If It's Too Loud...

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 ni...

The music world can be strange. Friday night, Sweeping Promises were opening a sold out show for Bikini Kill in front of over two thousand people, where Kathleen Hanna said they were the best band in the world. Saturday night, they were playing a free show at Myrtle in East Providence, RI in front of around one hundred fifty people. And they may have proven Kathleen Hanna right. I've seen Sweeping Promises twice in the past three years, and really enjoyed them. They've always had an indie/DIY take on post punk, and their live show reflected that. But something changed since I saw them in August 2023: They went from a really good live band to a great live band. It's always thrilling to see a band make that transformation, and Saturday night Sweeping Promises showed a packed Myrtle exactly how solid of a band they've become It doesn't hurt that they have more beloved songs than I realized they have. I felt a little unexpected thrill as the band started most of their s...