BORDER CROSSING: Mike Watt in Japan

In recent years, I've been into going out to see the legends of punk rock. A couple years ago, I went to CBGB's and met Captain Sensible, dare I say the closest thing I could have to an idol?! If I listened to the Damned much in high school, I was definitely attached to Mike Watt and the Minutemen in college. I remember I picked up Double Nickel on the Dime at the Salvation Army across from my share house, what a find! And around the same time a free jazz nut named Space Noodle started crashing illegally in the small "living room" connected to my room. He lent me a copy of Watt's solo album Contemplating the Engine Room, often described as a "punk rock opera" paying homage to the Minutemen as well as his father who served in the Navy. My own grandfather had been in the Navy, so I guess growing up around pictures of him in his uniform at Grandma's house endeared me to this record.

So when I heard about Mike Watt coming to Japan, I was ready to go see what it would be like. I knew, with exception of his recent activity in the Stooges, he wasn't doing much in the way of punk rock, but I was ready to see him wail on the bass! And I chose to go the show where Melt-banana was the opener! The name of the place is Highti, not a live house at all, but a warehouse performance space connected to some artists house off-the-beaten-path near the Arakawa River. After bumbling my way around the neighborhood, I finally stopped a taxi driver who used his GPS to show me the place was two blocks over! He wouldn't even take me there and I had to walk, getting lost again before finally finding the place. I actually pride myself on my sense of direction, but Japan seems to mess with my built-in radar.

Anyway, I paid my cover (really cheap for a Japanese show, only 1000 yen!), chuckle inwardly at the Uno card which is my free drink ticket and size up the area. I felt like I was at a warehouse gig in Brooklyn, that is if the ratio of Japanese to foreigners were reversed. But he decor was all there, random art on plywood walls, a weird swing with a pink hippo hanging over the front of the band area and a tribal charge of electrified guitars and saxophone blasts holding everyone's attention. The next band called 2up invited Mike Watt to play on a couple songs with them and surprised him and everyone else with a over of "Man without Nature,"which was enjoyable because nobody expected it, not even Watt who just went with it giving his best.


(2up with Mike Watt on the right, Photo taken from Highti's Blog)

Melt-banana played a set with their fullest intensity and it was pretty cool to see them so close to an audience that just jammed along to the fast-paced punky quirks and Yasuko's high pitched yells. After they played, I saw Yasuko hanging up some T-shirts to sell. I mentioned that I saw them in Yokohama a year ago and that Pacifiction Records now carries Doggy Style: The Dogs Tribute with Melt-banana doing "GST 483." I also mentioned Taiwan and if she would be interested in going there for some shows, and one of her friends said he went to the Formoz festival the previous year with YMCK... I said I was at the same show! It's a small rock n roll world!

So I went back in to see Mike Watt play with his improv group which consisted of Watt on bass, a drummer and a second bass player. While Watt put everything he had into the bass his little Rilakumma doll bouncing in his flannel jack-shirt pocket as frantic as he was bouncing on stage. The drummer occasionally shouted into the mic in time and the second bassist did some acrobatics forcing his instrument over a beam in the ceiling. Japanese punks, hipsters and cats of all kinds grooved to it all. And, Mike Watt proved he was The Man In Japan With A Bass In His Hand!

For hardcore fans, please dig Mike Watt's Japan Tour Diary on his Hoot Page.