Mike Watt hasn’t put out a new record in five years, but the San Pedro, California bassist hasn’t just been sitting around watching “Survivor”: he’s done nearly ten tours since 1997 and his current jaunt, the “Our Oars Became Wings Tour”, is a typically backbreaking itinerary, 61 shows in 62 days. The tour stopped at the Black Cat Monday night and revealed itself to be notable in several ways. The set featured Watt’s newest combo, the Secondmen---drummer Jerry Trebotic and organist Pete Mazich---and material from “The Secondman’s Middle Stand”, the project the outfit will record this summer that is purported to be a song-cycle based on the illness that nearly claimed the bassist’s life in 2000.
Judging from the churning, complex structure of new compositions “Bursting Man” and “Pukin’ to High Heaven”, Watt’s sickness was a intense affair. The absence of guitar (a major component of Watt’s music since his days with punk iconoclasts The Minutemen) and prominence of Mazich’s furiously scurrying organ fills gave the tunes a feverish swell, while Trebotic and Watt combed sprung rhythms that hinted at the influence of the bassist’s current muse, John Coltrane. Another Watt favorite, Madonna, also appeared, in the form of charging covers of her “Bedtime Stories” and “Burning Up”, which fit thematically into the new material.
The remainder of the 90-minute performance drew on more of Watt’s inspirational touchstones---covers of the Stooges (“Little Doll”), the Pop Group (“Genius or Lunatic”), Television (“Little Johnny Jewel”) and the Velvet Underground (a heaving “Sister Ray” with opening act Spot on violin) alongside several originals, including a terse “Big Bang Theory”. It was the new material that dominated the night, however, and should have Watt fans hotly anticipating that new material’s release later this year.
Washington Post, 2002
