MIKE WATT / TOYS THAT KILL @ PEDRO BALLET SCHOOL

What You'll Find Here: Music, Movies and Me

Since May 1976, I have written in journals. When I have nothing particularly resonant to say about my own inner turmoil, philosophic ramblings, sexual peccadillos or whining on about the state of the world around me...I have always fallen back on reporting the cultural time consumption that takes up in inordinate portion of my daily goings on.

In the 40+ years since my first concerts seeing Children's Symphony presentations on Sundays at the Pasadena Civic or The Hot Jazz Society's monthly Dixieland romps in an old meeting hall on the edge of the L.A. "River" across from Griffith Park, I have been sold heavily on the magic of live music. As Neil Young so aptly put it, "Live music is better bumper stickers should be issued."

Growing up a few orange groves and canyons length away from Hollywood also contributed greatly to my family's addiction to movie going. From the time I was a small there were weekly trips to the drive-in theaters that dotted the landscape, or the local Temple theater for the Saturday matinees. Once in a while we'd drive the 12 miles into Hollywood and see something in one of the magnificent old movie palaces like Grauman's Chinese, the Egyptian, The Pantages or later the Cinerama Dome. My dad loved Westerns and War movies, as if he didn't get enough shoot-'em-up as an L.A. County Sheriff in his day gig, my mom adored musicals and comedies. My brother and I loved them all.

At SDSU, I played in my first gigging band and began booking concerts on campus as part of the well-funded Cultural Arts Board, kindling for my future life in and around music.

So it's not surprising that my first jobs out of college were working in local video rental places (which were all the rage) or managing a couple of Sam Goody record stores in Mall's on the East Coast where we marveled at the new CD format and sold the first home computers and video games (yes Commodore and Pong and Atari).

So these are really just extensions of all of those journal entries talking about the great new movies I was seeing and LPs/CDs I was listening to.

Though iPODS/iPADs, apps, smart phones and downloads now make music and movies accessible in your own pocket, there is still nothing like sitting in front of a stack of speakers with a room full of people swaying to music created before your eyes. Nor is there anything that works quite so well for me to escape the real world and all of it's pressures just outside than two hours in a dark theater, absorbing the stories flickering across that wide screen as they pull you into their world.

But a really good taco runs a close third...

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

MIKE WATT / TOYS THAT KILL @ PEDRO BALLET SCHOOL

As my regular readers know, I'm a big fan of bassist Mike Watt. I won't regurgitate his history yet again but check out my past blogs for more on that or better yet tune into THE WATT FROM PEDRO SHOW.

Before I sling some visuals at ya from the first fIREHOSE shows in 18 years got to give the END FREEWAY scene some props...I must like to mention another great WATT + THE MISSINGMEN show in his hometown of San Pedro this past April 26th. He headlined a gig featuring a handful of cool punk bands at the San Pedro School of Ballet. Not that I saw any ballet being done that evening but it is a nice space for a low-key, homegrown show with a nice large room for the music and a similar sized "lounge" for 21-and-over fans. We missed most of the first two bands due to taco wagon muzzle loading and long stumble for chugs down Pacific.

photos by Skipper Jeff

The show was put on under the auspices of being a release party for the new CD release by TOYS THAT KILL, Fambly 42. They hit just before Watt's set with great energy and ferocious spirit. The drummer was incendiary. Tunes were all high speed, buzz-saw rave-ups. Check these guys out on the road now.

Watt, Tom Kidd Watson and Raul Morales performed Watt's HYPHENATED-MAN, his 2011 punk opera (his 3rd) in it's entirety. The piece gets tighter and tighter due in part to their having played it over 51 times in 52 days back in late 2011. On this night, Watson in particular was on fire. His guitar work shredded the air around home even as one particualrly out-of-it fan took a long cat nap on the floor right in front of the monitors. Watt wasn't happy with the vocals feeding back which seemed due in part, unbeknownest to the bassist, of a fan leaning against the speaker and having it slip around a bit due to the fact that a fan was drunkenly leaning on it and pushing it off its axis and pointing in to the vocal mics. Oops. Sounded great out front though.

Watt was heading out early in the morning to kayak around the bay with a reporter from the L.A. Times and would play Coachella Festival with fIREHOSE within the week.

Peeped: ed fROMOHIO bopping in the hat behind Watt's rig during the set. The fIREHOSE reunion gigs were big news in the crowd. Some various bits from the tour..

Watt sets the fashion pace at Coachella

Unfortunately, there seems to be no decent Coachella video but you can snag most of Harlow's and Belly Up on YouTube.

Watt's appearance at the Hollywood Palladium on December 1 as bassist in The Stooges was also very well received by Watt fans. Here's a taste from the crowd.

Don't know where this pic came from. Anyone have credit please let me know. I will delete if necessary. What a great shot, though.

2 comments:

Angry Jonny Monck said...: So glad fIREHOSE did a reunion. I know some Watt fans think that this trio wasn't punk enough, and a bit too "commercial". (A woman in NYC once told me she thought it was like the Steve Miller band, whatever that means...) but I discovered Watt through fIREHOSE, and have never been the same.; May 30, 2012 at 6:19 AM
Brad Riesau said...: Yeah, Monck I was big fIREHOSE fan as well. Lots of great shows through the years and I dug the CDs. I dug the Minutemen but only saw them once and then first met Watt back when he did the alt. all-star BALLHOG or TUGBOAT show at the TROC. Luckily, I'm only a couple of hours from Pedro so I get to see him often in various sitches. I also LOVED the group BANYAN, but you know me the more "outside" the sweeter.; June 12, 2012 at 10:33 PM