Somehow I've gone decades into music fandom without seeing Mike Watt live. His current musical project is mssv, which stands for Main Steam Stop Valve, and not only includes the legend that is Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, The Stooges) on bass, but also includes Mike Baggetta on guitar and Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Wanda Jackson, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) on drums. It's obviously a band I need to see live, so when I saw they were playing the magical new-ish venue Myrtle in East Providence, RI, I knew I had to make it.
The three members of mssv were setting up their equipment, tuning, and getting ready to play. The audience was milling around, talking, and enjoying their drinks when, with quite literally no warning, this burst of noise and furious playing erupted from the stage. The house music had still been on at that point. And that's how mssv started their set.
While noise was definitely a factor, it wasn't all art rock and punk from the Myrtle stage that night. While some songs were loud and dissonant, others were almost painfully quiet, to the point that the sound coming from the stage was barely above a whisper. To the credit of the Myrtle crowd, no one was chatty or making any noise at all during these more quiet moments. Even the HVAC system seemed to know to be quiet then. Like I said, Myrtle is a magical venue.
mssv's sound is obviously going to have a punk and indie rock side to it given the pedigree of the band. But more than anything else, they might be more of a jazz band. A song like "On and On" is a fairly straightforward alt-rocker, "Super Dumb" is art rock, and "On Its Face" is more beat poetry over jazz. Monday night was a night filled with legends putting on a great show to one of the most appreciative crowds I've ever been a part of.
Sapling opened the show and might have been the perfect band to open for mssv. Their blend of art rock and punk fit in perfectly, even if they might have been (mostly) louder than the headliner. It wouldn't be a Sapling show without some form of equipment malfunction, but not only is that part of their charm, but they got it out of the way before the music started. Opening with "Everything Was Better," they went straight out with an all hits set. Sapling was obviously having a great time on stage, and their fun was infectious as they won over an older crowd there to see their heroes. Plus, the clown box was in full effect Monday night, including a banana and a pair of figurines (a clown and a carousel horse) that somehow factored into the chaotic end of their set. As always, Sapling is one of the most fun live bands in the Boston/Providence music scene.
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