A Fevered Pitch

Mike Watt Makes His Middle Stand

By Maurice S. Teilmann

Ask anyone who’s played in a band: finding a good bass player is tough. If they’re not too hard-headed to work with, they’re either moonlighting guitarists who think two less strings equals an easy pick-up gig, or they’re just plain lazy, drunken louts. And then there’s Mike Watt.

A vintage like Watt is hard to come by. When he’s not touring around the country with some incarnation of The Secondmen, Dos or any of his other projects, the molten, burly sounds of his “thud staff” can be found supporting the likes of Porno for Pyros and Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Watt embarks on his 52nd tour this Friday in San Francisco, which will find him following the season’s mild weather clockwise around the US for roughly two months.

But it’s not just music that keeps Watt busy. He seems to be on a perpetual quest for something to fill his time: constantly updating his tour diary and Web site (www.hootpage.com), reading books on history (he was turned into a history buff via his dearly departed friend and band member D. Boon), writing articles critical of the FCC’s restrictive low-power FM and Internet radio policies, running his weekly Web radio broadcast (the “Watt from Pedro show”), not to mention his early morning exercise — three days a week of kayaking, mixed with bike riding, and who knows what else…diving for oysters?

Although oyster diving doesn’t come up in the recent conversation between Mike Watt and the Synthesis, it doesn’t seem too far out of character for him to do something of the sort. The son of a longshoreman, Watt lives on docks of San Pedro Harbor, plays in bands consisting of dock-workers, refers to his tour van as “The Boat” and basically equates his touring life to that of a sailor (he ruffles at the kid-glove treatment others in his position readily lap up).

Lately, though, he’s been working with veritable icons The Stooges. “I’m not arrogant or anything, but playing with the Stooges is a mind-blow for me, man,” Watt gushes. “In fact, me and D. Boon as kids…yeah, I would never have thought 30 years later I’m gonna be playing with these guys.”

At 46 years old, Watt’s spryness is impressive. But it’s nothing compared to that of Iggy Pop, he says. “It’s a trip, too — I’m finally the youngest guy in the band. I’m finally not the oldest guy!” he laughs. “And also, being around them, they’re trippy cats, they’re interesting gentlemen, very intelligent. It’s wild. Here’s Iggy, 57 years old, the dude’s stage diving face-first. He’s such an inspiration.”

Maybe his packed schedule is a direct response the downtime caused by “the sickness.” Back in 2000, Watt came down with a fever that lasted 38 days, topped off by an abscess exploding in his perineum. He was nearly a goner. But after pulling through, in true lemons-to-lemonade fashion, this sickness became the impetus behind his latest album, The Secondman’s Middle Stand. On the album, the musical lineup consists of bass, drums and organ; ironic considering Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer organ solos were the type of thing that drove Watt and Boon to punk rock in the first place. But as life often teaches, things have a way of coming about full-circle, and you can learn a thing or two with a little patience.

“Sickness really teaches you patience. A second takes an hour. What a fucking hellride that was! And nothing makes the time go by quicker. And I wanted to express this.” The album takes you through the ordeal of his most recent near-death experience, conveying the feelings and emotions of a fever-induced delusion, along with the pain and uncertainty in the nether regions of his month-plus hospital tenure. “I never planned on making a sickness record until it happened on me. It was really scary. You have to reinvent yourself for a new record, and then you’re singing about stuff that hurts so much. I was crying when I was singing that stuff, it was hard.”

But this is Mike Watt we’re speaking of. Off his forehead, a fever turns to salty steam, and on the tailpiece of his bass, there’s an engraving that reads “BADASS.” When all is said and done, it’s a title that Mike Watt certainly deserves, though he’d probably be too modest to cop to it.

“I think it’s just a righteous opportunity to be able to do any of this,” he says.

Bookmark:

Record Label Columbia / Red Ink Released January 2005

Tracks Boilin’ Blazes Puked to High Heaven Burstedman Tied a Reed ‘Round My Waist Pissbags and Tubing Beltsandedman The Angels Gate Pluckin’, Pedalin’ and Paddlin’ Pelicanman