Mike Watt is the ferocious bass player from the seminal LA punk band The Minutemen. Masters of two minute shards of hardcore, The Minutemen along with The Germs, Black Flag, and The Circle Jerks are an integral part of the punk lexicon. Tragedy struck The Minutemen with the death of guitarist and founder D. Boon. Watt was left to poke his bass into whatever punk amalgam would have him. Sonic (and Ciccone) Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Nirvana all crossed paths with this versatile bassist. Watt's current touring group was a trio with guitar and drums. The bass is way out front with acrobatic fills and runs. Watt looked like a grizzled Lewis Black with unintelligible yelps above the fray. Even if one could understand the lyrics, one might not "understand" the lyrics because Watt has invented his own language or "spiel" to accompany his songs. The liner notes to 1995's Ball Hog or Tugboat came with a mini translation "dictionary" to help one decipher lyrical content. Watt closed his set with a Blue Oyster Cult song.
The Meat Puppets are the same relative vintage as Mike Watt. Hailing from Arizona, The Meat Puppets must have been birthed from a tequila-laden saguaro given their penchant for Western swing crossed with face-melting psychedelia. Brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood on guitar and bass came with drummer and rhythm guitar. It was all about the brothers, bassist Cris looked like Moses while Curt resembled Jesus. It would be fun to watch these brothers have a "Leggo my eggo" moment. The genre-jumping was jarring, it was hard to parse get along little doggie whistling with maggot brain guitar fuzz workouts. No matter, this was truly an original bill of original musicians that played music that was...original.
Good times! Glad to get to hang with you Andy!
ReplyDelete