carolyn pennypacker riggs illustration for 2009 LA RECORD Mike Watt interview Mike Watt is set to complete his third opera. Here is the message transmission exactly as we received it: mike watt (minutemen, fIREHOSE, solo artist, Stooges’ bassist, missingmen and secondmen leader) sez: “I’m finishing my third opera (“hyphenated-man”) w/bass brother tony maimone at studio [...]

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Spaceland was already filled by the time they took the stage and—like the immediacy of the rest of Watt’s work—it was a plug-in and go affair. The punk-jazz-funk-folk elements were in full display, ratcheted up to the combustive level that Watt brings to his many projects, which is the reason he is the go-to bassist for everyone from Iggy to (dare we say) Kelly Clarkson. This guy has earned any paid gig he gets, and paid or not on this night, he gave nothing less than all for every damn note he played.

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