Mike Watt w / Black Fag, Bowery Poetry, Summerstage Saturday, Nels Cline & a very pregnant Jenny Scheinman
by Andrew Frisicano
‘Michelle’ Watt w/ Black Fag 1/29/09…
Mike Watt is a musician seemingly without ego. He’ll share a stage with anyone, and does – his upcoming dates have the bassist in no less than half a dozen settings. As you can see above, Watt even sat in on guest vocals with SoCal’s Black Fag (‘An absolutely FABULOUS tribute to Black Flag’). The group writes…
For those who haven’t heard, Black Fag has extended an open invitation to all former members of Black Flag to join us on stage for a song of their choice at any of our shows.
The only requirement: they must perform in drag!
Mike Watt was never an official member of Black Flag, but his musical history is so intertwined with Black Flag’s that we consider him an honorary member, so when we found out he’d be on the bill that night we contacted him to see if he would want to be the first to accept our invitation.
See a video of Watt + Black Fag taking on “Police Story,” below.
Mike Watt was recently in NYC for the “Double Nickels on the Dime” 25th Anniversary Party at the Bowery Poetry Club on Saturday, July 25th. At the variety-style show he played a selection of the band’s songs on bass and did poetic reading (appropriate in light of the venue) of Minutemen lyrics. See videos of both below.
This Saturday, August 1st, he’ll be debuting Floored By Four, his band with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Cibo Matto multi-instrumentalist Yuka Honda and ex-Lounge Lizard/”downtown” drummer Dougie Bowne. M. Ward headlines.
Nels is another musician who gets around quite a bit. Last night (July 30th) he was at the Stone in a trio called The BBC with Tim Berne on saxophone and Jim Black on drums (check out their initials for a clue about the name ).
“…Cline had a neat trick wherein he looped a watery guitar part through his electronic setup, and then used an octave pedal to get a distorted bass sound out of his guitar that he proceeded to play live over the loop. At other times, he went from solo line noodling to crunchy, unpredictable time-signature riffing that still kept heads bobbin’. There was flow there. Occasionally he had a scratch palette like Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, but instead of Bomb Squad-style guitar turntablism, it was spazzy like Christian Marclay. Meantime, Berne mostly kept to a subtle supporting role, coming out front most nakedly during the quiet interludes of the hour-long piece. Hopefully someone recorded this beast of a thing.” [The Awl]
On August 4th, he’ll be playing with NYC violinist Jenny Scheinman‘s Mischief and Mayhem, as a quartet with Jim Black (again) on drums and Matt Penman on bass. Tickets for that are still on sale.
The show will be your last chance to catch Cline on his current run of NYC engagements. It’ll also be your last chance to catch Scheinman for a while, as she’ll be taking a break to have a child (that’s due a little more than a month after the gig). Best wishes to her!
Check out the above-mentioned Watt videos, all Watt/Cline tour dates, below…
Mike Watt Anxious Mo-Fo/Themselves/Do You Want New Wave? @ Double Nickels Anniversary Party
Mike Watt Reads History Lesson Pt. II in NYC 7/25/09
Black Fag (with Mike Watt): Police Story (live at Alex’s Bar) 7
Mike Watt – 2009 Tour Dates
aug 01 new york, ny – central park summerstage !
aug 07 los angeles, ca – the redwood bar + grill ^
aug 09 los angeles, ca – liquid kitty *
aug 14 san francisco, ca – the hemlock tavern $
aug 19 hollywood, ca – the blu monkey bar and lounge $
aug 18 long beach, ca – the prospector $
aug 19 la jolla, ca – che cafe collective $
aug 20 echo park, ca – echo curio $
aug 21 boyle heights, ca – the blvd cafe and bar *
aug 22 long beach, ca – the cellar ^
sep 01 tokyo, japan – fever @
sep 02 tokyo, japan – o-nest #
sep 08 tokyo, japan – daikanyama unit %
sep 19 joshua tree, ca – the joshua tree saloon *
! nels cline and mike watt along w/ yuka honda and dougie bowne as floored by four
^ mike watt + the secondmen featuring original secondmen pete mazich and jerry trebotic
* mike watt + the missingmen a trio for my third opera w/ tom watson and raul morales
@ jim o’rourke + mike watt in a quartet w/ akira sakata and pikachu
# brother’s sister’s daughter “kill yr tv 09” release party
% mi-gu “pulling from above” release party (guest performance)
$ watt collaborating on bass in some live situations w/ Al Qaeda from san francisco (they are a band)
Nels Cline – 2009 Tour Dates
08/01 NYC | Central Park Summer Stage @ Rumsey Playfield (7PM / FREE)
FLOORED BY FOUR Featuring: M. Ward / Mike Watt & Nels Cline / Yuka Honda & Dougie Bowne
08/04 NYC | Le Poisson Rouge
Jenny Scheinman (w/ NC, Jim Black, Matt Penman)
09/03 San Francisco, CA | Cafe Du Nord
The Nels Cline Singers (21+)
NOTE: This show is being recorded live
09/04 San Francisco, CA | Cafe Du Nord
The Nels Cline Singers (21+)
NOTE: This show is being recorded live
