About Me
good people,
you can help me get the word out - you'll find listed next to each date a link to a corresponding flyer for that gig and if you want, you can print them up and get them around where folks where you live might get a chance to know about us coming to work the town. I much appeciate it, thank you big time. - mike watt
fri, april 17: tucson, az - plush - get gig flyer here!
sat, april 18: albuquerque, nm - launchpad - get gig flyer here!
mon, april 20: dallas, tx - granada theater - get gig flyer here!
tue, april 21: houston, tx - rudyard's - get gig flyer here!
wed, april 22: baton rouge, la - spanish moon - get gig flyer here!
thu, april 23: tallahassee, fl - the moon * - get gig flyer here!
fri, april 24: jacksonville beach, fl - freebird live * - get gig flyer here!
sat, april 25: charleston, sc - the music farm * - get gig flyer here!
sun, april 26: asheville, nc - the orange peel * - get gig flyer here!
mon, april 27: carrboro, nc - cat's cradle * - get gig flyer here!
wed, april 29: charlotte, nc - neighborhood theatre * - get gig flyer here!
thu, april 30: richmond, va - the national * - get gig flyer here!
fri, may 1: lancaster, pa - chameleon club * - get gig flyer here!
sat, may 2: baltimore, md - ottobar * - get gig flyer here!
sun, may 3 to tue, may 5: record watt's third opera
at studio g in brooklyn, ny (no gigs)
wed, may 6: cambridge, ma - t.t. the bear's - get gig flyer here!
thu, may 7: hoboken, nj - maxwell's - get gig flyer here!
fri, may 8: new york, ny - the mercury lounge - get gig flyer here!
sat, may 9: philadelphia, pa - north star bar - get gig flyer here!
sun, may 10: pittsburgh, pa - club cafe - get gig flyer here!
mon, may 11: cleveland heights, oh - grog shop - get gig flyer here!
tue, may 12: detroit, mi - shelter - get gig flyer here!
wed, may 13: grand rapids, mi - billy's lounge - get gig flyer here!
thu, may 14: chicago, il - schubas tavern - get gig flyer here!
fri, may 15: minneapolis, mn - 7th street entry - get gig flyer here!
sat, may 16: omaha, ne - the waiting room - get gig flyer here!
mon, may 18: denver, co - larimer lounge - get gig flyer here!
tue, may 19: salt lake city, ut - bar deluxe - get gig flyer here!
wed, may 20: boise, id - neurolux - get gig flyer here!
thu, may 21: portland, or - doug fir lounge - get gig flyer here!
fri, may 22: seattle, wa - crocodile cafe - get gig flyer here!
sat, may 23: bellingham, wa - the nightlight - get gig flyer here!
sun, may 24: george, wa - sasquatch! music festival - get gig flyer here!
(* opening for dinosaur jr )
I put the missingmen together in the summer of 2006 in order to bring forth my third punk rock opera "hyphenated-man" (the first two being 1997's "contemplating the engine room" and 2004's "the secondman's middle stand"). whereas "...engine room" dealt w/my pop's life in the navy as a metaphor for the story of the minutemen and "...middle stand" was a parallel to dante's "comedia" dealing w/an illness that almost killed me in 2000, this third opera will be quite different in that it has no standard narrative (libretto!) meaning no regular beginning-middle-end and will be as it were "simultaneous" in the way a mirror from just inside my head - right in this middle-age moment of mine - was then shattered into thirty pieces, each showing a piece of my state of mind (or out-of-mind) as of now. "thirty tunes?" yes, they're little ones. too heavy to really hear minutemen stuff for many years, I had to face myself and get the nerve up to hear it again when I agreed to let keith scheiron and tim irwin make the "we jam econo" documentary (many thanks to them and all who helped out on that). I even did a few gigs w/george hurley w/us as a duet doing the old tunes and it was trippy for me, like I was digging on how "econo" those tiny tunes were - no filler, right to point. a big influence was those little creatures in those old hieronymus bosch painting - I read a theory about them maybe being visualizations of proverbs or aphorisms and me, not knowing much about sixteenth century dutch/flemish culture, made up my own meanings!
for guitar, I asked tom watson - I've known him since the early 80s and have toured w/him before (he was w/both the pair of pliers and the jom & terry show trios of mine) and I thought he'd be great for the gig - he's my link w/the older days. to get the younger spirit going in the band, I got raul morales on drums - he's been part of the punk scene here in pedro for quite a while though he's twenty years younger than I am. he helped me out drumming for the secondmen when jerry trebotic couldn't tour any more. now this is not intended to be a reproduction of the minutemen, just a little similar in format which is what I think is needed for the piece.
the problem I had getting things rolling though was commitments w/the stooges, a band I love playing w/and learning from. flea asked me to open for a leg of their chili peppers tour in europe and I thought this would be a great chance to get tom and raul playing together but cuz of both stooges gigs and perparing for/recording their first album in thirtythree years, I didn't have time to develop the piece w/the missingmen and instead showed them tunes I've played w/in bands past in order to get a set together in short notice to play w/the peppers. the tour w/them went great and we also did some gigs on our own - there's a diary of it here . this year (2007) has me playing much w/the stooges cuz of the album being out in march so it looks like 2008 for me to get the missingmen in full gear and the "ten and twenty does not make fifty" opera in motion. what I wanna do is tour first before we record cuz that's something I've never really been able to do much - it's usually the other way around all these years. tom and raul play really well together and help me much make work the trio thing I love to do. they have much their own personas which is important to me - a big reason I dig my black gang trio and my secondmen one. this now makes a trio of trios I am so fortunate to have, cats playing their hearts out and putting much soul into making tunes come alive.
* some missingmen playing live on youtube! *
