 causing damage.

Cops say Carrie told them she got out of the car to help Howie with his bags, but he started screaming at her and pushed her. After some back-and-forth, Howie went back to the trunk and, out of nowhere, threw his luggage on the ground.

Carrie flagged down a cop for help and told him Howie -- who at that point bounced from the scene but left his car -- behaves like this when he's intoxicated. She said he's been upset because his career's stalled and he was running out of cash.

Cops ran Howie in the system and found a previous domestic violence arrest for allegedly punching Carrie in the face, but it never went anywhere because she wouldn't cooperate.