Note: I'll add to this as I remember more details, but the basic story is finished at this point.
I don't remember the dates, but it was the fall of 1997. At the last minute, I see an ad for Mike Watt playing in San Francisco at a club called Bottom of the Hill. I bought two tickets on the Web and started looking for someone to go with. Kara, my girlfriend, was unavailable that particular evening, so I asked my buddy Tim. He said he couldn't go, but a mutual buddy of ours, James, knew Watt personally because he grew up in Pedro and is the same age as Watt. This totally blows me away because I have been close with James for a while and never knew we had that connection! (I'm a big Watt fan and he knows Watt!)
So, I call up James, he confirms the Watt connection and says he'd love to go. James and I met up (I don't remember where) and took off for the club. It's about an hour drive from where we are and I got door-to-door directions off the web. I have a great time talking with James on the way up, he's the greatest.
So, we get to the Bottom of the Hill. It was really easy getting in with the ticketweb stuff. I just had to tell the guy in front that I bought 'em, he looked me up on his list, and we were in! No sweat! James starts looking for Watt and spies him in the back of the club. We're walking over and I'm thinking, "I'm walking over to talk to Mike Watt." Kind of in a daze. Watt recognized James right away, even though it's been a while since they've seen each other. I find out that James used to be in a band that used to open up for the Minutemen. I find out some stuff about his old band and even his stage name. What a kick! James introduces me to Watt and Watt says, "I'm Watt, from Pedro." I say, "I know." Could I have said anything stupider? E-mail me if you can think of something stupider I could have said. I told him my name and contemplated saying I was from Campbell, but who the hell knows where Campbell is? I haven't lived there for long, so I don't have much of a connection to it anyway.
So we're there hanging out with Watt. James and Watt are talking about old times. I recognize a few names going by, like Ed and George. I forget what he said about them. I think he said Ed's in four different bands now and George is in Houston playing in a band. It was cool just hangin' out with Watt. There were a couple of opening bands (who will remain anonymous). They weren't that good and Watt was pointing out how generic they sounded. He said one of them sounded like the Foo Fighters crossed with the Gin Blossoms. At one break between songs, he yelled, "Yeah, cookie cutter! Yeah, xerox machine!" I was laughing so hard! That got me thinking . . .
James and I wanted to get something to drink and James offered to get something for Watt. We ended up getting cokes for me and James, and I think James got a coke for Watt too, but I'm not sure. It may have been a beer. When we brought that back, Watt said something about how he liked Jim Beam better. That was a little disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting, but maybe I hoped Watt would be some kind of teetotaling renaissance (sp?) man. I guess that's a reflection on how important it is for me not to drink, myself.
Then, this guy came up who recognized James too. I think his name was Steve and he was arranging some interview(s) that Watt was doing that night. I found out later that Steve was kind of a roadie but much cooler than a roadie. So then Watt had to head backstage (upstairs, really) to do the interview(s). He invited James and I to come along. That was totally cool! So we went trudging upstairs to the "backstage."
It ended up being a little room above the club with a bathroom (no door), a desk, a couch, a table, a fridge, and a cooler full of Heineken. There were a bunch of people and there were two guys who wanted to talk to Watt. I guess they were the interviewers. I have no idea where they were from, but they asked Watt lots of questions and really kept him talking. There were a couple of asian girls there, too. I think they were Japanese. They took some pictures of Watt and the two guys said the girls would translate their interview into Japanese.
The interviewing guys were pretty cool. They were asking lots of questions and really kept Watt talking. I'd never seen an interview like that in person before, so I don't really know the drill, but these guys seemed pretty genuine at first, but the amount of information they were getting and their style started to seem more like they were just "working it." I don't know, maybe I was jealous. I was really glad I was there for the interview, though, because I got to hear some great stuff from Watt. The biggest thing I heard (my paraphrasing) is that he likes alternative, but it missed the boat because the people making the alternative music all want to be rock stars. The cool thing about punk bands is they want to challenge the establishment, including not being labeled as rock stars. That really hit home for me because I've always been really interested in honest music, not some bullshit that sells records.
During the interview, that guy Steve, the quasi-roadie, was snapping pictures with a Sony digital camera. He was showing it to me, how it can take pictures, and you can look through all the pictures you've taken and delete the ones you don't want to keep. It was totally cool! He said Watt got it for free from Sony, since they are his record label. Awesome!
The guys who were interviewing Watt were asking him more questions, and it really seemed like they did their homework because they were asking him some pretty interesting questions. Then, one of the guys started showing Watt his tattoos and describing all the aspects of them. This struck me as a "look how cool I am" kind of thing. Bummer.
Then, it was show time. I think the drummer came in and told Watt it was 15 minutes to curtain, so he went downstairs. We found our way through the maze back to the stage. Even though it was cold, there were all these people outside on the porch because they had just passed the new smoking law in California, which mandates that all clubs must disallow smoking inside. Then, James and I found spots to stand right on the side of the stage. James hadn't seen Joe Baiza, Watt's guitarist, yet, and he was there on stage. James knew Joe too, from the old Pedro days.
So, Watt started playing and he played the whole rock opera, "Contemplating the Engine Room." It was totally cool! I thought they had used a lot more studio tricks to get some of the sounds on the opera, but they were able to perform the whole thing live, with only a few samples triggered for the cool sound effects, like the water sound or the ship horns, or the bus sound effects. They all did a really great job, my hat's off to them! Then, after the entire opera, they played some more songs. The only one I remember was "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing." Y'know, the one that goes "What would be romantic to Mike Watt?" They played it really well. I think they may have also played "The Red and the Black." That's always a cool song to hear.
Well, I was totally blown away by what Watt said in the interview I heard. When he talked about the punks not wanting to be rock stars, that really spoke to me. I guess for a long time I've had these two opposing views within myself. One wants to be a rock star, and one wants to be a real musician. Each seems to have no interest in the wants of the other. The rock star really only uses music as a vehicle. The musician really doesn't care if he's a rock star or not, he just wants to be able to play music! I had never really seen that separation before, and Watt really broke it open for me with that statement.