A Review of Mike Watt and the missing men concert.

[Ronnie Roach]

Thursday, January 03, 2008

WHEN THE SOUND MAN IS DEAF TONE.
(Mike Watt & his Missing men at the LA Conga)

San Pedro is the ignored younger brother of Los Angeles. Nobody knows it’s there. Civic pride is reserved to the gang bangers. The longshoremen live there just to be close to their jobs. Nothing here really, The rich live on the top of the hill, the middle class live half way down the incline and the poor live on the foot of the hill, on the flat land by the docks. As far as the arts go, well, you got artists that have studios in downtown Pedro. We use to have a coffee house called, “The sacred Grounds” but they couldn’t afford the high rent, and so they move down the road in a smaller place. Sacred Grounds use to host local band concerts, poetry reading and art exhibits. It’s all gone now. In it’s place a Pizza joint.
There are plenty of Mexican Restaurants in Pedro. One got sold to 2 brothers. It was the La Conga. They decide to host music concerts. It is a two-story building. On the bottom floor is meant for older folks. They have Latin music and a house band that plays oldies for mom and dad while they drink their blues away. Upstairs is called, “The Attic” where local bands play. I can’t complain though, 5 bucks is a bargain.
I decided to check out one of Mike Watts many bands, the missing men. Mike Watt will always just be remembered as the bass player of the legendary band, “The Minutemen”. His second band was pretty cool too, “Fire hose”. In punk tradition, the headline band started the show first. I didn’t expect the earth open up and the heavens shower down gold coins, but come on dude, present a half way descent sound. They had Mike’s bass way up; you could feel it pounding on your chest. I guess if you into Hip-Hop, that’s is groovy.
Mike looked like he just got back from a garage after giving a SUV an oil change. The rest of the band had that California casual look. It was basically your standard power trio, bass, guitar and drums. They had an image of a father jamming with his sons. Mike looked like a retarded Bruce Springsteen covering Primus songs. Yeah, I know, Primus ripped off the Minutemen just like the Hot Chili Peppers; I guess Mike was taking back his sound. Speaking of sound, the Missing men were a Hodge-podge of funk, metal, and psychedelic punk. This was an exercise in self-indulgence. Fine. Rock & Roll has to go somewhere and experimenting is needed. They went through their set without pause like the early Ramones, after 10 odd tunes, they were off into the cold Pedro night. It was an ok gig I guess.
The La Conga are going have to sound proof their place and get a professional sound man! Please, I beg you…

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[d_b]

1. amazing bass player

love the minutemen and firehose.

[HuskerDU]

2. I see your sight is Anti-Authoritarian left. Will check it out

sometime soon since that pretty much nails where I'm at politically.