from mike baggetta:
"I first met John Herndon back in 2017 when my friend Devra Hoff took me over to John’s pad in L.A. to play a session together in his garage. This was about a week before I made the 'Wall of Flowers' record with Jim Keltner and Mike Watt and I was playing a few gigs around town with Devra on bass and Scott Seiver on drums beforehand to kind of help myself learn some of the music I thought we might record the next week for that album. Anyways, Dev suggested we get together with John one afternoon and see what happens. I actually don’t remember a lot of what specifically we played, but I remember the deep & sick grooves for sure. I think him and Devra had a good history playing together because I would have been just as happy sitting there listening to the two of them play all afternoon, as I was trying to make some music with all three of us. I probably said about 7 words to John that day, but I remember the playing was like really fierce and super… easy? in a way, to get creative stuff flowing. I thought that was really cool and its stuck with me all these years. Looking back on it now and realizing that I met John Herndon and Mike Watt for the very first time in that same week now, in hindsight, seems kind of interesting.
I’m really excited about this new band, Casa Sueño, that me and John and Watt have put together. We have played, as of this writing, exactly zero gigs together, but somehow it already feels like it has a strong collective spirit to the whole thing already. Back in December we got together at Casa Hanzo in Pedro to record the 2 tracks that Nomad Eel Records is putting out as our first 7” in advance of these shows. The song I brought was kind of a two-parter (side a & b) and it kind of gets to the heart of the matter for what I think the music we’ll be working towards could be… Some things that are more like song-songs, and some things that are more free-songs…? I have been getting towards trying to play a music that has no boundaries since as long back as I can remember. And that doesn’t just mean off the wall freak out stuff (I mean, thats a part of it sometimes), but a music that lives inside of improvisation and song forms in equal parts. That flows back and forth between rubato and groove, between drone and harmony. And one that can flow between the people making it just as easy as the people listening to it. Like the real early blues recordings I’ve heard where there’s no pressure to keep 4 beats to every bar, but the vibe, groove and beautiful sounds aren’t suffering any.
So here we are, getting ready to play 23 shows on the west coast (u.s., Mexico and Canada) and learning what its like to play a new music together with each other, and you all in the audience, every night together. Again, as of this writing, I am not really sure how many songs we have and I haven’t even finished the demos for my 5 or 6 or 7 or however many I have rolling around in my head all jumbled up so far that I am trying to put through the hopper. Mike Watt’s been on point though and already has his 6 songs done! So we’ll have a mix of new stuff to play for you, but more important is that we are gonna maybe have a new ‘way’ of playing it for you. The last band I had with watt, I felt like maybe I had hit a wall about how far I could take that concept, just from my own side I mean, about writing all the parts for everybody for all the songs. I learned a lot doing that, but one thing I also learned is that the music always got better when the other guys would change the parts I brought in to suit the song and their style better. This time around I want to have less control over that type of stuff, so right from the get go we are all coming up with our own parts (notes as needed) for the songs we are gonna be playing. I was also heading a lot more towards drone based ideas and finding ways to stretch the music out that wasn’t just like in a fusion way, but still you could be playing a song, or it could be a free thing, or maybe both together, but exploring different parts of the music without just a full on jam all the time, and I think we are gonna get deeper into all of these types of ideas with this new Casa Sueño band. We’re also doing something else a little different on this trip and that’s making a record somewhere in the middle of the tour after the Portland, OR shows. We also have a couple stops of double-nighters, in Vancouver and again in Portland, OR right before we record.
Anyways, I think it’s gonna be a blast. I already know I like traveling around the country in the boat with watt, and I already know I love hanging with John too. I also know that I love playing music with both of them and I’m excited to see where these new songs and sounds take us on this west coast trip, and I truly hope that you all find a way to come out and join us for these special shows!"
(click here for tour flyer)
casa sueño
"I-5 tour 2026"
thu, sep 17 at the sardine
1101 s pacific av, san pedro, ca
fri, sep 18 at the wayfarer
843 w 19th st, costa mesa, ca
sat, sep 19 at the black cat bar
4246 university av, san diego, ca
sun, sep 20 at the moustache bar
av francisco i madero 1250, tijuana, mexico
mon, sep 21 at pappy & harriet's
53688 pioneertown rd, pioneertown, ca
tue, sep 22 at the bakersfield sound co10715 rosedale hwy, bakersfield, ca
wed, sep 23 at veni vidi vici
1116 fulton st, fresno, ca
thu, sep 24 at winters tavern
1522 francisco bl, pacifica, ca
fri, sep 25 at art bop beer co
102 talent av, talent, or
sat, sep 26 at blast off vintage
860 high st ne, salem, or
sun, sep 27 at the crypt bar
421 4th av e, olympia, wa
mon, sep 28 at the shakedown
1212 n state st, bellingham, wa
tue + wed, sep 29 + 30 at lanalou's
362 powell st, vancouver, canada
thu, oct 1 at the tractor tavern
5213 ballard av nw, seattle, wa
fri + sat, oct 2 + 3 at strum pdx
1415 se stark st, #c, portland, or
mon, oct 5 at the sound lounge
225 se h st, grants pass, or
tue, oct 6 at the miniplex at richard's goat
401 i st, arcata, ca
wed, oct 7 at the arlene francis center
99 6th st, santa rosa, ca
thu, oct 8 at bottom of the hill
1233 17th st, san francisco, ca
fri, oct 9 at decades hifi lounge
5840 traffic wy, atascadero, ca
sat, oct 10 at zebulon
2478 fletcher dr, los angeles, ca
out now is the debut casa sueño release
"house of dreams / house of dreams (postlude)"
seven inch vinyl via nomad eel records
thursday, september 17, 2026 - san pedro, ca
from mike:
Six days of good prac
Pieces falling together
Almost too easy
from johnny:
First day of tour. We had a practice at Watt's practice space before the gig and sweated so much I wrang about a pint of liquid out of my shirt. Drove, shirtless, to The Sardine. While putting the drumkit together, Mike Bagetta nonchalantly tells me that George Hurley is in the opening band, which didn't make playing our first gig more terrifying or anything, lol. Our show was fun, kind of a blur. Thinking too much, trying to relax and get inside the music. But I think we got into some good zones. Honored to be setting sail with these cats
from watt:
pop at five bells and cook up some italian sausage w/onions, celery, red bell pepper in olive oil and when that's browned add water and groats - you know of those? I learned about them about a year ago and cook them once a week, part of chow sched. they fuckin go w/anything. I do the same thing w/millet, been working in some grains w/my sautes, I can dig it. my health is good. sure, I'm using a muleta (crutch, also called stampella or tsue) cuz the surgeries I had in my twenties to help w/being born w/bad knees wore but I have no pain and that is very important to me. ok, so I also play gigs sitting down but I have no pain, my hands are in really good shape. we did six days of many hours of prac for this tour and it was no problem. I'll be sixtynine in december but I am in good health - part of that is what and how I chow but it's also the 1358 of me w/no alcohol - big help w/my life these days, crimony.
tonight's the first gig of my seventyfourth tour. it's actually not _my_ tour but instead I'm a part of the first tour ever for mike baggetta's brand new band casa sueño and I'm so glad we kick stuff off here in my pedro town. I came here from norfolk, virginia sixty years ago this summer, crimony - just thought about that. that was summer was kind of blurry for me and I would even get mixed up whether it was a year later but these days it's way more clear... ain't that trippy? anyway, six days at my prac padup at the angels gate cultural center - more date infos: I'm the longest lease-holder there now, have been there forty years now and anyone in a band will tell you how important a fuckin prac pad is, crimony! so mike lives in gainesville and arrived in so cal the day before our first prac last friday. us three have played together before - back in december one day at peetzo's (he's my secondmen organman also) recording studio _casa hanzo_ we recording two tunes for the debut casa sueño release, the house of dreams seven inch so we had one afternoon together as our first time. so last friday was the second time and we put in five hours. mike has me to bring some tunes so I brought five and we learned four of them that day. the next day we learned the five he brought. I used some charts at first to learn the tunes (even mine!) but quickly let go of them, using a crutch to hobble around is enough for me, I don't wanna use them for bass for gigs, capito? johnny's prac'n on a kit that perk procured for me around twelve years ago that was for an il sogno del marianio u.s. tour that then became my prac pad kit and though I can't play them, it's a fuckin time waste having cats schlep/set up/tear down drums for every prac I'm doing w/them at my pad. same w/the guitar amp, mike's using this peavey fake-tweed 4x10 my buddy dirk (the one who shot the cover of "double nickels on the dime") made be so for me. when it's time for prac, I like getting right to it w/a minimum of futz and dawdle - this goes back to minutemen days when we didn't have this prac pad, it wasn't in my cards yet but minutemen is where we learned to jam econo - that wasn't a slogan when I wrote that as part of the lyrics to "the politics of time" - it was a way of life. I never "out-grew" that, still hold fast to it. johnny used no charts, just recorded stuff on his leash for later listening. I have to say that I adjusted my tunes to whatever they were in "wattworld" to the way he played to them cuz I really REALLY like playing w/him. me and johnny actually recorded twice before, for a proj bucky pope got going called tone scientists which recorded a two tune seven inch (in 2018) and a five song twelve inch (in 2023) called kiiroi tori" w/peetzo at _casa hanzo_ and then last year I did an improvised gig at a santa monica art gallery w/him, randy randall and hagop najarian. my experience w/mike was recording w/him and drummerman jim keltner and the later w/his mssv band which did I think five albums and three seven inches... this will be our sixth tour together. of course the first prac was a total pants-shitter for me but man, johnny really helped me get over that and became very optimistic and in fact changed the first tune I showed him and mike from "toppin it off" to "kickin it off" and asked to fuck, kick it off. the next five pracs took work but it was a happening spirit and I never noticed the time we put in weighing even an ounce on me, it was a good time in fact and I was real interested in how each bambino would develop. another tune I brought in, "in the coche now w/you" I asked johnny to cue the changes cuz I felt I didn't want some form for this one etched into some kind of stone.
our last prac was today, gig one of the tour. on the way to the prac pad I wash the new boat at the self-wash on pacific and fifteenth. last month I had to replace the air conditionging pump - it went w/a week to go left on the the three years warranty... damn, it ain't really the "new boat" any more, huh? well, a clean boat is a happy boat so I'm happy to scrub. I meet mike and johnny at my prac pad - we're running the set mike came for us two pracs before (these were fuckin real productive pracs... some yammering/sermons but mostly no filler) once more before loading the boat for the first time to schlep the stuff to the sardine in pedro's old downtown, the building used to be the old "ramona's" bakery where the bread for the "busy bee" sandwiches (I was way into the roast pork w/mustard, onions and pepperoncini ones) and recess records boss toddski turned into a gig pad in 2019... only a mile from the apartment I've lived at for twentyone years, I love this place, love toddski. we got proj called jumpstarted plowhards that began w/him asking me to write him some tunes so I wrote him forty w/just bass and told him he could put whatever guitar and singing he wanted to, just record them each w/a different drummer. he's working on the third but in the meantime, back in december we started playing these tunes live w/drummerman jimmy who kicks up much dust and I really dig playing w/and I gotta tell - it must be something starting w/georgie but I really take to the drummies I get to share the beats w/and I'm telling you it ain't casual, I really
we get to the 'dine just before six pm and a cat makes way to give me happening parking, very kind. half a block north is a chow table setup called "juquilita" which I love (also at the chow coche "habanero man" across the street in the "ray deeter's tire town" lot when it's there) and get five pastor tacos. I might blow some clams but always have good gigs chowing pastor tacos before. we soundcheck w/soundman justin: mike's using his benson amp stuff he used last tour I did w/him along w/the same saul koll guitar but it's got different pickups. johnny's playing this brand new c & c kit he had them just make. I'm trying my bergantino 1x12 to go w/the 2x12 nxtse bergantino speakerbox powered by a bergantino forte hp ultra amp. in front of that I got the watt box nathan at sushi box fx made for me and a polytone tune. my bass is reverend guitars wattplower mark II, the same I've been using for a bunch of tours now - I help design this thudstaff. trippy playing it after all these days of prac w/the bass I keep at my prac pad, "the dan" bass... I used that to help joe naylor bring the wattplower but cuz I'm playing in a chair, it sits on my leg different and putting the neck in a slightly different way but it's no huge deal and "a poor carpenter blames his tools" anyway, correct?
we got the wrinkling brothers opening up the gig and they bring it at eight pm. it's joe dean's band but as far as I can remember georgie's always been on drums. vince meghrouni is joining them on sax. vince was also a big part of that tone scientists proj w/bucky and johnny - small world! the got a chair w/wheels on it that they let me use here at the 'dine - bof to work gigs and to witness them so I move on over to stage starboard in front of 'tonian cuz that way I can see georgie's face - I never realized after all these years he moufed all the fuckin beats... tonight I watch him do each one, never taking my eyes of him cuz I can't. no offense to 'tonian or joe dean but I am mesmerized. I talked to georgie about this afterwards and he tells me he's always done this. well, in my defense I was an idiot in when I was more younger and we had georgie behind us which now days as I got less younger I never try to let happen - I always try to be w/the drummer so they get face and not culo from me, always. I love having drummers up front, love it. for me, anything else is in full-on denial of what's up music and especially this kind which big time rhythm music. he is amazing drummerman and very inspiring for me, I can lit. 'tonian great on the sax to though toddski's gotta getting the sound here at the 'dine more happening... I'm gonna talk to him about that later, just a suggest. joe dean does good too, he's working fretless bass. besides the two guys I'm gonna share the stage w/shortly, the wrinkling brothers really got this tour going, absolute... especially georgie being georgie!
our turn is quarter after nine... my sister melinda's here, I see her talking w/georgie. I put her in my second opera, in the "piss bags and tubing" part. anyway, I am so fucking nervous that I start the fucking first tune - I ain't supposed to start the first tune, johnny is - what a dubmfuck! I hate jumping the gun, hating stalling and really hate bogarting but that's no excuse, I just weirded out seeing my watch show 9:15 - damn me so big time for that. I look over at mike and he's like w/the "you're hired" face - I look at johnny w/the sad eyes but then get over cuz fuck, the boat's in the water. johnny really changes up stuff all the time, I love it - no sleepwalking in this band! second tune I clam also, I come in at the correct time, correct chords but fuckin totally lost the ostinato, fucking baka! I won't say I made full-on chowder of the gig but there were sure a buttload of them that I blew. we did break the water though and for a first gig, I think that's real important. the gig-goers in pedro were most kind - brother matt's here, brother steve also - love them bof! for every bucket of shame I put my head into up to the collar of my green coat I also a head full of happy cuz there was also much good time and damn if the shaking in my body didn't calm some. well, like mssv drummerman hodge told me when we were recording my first opera when I was fretting much: "being a little scared is like being a little excited" - wise words from hodge... I think of them lots in sitchs like this and take them big time to heart.
I spiel a long time after the gig w/'tonian, we discuss reading - I've really gotten into that since putting the plug in the jug. I flowed him a bio on eric dolphy (I dedicated "hat & beard" to 'tonian when mike asked me to same something about it to help close the gig), he's been meaning to get on... the last bunch of years I always got a music one going, much-way through john chilton's coleman hawkins one now. mainly though I'm doing fiction, twelve chapters into herman melville's "the confidence-man" but I gotta suspend that for tour like all my reading, gotta focus!
back at my pad eleven, gig one getting done fills my shoulders w/a lightness that transports much ballast that had been pushing down on me, crimony. really REALLY looking forward to this tour, really am. konk beat but happy... the boat's in the water, tour's undeway!
friday, september 18, 2026 - costa mesa, ca
from mike:
Boats in the water
Happy energy on stage
The goldfinch agrees
from johnny:
Drove to Professional Drum Shop in Hollywood, in the morning and got my kick drum pedal repaired. I love going to that shop, I'm so happy it exists. Old drum shops have a rare mojo. So much traffic en route to Costa Mesa. It took an hour and forty minutes to drive there in the afternoon, took about fortyfive min to drive home after the gig. See Night was the opener, Linda Sao, playing solo, guitar and vocals, sounded great and the crowd responded enthusiasticly, which made me really happy. Saw a couple friends at the gig that I don't see very often and that was nice. Our show was fun, still working it out and very exciting!! Drove home and got there and Jennifer was still up so we got to hang a little before crashing. Tomorrow we get in the van for the remainder of the tour. Happy to be here
from watt:
pop at five and hose off. cook up onions, zucchini, salmon 'til brown then bring bulgar wheat. getting all caught up or trying to w/what I can get together before I'm away from my pedro town for the next three weeks...
gig number two of the tour's in orange county, about thirty miles southeast of here in costa mesa. there's much traff so it's pretty much through long beach on surface streets 'til I-405 time just east of long beach stage and the v.a. hosp right before that... that's where missingmen guitarman tom watson lost his pop a few years ok, he was always very kind to me and now last week tom lost his ma - bof would come to see tom play w/me... very sad. I got a spring 2026 tour for the missingmen to coincide w/an album called "staticz" and the plan is to record a third missingmen album (remember my third opera "hyphenated-man" was the first one) halfway through the tour in brooklyn w/tony maimone, tony's idea after witnessing bof a gig and then a prac while here looking for a college for his son milo - so trippy how life brings and takes things.
four bells and we're at the wayfarer - ok, four minutes late but arrived alive! good to see padboss eric again and also soundman frank who does a check w/us, the same "throne" chair as last time is here, respect! they chow really good here too, the very happening fish tacos, most grateful. my old friend gomez and his wife mia join me, always so good to see gomez, last time was in ktown near the beginning of the year... we talked about going to new york city to do a movie w/raymond using his scripts - we plan to do this after the missingmen tour next year. I really miss raymond really do... huge hole in my life w/out him. not his fault though, watt has to get it together.
opening for us tonight is linda in woman alone mode w/her guitar for her see night proj. up front I watch her sing and play, very compelling tunes w/much feel. my first time hearing of her so it's most happening for it to be literal, you know what I mean. I had to do a man-alone gig for jim and 'beachlife' fest back in may and I was shaking like a leaf, let me tell you. it is something I ain't used to. there was something not too much before that, a benefit here in pedro and it was only one tune but even that really fucking tore me, I mean shaking so hard I could bare get the bass or the words out - it was a cover of a james taylor tune about a lady working at a factory... d boon really dug james taylor's "fire and rain" and I tried to think of him being brave in man-alone mode... well, I'm just not used to it.
eight bells and it's our, mercy on me for having mike and johnny up here, truly! I don't fuck up the beginning of the set even! I do play the stuff better (mike'll tell me later I did a good second gig set) but it ain't clam-free, nope. I ain't totally unaware - thinking about that now, I think same w/the first gig: at least I wasn't untethered to the point of not know what the fuck, more like execution or confidence errors. the gig-goers are very focused, they pick up on johnny kicking up much dust and I'm right there w/them, it's fucking happening to witness such a thing by which I mean using a tune as not something to remanufacture but to use as a springboard to see what fuckin happens, I'm way into that! I screwed up the order last night of one of the tunes that I don't do tonight - progress, huh? mike likes to work the set like one big piece so no banter which I'm into. even though it's a collection of tunes, it's also a gig and maybe letting the music speak helps from diluting that experience, huh? I really enjoy this gig, not just relieved for not hurting it w/lameness but having experienced it happening, whoa. something else. tour's got a happening begin, huh? most grateful watt!
most grateful to most kind gig-goers bringing most kindness also - hagop's here, whoa - yesterday I mentioned chimping about me and johnny getting to play w/him last year! there's some people who saw me play w/tom and raul last week not too far from here in santa ana at the observatory, ain't that a trip? got that a gig a week before! there's a man who brought his son who saw me a banquet hall at a mall in fullerton! life is a trip. people from other gigs - they tell you about these and I used to be so caught up in the now that I thought in a way gigs before didn't exist... there were some long beach gigs at alex's and this cat went to bof, I remember him totally. I gotta say I'm kind of shy and I feel awkward but at the same time I wanna let people know that them bringing kindness really counts and should never be taken for granted.
I think about this on the way to back to pedro... mike and johnny bof separate from me after a gig for this tour. trippy to start a tour this way, it is a really new way to do it for me, the "easing into it" in a way huh? I hose off at my pad a konk happy.
saturday, september 19, 2026 - san diego, ca
from mike:
First taco run here
Sudden set changes work out
First trance jam goes good
from johnny:
Drove to Professional Drum Shop in Hollywood, in the morning and got my kick drum pedal repaired. I love going to that shop, I'm so happy it exists. Old drum shops have a rare mojo. So much traffic en route to Costa Mesa. It took an hour and forty minutes to drive there in the afternoon, took about fortyfive min to drive home after the gig. See Night was the opener, Linda Sao, playing solo, guitar and vocals, sounded great and the crowd responded enthusiasticly, which made me really happy. Saw a couple friends at the gig that I don't see very often and that was nice. Our show was fun, still working it out and very exciting!! Drove home and got there and Jennifer was still up so we got to hang a little before crashing. Tomorrow we get in the van for the remainder of the tour. Happy to be here.
from watt:
pop at seven bells, make the last batch in coff in pedro for the next three weeks... cook up last asagohan also: ground pork from the mercado on fifth w/the rest of the celery and half the onions I got left in the fridge along w a cup of millet I first cook in the rice cooker set on porridge (I use one to one w/water amount), all of that in a saute w/eggs cooked on the as final stage, not scrambled in. I chimp diary, receive entries from mike and johnny, so glad they join me. I send out the public blasts letting people know of tonight's third gig of the tour. I record on three tunes mike and andy sent me for the next mow, we each take turns going first for our collab w/me already sending my three w/bass alone back on labor day after I returned from the march in wilmas celebrating that day. I've always been a big mold omen fan so getting to do mow w/andy and mike means a lot to me, much respect.
I get my clothes backpack wack together w/it containing another pair of levis and five pairs of chones. numaki (pajamas) also and my shaving gear. I remember the days of not shaving on tour - never again. it's gonna be about a 120 miles to san diego today and the first time the whole band travels together in the boat. mike and johnny arrive at three and a half by way of ride-share trip cuz mike had to drop rental at lax... no prob, we get there when we get there just as long as we get there safe is I think the policy. I wheel us over terminal island using bof the big bridges connecting pedro to long beach and spew history yammer being informed by what's witnessed by my eyeballs, like when I first came from virginia and one of these bridges didn't exist - there was a pontoon one its place, I shit thee not! let me tell you it wasn't the vincent thomas one though I hear maybe that's gonna be replaced some time down the road... I point out the queen mary where it's beached for life and got turned into a 'tel - I forget though to tell them that's the only time my ma saw me play w/the stooges, twentythree years ago this november. crimony. I lost her back in 2019 cuz of copd - so glad I'm thirteen years plus now off those fuckin coffin nails. crimony.
usually it's total stau ("traff plug" in german) on the I-5 to san diego and there's some parking lot mode right between camp pendleton and oceanside but it's calm enough to allow us to reach the gigpad two minutes before the six and half load-in sched'd time, spice mike there to hold a spot for us right in front of the black cat bar hatch which is in the city heights neigborhood, my first time playing this venue. real nice soundman william not only's our fourth man for the night but also let's me use his shoulder to get up and down from the stage, most kind of him, truly. padboss matt's way happening also, nothing like working w/good people. I spaced and forgot to chimp about me last night not using the bergantino 1x12 speakerbox, switching it out w/the barefaced one10 (no tweeter version - watt is not into tweeters for bass!) which was modded by me by switching out its driver w/an eminence cannabass 10" 450-watter. actually, the nxt 212 last spring blew a driver and I replaced that w/an eminence kappalite lf 12" and I'm really digging the combo of all three. ok, fuckin gear spiel, huh? here's a little more for tonight: ac power's too hard to get to so although I'm bumming on not using "the watt" box and its 350 volt tube and ota comp, I'm adjusting to the sitch. "work the room" is an old saying from vaudeville days that I'm using 'pert-near every moment of my fuckin life. I'll tune by ear like I did w/d boon in minutemen days. actually my belief is gear is so much secondary to music, music itself is the priority in my way of thinking, always. gear is just a way of helping to bring it and that can take many forms.
after soundcheck w/william where we try out some ideas that were hashed out in the boat on the way here on our first debriefing of the tour. johnny's into debriefing which for me is happening. the more I prac, the better I feel so I am never bummed on getting to play for souncheck. we get done and mike finds two big carnitas tacos from somewhere using his leash and I really enjoy them in the boat. once chowed, I realized myself quite tuckered and konk hard on the boat's back bench, maybe two hours plus? whoa, I was out.
mike rousts me w/ten minutes to go for twenty after ten go time. gig is clean ("sold out" in olde-timey vaudeville talk) and the room's got great feel. we bring the third gig of the tour and I think it's the best one yet. I'm very inspired watching/hearing johnny, really digging it trying to let into my playing like I'm a glove for his hand in a way - I picked up on that playing w/chris corsano during a 2024 tour w/did w/joe baiza, I learned so much from playing w/him and hope to do the same w/johnny, my favorite music teachers are what drummers bring w/their playing, it's just the best for me. now I ain't saying I didn't blow clams but none enough to get our keel out of the water. the set flows as a big piece, I'm way into it... a kind ear-movie for the gig-goers. I still got a lot of work to do w/the richard hell words I do in the encore - man, do I owe him: my first punk hero.
jovi's here, yes! love this man. he gives me a book of poems called "bone lyre" from a cat named ted washington he's working w/on a proj called pruitt igoe and I invite him on the watt from pedro show... I read this poem from the book:
"oz"
wnderful mystery of emotions
of coming and going joyous
at the sight longing at the
leaving and wonderment lives
in the questions that remain
dancing and swaying to and
back here again to move
in time away to mysterious
space unfilled unfulfilled
quest for the wizard for
courage in the face to face
your face to face you
- ted washington
much kindness from the gig-goers, a fellow bass wrasler from alabama asks me to sign his wattplower mark II case, he talked to me earlier about my basses and we had a good time w/that. gear... his hug for me is genuine however and I hug him back like I hug jove... most grateful for good people in my life. the doorboss wes said he's been to the 'dine many times in pedro, wears his black cat bar shirt though, fuck yeah: community. spice mike gets my speakerboxes in the boat correct w/the bergantino 212 all the way port w/wheels aft and handle up, amp purse in the wheel-well and finally, the barefaced one10. now to the sidehatch, bass behind the backbench and the bass player's done stowed his stuff... I go up front and get in the wheelhouse. the bass player for stripped for parts raps w/me, sorry to miss his band cuz of being konked but it couldn't be avoided.
boat loaded, suddenly we depart. the konk pad is a quarter an hour away in national city, mike got it via the internet and though there's some scary dog stuff for him, he pops the hatch and we drop anchor, our first konk of the tour together. the only debrief was discussing two tunes getting switched around early in the sit and mike decides to keep it that way. I'm also thinking about digging the churn part near the end of the set and him and johnny are developing, love it. just after midnight I konk.
sunday, september 20, 2026 - tijuana, mexico
from mike:
15 min to cross
Witches and devils with John
Great folks here, good gig!
from johnny:
from watt:
pop at eight, crimony if that ain't the latest I've popped in a good while. first time on the air mattress and digging it much, whoa. tour mode. middle of the night I was got real cold and had to get on numaki, that was terrible... rilakkuma numaki makes feel like rilakkuma (relax bear), yokatta. johnny makes for the first wander and enlightens miss hiyori about a mercado that's got a chow pad in it and brings back one of the best desayunos ever I've chowed, love it! I talk w/johnny about some of the good stuff georgie has brought to my life and how I keep some still w/me, scotty-san from the stooges the same... I find myself sometimes in sitch's where w/out thinking I'm thinking (!) "what would georgie do or what would scotty-san say?" and it fuckin helps, fuckin does. johnny enlightens me to the fact that dan from tortoise was first drums for tar babies w/bucky and robin - damn, I'm a slow fuckin learner. I hose off and then when refitted w/outfit, bring the boat south and it a short time we're at the border w/mexico.
the weather is mild and so is the frontera. after much speed bumps and camera snaps (the line is very tiny) we meet a border man who examines our stuff and then asks to go to a second inspection where I show him some of our equipment and takes photos, takes photos of my passport card - yeah, I got one of these w/my passport renewal earlier this year that's good for crossings like w/mexico and canada. these days it seems it's good to have two forms of i.d., correct? drivers license is "the real i.d." also... had to show my medicare stuff and my car's pink slip to get it at the dmv... it also says "senior citizen" on it, crimony! this border man is most kind and let's us continue into tijuana, my first time here in thirtyfive years, I played some pad called "iguanas" which, well... I've always wanted to come back and play somewhere else but damn me for not trying harder and spacing on that. I make the wrong turn so it takes a little bit to get to the gig pad but it ain't far, we drop anchor at the mustache bar just before one. it's all closed up so mike and johnny wander while I guard the boat and chimp diary. there's a gas station I can see a block w/gas at 25 pesos a liter works out to about $5.60/gallon u.s. luis arrives just after three and opens stuff, he's very cool people. his buddy ezekiel arrives and he's a drummerman so has much to speak w/johnny. it's a real good time rapping w/these cats really know about what's up even w/them being young men, gran respeto! mike brings these tacos from nearby and some authentica chipotle salsa in a bolsa that's fuckin righteous sabor, whoa! great fuckin chow. first sunday of the tour reminds me of the sunday back in 1983 georgie, d boon and myself spent on rosarita beach, south of here and also july fourth - that's when and where d boon wrote "corona" by the way and we got real sunburned on our bald heads - the first time ever me and d boon ever got a hair cut like that, we gave it to each other using one disposable bic one-bladed shaver and d boon went second and I cut him badly, his resulting scalp looking as if it was motocross track w/the cuts and I felt like such a fucking idiot. it was actually for a gig opening at the whisky for johanna went the week before but he haired-out and never did cut his head bald, what?!
first up at quarter of eight are a local trio called piñatas and the bass lady is having bass probs so I let her use mine. they're young people and have a style all their own. after them are _patos del mar_ ("sea ducks" en español) which is a trio of a little less youger cats than the piñatas but no way as old as me - maybe halfway between me and the first trio? anyway, they got their own thing but what they have in common is big spiels in between each of their tunes. there's so many ways a trio can be different, I love it and have been a firm believer of that since the husker du / meat puppets /minutemen days! third up is melting lillies which is a four piece and the singer lady has actually been to the 'dine to my pedro town and has seen me play there - she told me this earlier today before the music started. she has quite a singing style that's all her own and very expressive in her bringing it, gran respeto. there's a gig-goer that gets really lit by it's and starts doing cannonball rolls across the cement deck, it's pretty big time incredible - I think I've never ever seen anything thing like it my 'pert-near fifty years of seeing gigs that have been part of the movement (first one was the bags at the whisky in west hollywood w/d boon after being hipped to that scene by nicky beat who was actually from pedro).
it's our turn at ten and a half. there's no monitors but w/this sitch I think that's way ok, good open air gig - first of the tour. the tijuana gig-goers are most kind to us. johnny really kicks up much dust. cuz of the power sitch, I am again going straight into my bergantino amp w/no sushi box fx "the watt" box and though I'm missing some of what I dig I still think I bring what I can to help the band bring the gig. this gig I feel is another important chapter in us developing this band's trip, the learning what we are by doing even though the six days in my pedro prac pad were important, these gigs are the big time "reality on the dealio" (to quote my buddy jovi) for the casa sueño evolution arc. I really enjoy tonight's gig, really do. much gracias to the good people here in tijuana tonight, also to mike and johnny and the gigboss people, luis and ezekiel. before the encore I apologize lo siento for not playing their town here for thirtyfive years, like what the fuck is wrong w/me? I wanna also chimp here soundman daniel was very key as our fourth man for tonight also... as I was packing my stuff up, he says I was reminding him of chris squire and wanted to play some yes but understood this tour it's alice coltrane mike has provided for the music before and after the casa hanzo performances this tour. ezekiel helps me off the stage and then loads the boat w/my stuff, most kind and way solid - gran respeto to him, truly.
a little after midnight we pull anchor but we won't reach the konk pad 'til just before two even w/only a short number of miles involved. the first hurdle is finding a way to the san ysidro border crossing we need to take to get back into the u.s. cuz mike's leash connect w/the internet ain't providing much help and after several deja vu movements all over again, I suggest we back the boat out further from the frontera cuz I think being so close doesn't allow access the to the fuckin plugged-up river of taillights its kind of obvious we need to be in so by getting us through some little neighborhood roads, alto sign by alto sign, we are finally able to find a sign guiding us to "all I-5 traffic" and that's what we need... what we need to get in a stau that takes like a hundred minutes to go less than a mile, so be it cuz at least we're after the fuckin "forever wander" mode, correct? the u.s. border man is kind to us w/just a look-see into the boat's back and side hatches... back to the pad we konked at last night, drop anchor and soon I'm out, one tuckered but happy pinche guero - so glad I just played in tijuana... and w/bof these marineros!
monday, september 21, 2026 - pioneertown, ca
from mike:
Wrong side of the stairs
Eric, Joel, Mike at the gig!
Despite clams, good gig!
from johnny:
from watt:
pop just before eight... again, whoa but considering the sitch, I can comprendo... again I chow what I did for desayunos yesterday and it's an excellent shovel, hicole! (I used that for a tune mike had me bring to this proj that's got some george russell inspiration) I catch up on the emails I can, so glad to get this one from bassbrother tony telling me of his new proj museum of errors - he's inspired me so much since seeing him when d boon, georgie and me saw him and pere ubu bring "the modern dance" to the whiskey in 1979... all the members of the band had a profound effect on me, the idea of the ensemble really made more sense than it ever did that night to me. crimony, the idea of an ensemble being a most interesting discussion among other stuff.
we must vacate at eleven so soon after that cuz of my tardy ass, we pull anchor and head north w/much mild weather, I'm digging that. there was like six weeks at least recently in my pedro town where it was the most humid ever along w/high temps, crimony - you can imagine how it was for peetzo and jer (my secondmen, they're also longshoremen) down on the docks! I've been in pedro sixty years and never experience anything like that for so long. anyway, we're north on ca-15 which turns in to I-15 and through temecula and I think of bassbrother andy fraser who we lost in this town, his bass wraslin had huge influence on me which makes me think of what's coming through the boat's sound system - it's the first time we've used it this tour and I got 'pert-near 11.7 thousand pieces of sound on a usb stick that feeds it a random shuffle mode and damn if after at t-rex tune w/bassbrother steve currie on bass, we get a sam locke-ward tune w/me on a bass for a proj we got called slw cc watt and I discus this big time w/mike who in the boat is always shotgun and never gets tired of me w/the windbag yammer about what went/goes into the way I work bass. I'm sure I owe steve currie very much, I think... I really do. you know the first gig me and d boon saw was t-rex, correct? in 1973, at the long beach auditorium. at desert hot springs I pull us over just before two bells at a "pilot" for our first pump and dump outside of pedro of the tour, $5.80/gallon but first I gotta find a pump that's free cuz motherfuckers don't just use spots at pump for just filling for fuckin long-term parking shit... you know, like in the meantime grow a garden or have a thanksgiving chow but first raise the turkey from a chick, correct? it's unbelievable to see every vehicle empty while people are what using the on-site hot tubs for a good soak 'til their skin is wrinkled? I always fuel up and then free up the space by parking where there's spots made for shit like that and wait for my team to finish fouling the facilities from there... it seems to me so indicative of how self-centered people can behave, a total parallel to how the driving is on the roads: buttloads of me-me-me fuckin narcissist cosplay, hooray for our team.
ok, enough of me throwing down my shorter piece of chalk, I get us on ca-62 towards joshua tree and pioneertown is right between morongo and yucca valley, a place hollywood created to make westerns but found out quick doing that made all the movies look the same, oops. the gigpad is pappy & harriets and I put the boats culo at their rear hatch twenty of three. I played here w/the meat puppets which I think is my only time. nice people working here, soundman kaiser is also a bassman! we check w/him and then chow here cuz it's also a chowpad, I get pulled pork sandwich I dump its contents in the salad I also get, tastes good together like that. I go to the boat and konk hard.
mike rousts me and I see derek monypeny walking to his coche, he was the opener for tonight in man-alone and damn me for missing him... I've done a couple improvised gigs w/him before and he's helped me out in so many ways, again: damn me. it's ten bells, crimony! another long pre-gig konk. anyway, I start the gig off blowing many fucking clams, really damn me for that. what the fuck? I'm really trippin on this but don't let it overwhelm me and I think that's cuz many years of gigs has fortified some to weather insane stuff like this which is good cuz I blow even more clams in the second tune, what?! the third one's got real strong involvement from johnny so I rally around that get it together for that but "fall down" again some before actually getting to where I feel I got a real handle on stuff. so glad for the gig-goers bearing w/me, same w/fourth man kaiser doing the knobs. big respect from me. now, even w/this clam blowing, there is still lots for me find to enjoy about the gig - I really have a good time playing w/johnny, let me tell you. we roll w/all the territory this gig brings which is net happening one. yatta!
soundman kaiser helps me load my stuff into the boat, does it good and he tells me he's also a bassman, whoa! I meet several gig-goers who are most kind to me. so glad they can see me w/this brand new band and see what I'm doing... signing a "paranoid time" e.p. from 1980 and the cat who owns is around my age but still interested in what I'm brining really is humbling and wanting me to try even harder and harder at this journey I'm on.... I'm thinking about that right now as I chimp this. I follow derek monypeny to the artist residency pad he's been developing, my third time now and it's really together. I hose off and konk right around midnight, remembering the first time I was here w/chris corsano and joe baiza - hey there's the record dere put out by us right by my head, the woodpecker he drew postioned perfect for pecking on my fuckin head!
tuesday, september 22, 2026 - bakersfield, ca
from mike:
Desert mountain trails
Communal spirit at gig
Great playing from band
from johnny:
from watt:
pop at twenty after seven, righteous weather greets from the window and it was not cold during last night's konk... also so glad I hosed off last night before getting into nightwear.
I see this one spiel from mr tang on one part of laozi's dao de jing and am digging the bottom line he brings much... love how his pencil points to each kanji he's 'splainin. I think of getting the second missingmen album "static" done cuz it needs just a little more... me, tom and raul will tour next spring, it'll be ten years since toured w/raul, crimony? is time a fuckin freight train or what? don't stand in its way!
pull anchor just after noon and head north for bakersfiled, a buttload of one-lane-each-way road (name "old woman's spring road" by the way) as we go through old friend kim white's town landers - she couldn't make last night cuz of sickness. it's not 'til barstow before we get some multilane rock and free of lame-ass tailgating pendejos. very nice weather, let me tell you and only 82º f which is ok for these parts - I get us off at a "loves" in boron not much after two so those aboard can fill bowls of toilets what's no longer needed, miss hiyori provides salad for me to prep w/dashboard sun for the rest of the ride after filling the mouf w/some hashi-fuls, most kind of her. crew members now lighter, the boat's now lighter. we listen to what the "from the ipod" usb stick has stuck on it which turns out to be lots of john coltrane ("crescent" from "live in japan" one of them) and excerpts from irish guys reading excerpts from "ulysses" by james joyce that I got when visiting dublin on bloomsday in 2004, I'll never forget that trip, never.
I get us to the gigpad just after four, my second time here at the bakersfield sound co and richie (he's a also the guitarman in the local bakersfield band dropping in (hear them recently as guests on the watt from pedro show) big time came to the rescue and got us this after a major rug-pull from the people mike had booked months and months ago, most to richie for being such beautiful people, me and him have a big spiel about stuff like integrity. mike brings some carnitas tacos he got nearby, they're tasty and I chow them while spieling w/richie. after doing soundcheck w/him (he's also our fourth man for tonight, on the knobs), I meet tobi, bass w/tonight's band we're sharing the deck here (rug on the deck actually, am digging big time!), locals called dancing tommy and I'm getting asked about "dr wu" by the minutemen, not realizing we were doing a version of a tune by the dan... georgie was big time into the dan - we'd play bof sides of the sides of a cassette on tour, two albums at a time! tobi here says he wants to ask me about it later... that never happens but that's ok cuz we do get to talk about richard hell! anyway, don't mean to get ahead of myself, scuzi.
they kick the gig off at seven and are really happening, I get as close as I can to check their set out. they sing and play really good together and have tunes/beats I'm digging. gran respeto. what a way to get watt lit, thank dancing tony - fuck, I wanna now be a dancing watt!
our turn next at eight. I have confidence and try some stuff I never have w/the opener, "kickin it off" and only blow minimal vongeli ("clams" in italiano) w/mike's "house of dreams" which was fuckin not given what it deserved last night from a not-together bass performance, the horror. the bakersfield gig-goers are beautiful, love them. I still blow vongeli but nothing like last night, so good to rally after stinking it up some the night before, let me tell you. do the dick hell the best I have yet this tour, thank you tobi for help w/the inspiration there, thank you big time. music = a huge connect in my life. found a place where to my chair when we play so it's most happening for the whole band: even w/snare drum, love playing w/johnny and watch him 'pert-near the whole time. no disrespect to the gig-goers but johnny's helping me get my part of the casa hanzo music together, he really is and I'm digging it most thoroughly.
I've gotten into the swing w/getting my stuff packed up and to the boat quick as possible, a helperman from this pad helping big time and doing excellent work w/getting the bass stuff stowed. tiko-ko boss roy and his wife are and rap w/me about them 'pert-near being tonight's gig and so kind to give me a "sinking ship room" sweatshirt and we talk of moby-dick book, "rachel weeping for her children" in my mind and then out my mouf. we take band photos w/dancing tommy using the boat's headlights to illuminate us, finally I get to rap w/their tobi but it's all about richard hell and I even sing the last verse and chorus of "another world" which of course is common knowldege to bof of us but it's adios time just then w/me saying "but not this one" - prolly cuz it's a work night. I did flow my email address so hopefully and can write me and I can have the band on as guests for the watt from pedro show, yes!
all packed up, we pull anchor for john's pad, actually outside the city but still not far, my fourth time konking here, he's so kind. I hose off and really dig the high pressure his shaua (sic, nihon-go) brings, really do. it's like only ten and a half when I find out to get all the lights and the do the same w/my own... most grateful tonight's gig happened, yes!
wednesday, september 23, 2026 - fresno, ca
from mike:
Dagny's coff, plans hatched
Crowd hatching plans in medley
Thanks Richard and Nick!
from johnny:
We played an Italian restaurant, Vini Vidi Vinci, in Fresno. Psych rock band, Style Like Revalators, opened. This band shredded so hard. The drummer was running late so I let him use my drums and this dude got on the kit and absolutley schooled my ass. Great dynamics, amazing chops, great feel. Honestly seeing this guy play fucked up my playing for the set. While we loaded out I passed him several times, I felt kinda crappy about how I played and he didn't say anything to me, I think he was kinda embarrassed for me, ha! If you make it to the restaurant and want pizza, they poured balsamic vinegar all over it, so if you aren't into that, makes sure to ask for no salad dressing on the pizza please.
from watt:
pop just after seven, very good konk which I needed I think cuz of no pre-gig konk yesterday... it was four hours to do the two hundred miles needed for yesterday's schlep but today's only half of that(all pretty much flat pert-near interstate-like also) so mike says we pull anchor at two - john so kind to let us hang here. me and him spiel about all kinds of stuff after he makes coff (w/no flavor - he remembers, said he read the diary!) and three over-medium eggs w/sourdough toas, most king of him. yeah, we spiel about the musician books I'm reading, then him being into prog and then stuff like some china history and stuff I think of as part of "the law of unintended consequences" and he's got a lot examples of that he relates to me. happening. I then chimp diary. john discusses w/us the stuff that ain't working in his living room, tv and stereo equip... it's me think of these two main activity a life might bring you: 1) pick it up and put over there and 2) name things and assingn them value. by the way, number one is what I'm calling the second secondmen album. I sent out internet blasts of not only news about tonight's gig but all happy bday to john coltrane who woud've been a hundred today.
two bells and it's bye bye to john, real good weather to send us off... on the way to his pad last night we had a debrief and I wanna see if mike has any ideas after my suggest last night the fourth tune we played last night... mike says he's thought about it and is gonna try something... johnny says he's gonna try something w/the tune that after that way, take his solo out of beat, alright! I'm gonna try something too, in the churn part - be a little more elastic. this gig is buttsaver one like last night, a last minute put-together cuz of a out-of-nowhere scissor so why not it also have a petri dish angle? indeed. especially appropriate on john coltrane's bday!
around three-twenty I pull us over at "maverik" fuel stop and mike gasses up the boat for $5.97/gallon (gotta remember mike uses a card instead of cash and that's about ten cents more), miss hiyori brings me another salad for the boat's dash, johnny's into it. I tell him about the time I got to play the last song of a blue oyster cult gig w/a version of the band w/just e bloom and buck dharma, it was "the red and the black" at an old art deco theatre in beverly hills and they had me hobble up on the stage via these little stairs on the side that went into the seats. when I got up there, buck dharma had me come over to him stage center and as hakim gave me his bass, he told me what was up... what was really trippy was that his voice wasn't like the one you hear on "don't fear the reaper" cuz his talking voice is more like some guy from a 30s movie new york city accent and it was hard for me to believe that's what was actually coming out of his mouf. he told me, "you guys prolly played it a lot faster but anyway, we're gonna start in 'e' and then go down to 'd' and then well get into it, ok?" w/my me nodding kind of trippin on the whole thing, thinking about d boon seeing this happen. at one point the drummer clammed and laughed - I laughed back and it was big enough to swamp the boat and let me tell you, buck dharma played his ass off, he was really really good.
we get to the part of fresno where the tower theatre and for some fuckin idiot reason I'm thinking this is the home of the first tower records but of cuz that was in fuckin sac-town and we ain't playing this tour... senior moment or what? my brother justin lives in fresno but he's in barcelona for his work, damn, love him much. I drop anchor four and a half right near veni vidi vici which is a chow pad where we're gonna play in the back, thank you so much to professor richard for making this happen, truly - also the style like revelators cats who are also gonna be the openers. so glad we didn't lose the opp to play this town, truly.
no souncheck for tonight but we do get chowed by this pad and I shovel a most happening caesar's salad w/some shrimps along side it, real good! the opening cats bring the p.a. and set it up, whoa - they're helping w/this also, much respect. it's in the nineties, pretty hot so I go back to the boat and think I'm gonna just lie down and rest my eyes but damn if I konk 'til somehow popping a quarter after seven - just fifteen minutes before go-time, what a tonto! I get situated in time though and we bring the set. I really dig most of our dog and pony show (scotty-san would sometimes call appearances that and I've been thinking a lot about him, especially on tour) w/the only thing bumming out is actually the first time I've experienced it this tour: fuckin yammering from fuckin yentas - there's three clowns right to my port-side that are relentless but also to the starboard is a lady one that's 'pert-near as windbag as all thrown clowns together and she's in soliloquy mode! I hold focus though and don't go off but fuckin kind of really want to but then that would be letting these bogarts highjack the gig for the rest of the gig-goers which would be truly not happening. I just sailor through it. I do dig mike's "events" he brings for his "trippin on the moonlight" tune, something we talked about last debriefing and also johnny's drum soliloquy in mike's "electric chair" (bof tunes part of the casa sueño album we're gonna record next week in portland) and I'm a little more together w/the whole enchilada... first week of tour now in the sack!
a gig-goer named ben helps w/the schlep and stow w/the bass gear after much good word from the gig-goers and signing stuff, I'm most grateful - also getting to thank again bassbrother prof richard, yes and also I thank sincerely one of the guitarman of the openers, nick - really kind of him to help us so and I wish him the best w/his journey in music. I wheel us to a pad mike got on the internet and not to belly-ache but compared to the firehose-strength of john's shower in bakersfield (much respect!), this is some piddly-ass dribble trying hose down my kitanai ("filthy" in nihon-fo) self. I'm still grateful to have the opp to do that though, don't get me wrong. also the early ten and a half konk time, way into that! oh, spaced on mentioning w/increase the set's medley closer to four tunes w/a big time interpretive (espeically from mike) interpretation of "equinox" by john coltrane in honor of him. amen.
thursday, september 24, 2026 - pacifica, ca
from mike:
CJ looking great
Reflected in Winter's too
Songs finessed, new sounds
from watt:
pop minutes before seven... real good konk and I'm gonna need cuz tomorrow's prolly the biggest hellride of the tour. today looks like a two hundred miles and about a four hour trip. I get caught up on the diary and even w/some of my photos, I'm always having trouble getting those happening as quick as chimping the spiel. I shave... forgot to do that yesterday and that's fuckin baka cuz at home I always try to shave before gigs and want that to be that way on tour now too. there were years where I never shaved on tour, can you believe that shit? I will never be a bearded or mustache man ever gig in my life, I think so. have in my web browser several bookmarks under the heading "thinking" I check in all the time when I have the time to check in w/stuff like this cuz you never know what you might find out... here's one I see just now, hana clio speaking of sentience and it opens up a loaf of "wonder bread" in my fuckin head, grazie to her. "every other mind has to be understood by the outside" - remember that when you read something what I've chimped in the diary, huh?! crimony.
we pull anchor at eleven and I announce to mike and johnny I renounce my request I made in last night's debriefing on the way to the konk pad to have us playing the dick hell cover slower and tell him that instead I'll learn how to cram the words in better to play at the speed they wanna bring it. bye bye fresno, we head north on ca-99 and talk about the blues and different way different people have done it. I tell johnny about I once got to play jack bruce's cream bass at bruce gary's pad in the valley. mike's heard it before and it's be in other diary stuff I've chimped in previous tours. at twenty after twelve I get us off a dehli - not that one but the cali one - at to a "7-11" to fuel up the boat's passengers and not the boat, she's good from yesterday, the gauge saying she's averaging 18.7 miles/gallon. weather is good... though the boat's says it's 92º f outside. crimony. miss hiyori brings me a salad for a dash. back on ca-99 the go-west on ca-120 cuz we're not taking this red bluff (where my pop grew up) but we'll pass by there tomorrow on our way to oregon. we get on I-580 go through altamont pass and on pass oak-town, getting on I-80... I see the lakeshore offramp we'll be taking tonight to konk after the gig, yes. onward over the bay bridge and through yerba buena (literally) and into the city, traff not as plugged as it could be, I'm grateful. phew-san comes from the shuffle play from the usb stick which johnny knows cuz of tortoise sharing a stage w/her in tokyo but soon he's got his audio world going via headphones so I can w/just mike the rest of the stuff filling the boat. I hope it ain't too much torture for johnny in the boat.
just before three I get us into pacifica and right near the offramp is winters tavern and also when I turn into the lot, the padboss ceej, yes - great to see him again! he hips me to the fact the across-the-street gnome man is now in a home for older cats... I asked cuz all the gnomes they used to populate his yard are gone and it looks like the pad's about to be demolished. kind of sad, kind of glad cuz it was singular but ceej says he's be taken care of. mike has a look-see and comes back w/mindblown - there's now a soundman w/a board that ain't on the bulkhead by the stage that a bandmember needs to work and in fact, we'er gonna do soundcheck at five even! he goes to the beach (the pacific ocean is right here - it's 65º f too) while I chimp diary.
mike returns w/chow - carnitas tacos for me from "taqueria pacifica" where I chowed now for years and I love still. brother steve's last home was this town so that also special significance for me cuz I love that man. five bells is load in and then we check w/an old friend of johnny's who's soundman here, craig from madison, wi. nice cat and helps us much w/the monitors. we do the dick hell tune and damn if for the first time ever it's at a tempo I can get the words out to, yatta! I then go to the little upstairs they got and try to ge more tour photos together. I wish I could've talked to the members of openers faerie folk but I got so behind w/now a week of the tour done, I just had to focus. I was using the 'puter so didn't need the lights on so they might've thought I was insane besides being not sociable... thinking about it now, I should've reassured them more that I thought they were good people and I just had to get on this that I had to do. damn me. I got done finally but not in time to even see them preform so damn me for that also. crimony. somehow I hope to make it up them, maybe have them on my show? I will write them... I do get to see uromastyx bring their set, sitting right in front of jon. I talk much w/their bassman kevin after their set cuz I really dug what he was bringing. jon's always been real nice to me, I'm glad he's got bassman kevin on board. violinman was very kind to me also. I didn't recognize padboss ceej, he was in a kind of costume, complete w/a corncob pipe - he asked me how many nautical miles it was from pacifica to pedro - I tell him 350 and damn if that it ain't close if you follow the coast which makes sense bof towns are on the coast of cali. I also tell him it's my seventyfourth tour and then realize it's fuckin him, damn me!
our turn and ten and we bring our set w/out monitors which soundman craig got going real good an soundcheck but are nada now. the show must go on and I enjoy it, I really liked how the band played and how the gig-goers were most kind in so many ways to us, really kind during and after, truly. I was thinking of brother steve, it's gonna be his bday tomorrow... he was in this pad much, him living in pacifica... I never get used to losing people, never... very hard for me. dr ray and dr robbin are here, we'll be konking at their pad in oak-town. I talk to many nice people and sign much stuff before getting the boat and bringing it around front, padboss ceej making space, most kind of him. yes, il sogno del marinaio guitarman stefano pilia is here, fratello ste! he helps me schlep and stow my bass stuff... he's here from his bologna town in italy for a musical residency and at the end of this tour we'll record and album together w/drummerman jimmy at _casa hanzo_ in my pedro town w/peetzo, can't wait!
after big bye byes to everyone (including mike dingle - old buddy of brother steve's) - super big hugs for brother ceej! we pull anchor for oak-town but damn if construction doesn't put us on the surface streets in the city and I an hour delay getting onto and over the bay bridge... people have the hardest time working together w/using the "zipper method" to resolve the lane reduction sitch, just too much empathy required? pretty pathetic how we treat each other on the roads - not everyone but enough to make you wonder no wonder stuff is the way it is, huh? we arrive alive right around one and it's a real good time at dr ray and dr robbin, I love it here. I hose off upstairs and feel so grateful for such kindness... downstairs they got some slices of way happening cheese and molinari salami, which is quite a treat for watt. whoa. they got a portsmouth-born man here also, a very nice cat I share birthplaces w/and so glad we can all be here but damn if we ain't got the biggest hellride of the tour tomorrow and so I gotta konk after some good spiel. I think this is the quickest konk I've done this tour, maybe w/in seconds? crimony! I feel safe here...
friday, september 25, 2026 - talent, or
from mike:
Long drive into fall
Vanagons, Salmon, banjo
Band finding its sound
from watt:
pop at seven and a half, we gotta pull anchor at so right away out of nightwear (numaki) and into tour outfit (levis, green coat w/nothing under it, chones, socks and lowcut chuck taylors) while filling dr ray's ears w/some stuff about what I know regarding dao, kong (minzy's name but also actual name for cat westerners call confucius), jomon period japan - I've got a buttload to learn still but I'm into it. also 'pert-near done w/book ten of saint augustine's confessions back in pedro, tripping on he writes about his ma's effect on him... also read in his day most people read out-loud books and not silently - just thought of that now... whatev, sorry - wish I could rap w/him and doctor robbin w/out end but my first gig ever in talent, or awaits and we got some distance to cover, about 355 miles...
trippy how they say "nor cal" for here when like more a third of cali is north of here! great weather as we make like shepherds and get the flock out of oak-town, bye bye now to our righteous guests but we see them again soon and in fact dr ray will be our opener for the last gig I ever to do for ramona... I wheel us towards sac-town on I-80, crossing the carquinez straight and those two side-by-side bridges near vallejo.
a town that has (had?) a navy housing I lived in a real tiny time when I was a baby and my pop was getting nuclear engine training as young machinist mate and my ma told me people living there in the housing heard of this place pronounced vah-lay-ho but they themselves were all somewhere pronounced "valley joe" - I shit thee not. we're down to a quarter tank so at winters (same name as last night's gig pad, even w/out the apostrophe!) and we fuel up the boat for $5.60/gallon at an "arco" where they got no salad for the dash so instead I have some hardboiled eggs. they got a creek running through here called the "putah" which is trippy to say out loud if you went to school where I do in pedro and prolly a lot of other pads too, I'm guessing here...
back on the road and pretty much soon w/run into a huge stau at arbuckle, the result of fucked-up driving as evidenced by us passing the remnants of a burned-up truck trailer. it's not as much as a delay as last night and actually would've been less if we had not listened to the navigatore gps "maps" software and just stayed on the interstate cuz of the context advantage us humans have over 'puters (something to be learned here?) but we submitted and I guess deserve what we got though maybe some dice-roll stuff was involved also. right before noon I get us pass red bluff which is the town where my pop grew up and I don't pull over like I usually to cuz the boat's got plenty of gas and we got miles to cover. we pass a sign saying "frontage road" and johnny about this either, I tell him about us minutemen first touring and being idiots not know this was a generic term for a sidemouse road that followed a highway, we thought there was and road named this and is was all over the fuckin place, like "there it is again" - especially in texas where there's like buttloads... we started referring to it as "that french road" and pronouncing like the "fron" part had a real long o sound and the second syllable was prounced like "taj" as in the first name of that great singer taj mahal (love him opening the "rolling stones rock n roll circus" w/his version of "ain't a lot of love" - fuck it love it!). once out of the sac valley (we crossed the sac river at red bluff) and into shasta county I do pull us over so I can push mr brown into the lake at weed where actually my pop worked for a summer in which the experience had him in fact join the service but after dropping anchor I get spieling about this time blowing it out on I-80... oh, forgot to say at vacaville we got on the the I-505 spur (interstate system code for three digits is spur - connects at one place - for odd and even for belt - connects at two places) to I-5 (interstate system code for two digits is odd for north/south, smaller for west/south and even for east/west, larger for east/north... stuff my pop taught me). ok, back to being in weed about one and half... we pull over to some gas station even though we ain't gonna fuel up and after shutting the motor off, I start rapping to johnny about this one time touring w/my scondmen (the longshoreman guys, peetzo and jer) and we're on the I-80 in the middle of wyoming when I felt the "mule kickin at the bard door" but didn't act on it and damn when I coughed, I blew it out and my levis were suddenly a few pounds heavier. fuck. there's this kind mom and pop tiny truckstop in wamsutter and damn if they ain't I got a shower and since peetzo and jer were both konked hard, I got everything scoured and shipshape so much so that never knew anything 'til they read it in the diary, I shit thee not. johnny then asks me I'm gonna go do what we came to stop here in weed for - I had fuckin forgot! damn me. I do go that, thanking him much for the remind. we cross into oregon around twenty of three and then over siskiyou pass five minutes later w/no trouble, a sky full of mostly w/weather most calm - I'm way digging it. I do not take good weather for granted, never.
talent's not far from the border, less than thirty miles and just north of ashland. I put us in front of the art bop brew co at three and a half. very nice people here, truly. you know what I spaced on? I mean besides thousands of other things, I should chimp about what the ford sync4 audio shuffle trip brought from the usb stick I got it feeding from, the audio part of a vhs I got years ago, "the world according to john coltrane" which is like a little over an hour but it goes by like that cuz I'm so much into this man and his music. not the final word but I recommend this big time.
meet soundman dave while we're talking about jimi and setting up, that "if 6 was 9" stuck in my head and I can't stop rapping about it. meet bassbrother tarik of the opening band raze the maze and he not only does bass, he does piano and starts plunking some of that tune out, yes! bassbrother tarik was on my show and very cool people - it's cuz of him and brother kevin that this gig came together, yatta! I go chimp diary cuz had no chance to do any cuz of the early shove-off time... mike brings me a salad that's got a piece of grilled salmon in and some edamame and crispy noodles plus some trippy peanut sauce, real good.
early gig, bassbrother tarik and his trio start the show at six and he can really play. you can do a lot w/a trio, I've experienced so many ways doing music that way, seems in some ways kind of universal about that. something about it being distinct enough to being made up of parts while at the same "contained" enough a way to be felt as a whole. trippy. quarter of seven for us. I really enjoy. my 'g' string in "hicole" is a half-step flat for some reason - what a baka! I get that corrected in moments after we're done, kind of embarrassed - kind of?! I don't let it put a damper in the hamper though which is good for everyone involved cuz what does that fuckin "fix" anyway? it's just a buttload of kvetch not helping anything. the gig-goers here in talent are really kind to us, actually soundman dave told me they call this whole area the rogue river valley and talent's one part. so glad to find out more about these parts, so many times I've just driven past! you know these casa sueño gigs have me watching johnny prolly just as much as the gig-goers are likeily also! I mean I check w/mike all the time, especially when he starts singing so those who might be looking at me get the drift that I'd like their attention focused where it might need to be but I just am really amazed at what johnny brings. he mixes it up always, no rerun rock w/this stickman... no rinse and repeat. I'm getting more able to ride the music flows he let's go and I get the feeling it ain't just watt but mike too is getting in on it. for me, these gigs are real things to bof witness and be part of - the "be part of" actually realized like "opportunity" cuz of the dynamic involved cuz I can feel johnny channeling in w/the trio, really interesting dialogue stuff. crimony. I wish I had better spiel to explain this. it's a good time when it gets done - we don't milk it, we're finished when we're finished and then it's a happy pack up for watt, yep.
I get much good word from the people after, brother kevin shows me the ford econoline he got engaged in and his partner as me sign on the driver's hatch. I'm so glad to meet his pop and then his ma, who gives me a little blue stone heart I put in the pocket of my green jacket, this very special for me. lots of kindness, truly. so glad got to play here, so glad! kevin stows my bass stuff in the boat like a champ, I thank him much all this he's made happen for his tonight, what cool people - much much respect and big love! I thank bassbrother tarik for eveything, tell him I would love him do that jimi tune! it was the connect of him being on my show cuz of kevin - actually kevin help schlep my stuff a bunch of times in cali - in riverside, going way back! you know, connects that last really are something... it's fuckin profound on me.
I konked w/brother steve from up in grant's pass nine and a half years ago and he's offered to have me aboard again, whoa. back then it was for the toys missing tour which kind of kicked off me working w/toddski and jimmy today - ain't that a trip? it's a little bit of a drive but way worth it, the shower at brother steve's pad is incredible! everything really nice and man, am I tuckered and konk real quick after hosing off. the tour might be out of cali now but it's a good time.
saturday, september 26, 2026 - salem, or
from mike:
That great leslie cab...
Many sandwiches laid out
Dynamic set here
from watt:
pop at eight, needed the longer time. I chimp diary 'til brother steve raps w/me about taking care w/health in less younger years, wants advice on cutting sugar and I tell him of course it's some discipline but then also know where it is cuz all sugar in chow is not sweet - it's in pasta, rice, bread, some more than others so you find out stuff. for sure the sodas and fruit juices are loaded up... cooking my own chow has helped me. shannon cooks us up some breakfast and it's good, she's so kind. the weather outside is very nice and mild, we pull anchor at eleven and say bye bye but we'll see them again when we play their grants pass town. not far from their pad, they got gas at a "sinclair" for $5.26/gallon - cheapest of the tour so we fuel up there and head north on the I-5 for salem - where tonight's gig is.
calm drive, it's about 260 miles we gotta do and I learn some about the louisville, ky people johnny knows - I didn't know david pajo played in tortoise w/him for a time! I got to make a red parakeet seven inch where he covered my "fireman hurley" and I covered his "long may you burn" a couple of years ago. believe it or not, we were bof talking about recording as a trio w/hugo - wouldn't have that been a blast! maybe some day, huh? like mr tang said, it's easier to start something than to see it through, absolute. I pull us over twenty of two in creswell for dash salad from a "subway" there while the bladders and bowels that are aboard have a chance to be emptied. three bells and I get us in front of blast off vintage which is the sight of bof the salem gig I will have done so far in my life. I say hi and thank the padboss pete for making that possible. we'll play in the basement but I got the feeling there's a table heaped w/chow in the backstage for rascals that I wanna not be tempted to drown myself using fao grae funnel feed mode so I stay up in the boat and chimp diary... you understand one of the reasons I chimp diary on tour is to in the moment try to keep it together besides just creating documents, capito?
valerie, from one of the opening bands parks next to the boat, she lived in the val back in so cal, knows about my pedro town. she's playing w/austin tonight, he's the cat who set up the gig w/mike and has been on my show a few times now, I like him a lot. we get to load in our stuff and then mike and johnny roam - like the wipers' tune: "roam romeo, romeo roam" - oregon is made to make you wanna think of the wipers but I'm thinking about that bands first three albums buttloads, I just do. no soundcheck tonight... after chowing the carintas tacos mike bring w/the bottle of mineraugua, I konk some before entering the venue and going downstairs where my fears of that chow table are confirmed when I go backstage, crimony... you could feed an army! there is some fruit... and salami! I had some at dr ray's and dr robbin's but maybe a round II here in salem? it ain't molinari's but I chow some slices and talk w/johnny about this clown poster on the wall... on tour w/ninetynine other clowns? us being tour cats, that's a trip to imagine, I shit thee not!
I hear the show start and go to witness obadiah on drums and cozeth on drums - obadiah explains it's there first gig in fifteen years. crimony. I like their set much though I can't find any _desperate strangers_ recordings on the internet to share w/you, damn me. my friend austin rich's tech death trio w/valerie and bassman tom, very interesting - I invite them to be on the watt from pedro show - next opening is the second monday in january - yeah, doing the twice a week gets the "bookings" for it filled up kind of quick advance... people like old friend howard and then cats I ain't never met that are always steering good music my way, alex and josh but mostly it's people who've already been on telling others or me seeing/hearing myself - it's a way I feel I'm kind of making a payback to the movement, you know by letting getting people get heard like the way d boon, georgie and myself were allowed to. I realize I'll never pay off that debt but I will keep trying and trying cuz I really feel I owe it, really do.
our turn is fifteen minutes late on the scheduled 8:45 pm go-time but no matter, great feel here in salem and I'm so glad here to be part of this band w/mike and johnny. however, I clam the clams I've been blowing in the second tune. johnny's got past the cut-short finale of the first tune so I think big time I should get the fuckin buttload of clams I've blowing in this tune - it's the one we recorded back in december and damn if I wasn't clamming on all over the fuckin recording - clamming so much I had to redo my soiled terribleness at the studio tHUNDERpANTS I got at my pad! damn me. mike simplified my part for the tour but I keep choking. tomorrow night I will get this. trippy to tell yourself at the beginning of a gig your involved w/in the now but that's how fuckin wack I get sometimes, damn me again. I rally w/the third one but fuck up the beginning of the fourth one - however I rally while still in the tune which is happening. the salem gig-goers and most supportive and I don't know how much or how bad my clams cuz actually the two guys are playing strong enough not to let them sink either that song or the set - love playing w/these cats, they got you. mike creates a sitch like that... he'll wait for the debrief to bring up stuff but not during showtime.
we get done and I get to rap w/and sign stuff w/the gig-goers - all tour it's like this and I'm always most grateful and glad for it. I use to never wanna hear about older things but now I don't mind at all, it's ok cuz the moment's on us so we're living that and then thinking out loud or reciting a remembrance sermon or it's kind your like you're in the bathhouse and the power's gone out and there's groping to get it figured, to find a footing. I hear people out more now, yes.
padboss pete comes out to the boat w/like a three pound sack of gummi bears and is kind of bumming w/all the chow we're leaving on that table in the backstage and I'm most sorry but I gotta wave him off - "diabetes, mike - that's the problem" and yeah, he's prolly right on the fuckin money there... ok, I take a can of nuts and put what's left of the fruit holder-trip on the dash - I'll wait for the sun tomorrow to rise and get that good and ready. I thank him much and give austin a big hug... oh randolf carter from the eugene difficult music ensemble is here and gives me a green shirt - a shirt from randolf is very happening for me... I sent him some music to collab w/a few weeks ago and he's sent me tons for the watt from pedro show and has turned me onto to tons of guests - in fact that's how I met austin!
ivan's a most kind cat in a far northeast corner of salem who's a friend of friend of mike's and he's letting us konk at his pad, maybe twenty minutes away and there's room next to his drums for the air mattress, happening. I use his internet connect to update the diary, mike gave me stuff for the last three days and I love the company, feel a little awkward w/out other perspectives to help balance out the word-diarrhea I can fuckin bring. thank you mike! thank you to johnny and the rieghteous drumming I got to do bass along side, love it most grateful to ivan and his kindness. I konk quick.
sunday, september 27, 2026 - olympia, wa
from mike:
Kinda tired and cold
Strolled, messed up Dean's band name - oops!
Band is playing great
from watt:
pop twenty after seven after several pre-pops for pissing and once a calf-cramp I had to stand up on to remove. ivan is most kind to cook me up some oatmeal I chow using a kick drum of his as table once I get done hosing off. I chimp diary and hear ivan talking w/johnny about buddha stuff, ivan pracs one kind. later he uses a singing bowl to do chimes w/his chants, real fast mantras maybe? I dug how it went w/my chimping and I get all my photos up to date.
the weather's gray but so cal style, I'm sure the clouds will burn off. we say bye bye to ivan at eleven and pull anchor, also to his daughter's dog w/purple-dyed feet... most kind of him to help us.
full moon last night, I get us north on I-5 and through portland, having to use the belt I-405 to get around some plug and across the columbia river and into washington just after noon.
quarter of one I get us off at kelso to an "arco" w/gas at $5.30/gallon which we jump on. first time of the tour the boat's windshield gets a righteous wash-up from johnny - this man has more than drum technique going for him, he gets the glass more shined up than tommy did w/his shine box, this man is serious and not just via the squeegee but w/paper towel for a round II just to make sure, much respect! I am most grateful and I can imagine the boat is as well, grazie big time to johnny.
today's drive: about 170 miles to olympia and part of the music provided by shuffle mode for what I got on the usb stick plugged into the boats sync4 system is a tune from the first album mike recorded w/me that jim keltner on drums and what makes it trippy (titled by mike: "dirty smell of dying") is johnny was asking us about recording w/mr keltner and soon enough... yep, this starts playing! crimony. anyway, there's a third baggetta / keltner / watt album mike's put together that has yet to come out... man, would I be into that cuz it was righteous experience for me to record w/mr keltner, truly.
just after two I get us to the back of tonight's gigpad, the crypt bar in the old downtown, my first time here - fuck, 2017's the last time I've played olympia, damn me for that. we didn't have enough time to really dry the wash miss hiyori did this morning so me and her go to a laundromat that ain't close enough to hobble but not far to drive while mike and johnny roam, a pad called "westside laundry" and we defeat the mold threaten damp stuff w/some dryer action, e fata!
back at the gigpad, mike's got some happening pork tacos for me to shovel and then we do the load-in, meeting a nice cat named john who's the jefe tonight. our fourth person for tonight is vivian. we do the soundcheck, mike not knowing how to set my "the watt" box up so I take this photo:
he knows now and so does anyone seeing this! we get done and I meet harley and his buddy he brought to sling merch, harley's known at the phantom a.d. and damn if he didn't get some guitar lessons at maccabe's in santa monica where the minutemen once got to jam w/petra's pop charlie! I'm gonna play there in december in fact, day before john hanrahan bday, me and him as a rhythm section together and then the next day in my pedro town, bof gigs doing john coltrane music, yatta!
back stage I meet several cats in the other two openers, actually I don't know they're in the bands 'til I see them on stage, like the bookerman for this pad dean or drew who turns out to sing and play guitar for the band they're bof in, illusion dweller who go second - fastener opens up but the same drummerman ian is shared between them, I like that. I get asked about the old days and I say a lot of it was about people and I think the new days is still about that: people.
pour turn at ten - yes, hit right on time cuz of harley sacrificing some of his tuneage like a real mensch, thank you harley. it is prolly the most clammed gig of the tour but this band is flexible enough to never get too twisted up by such a thing and we always seem keep connected and playing no matter what. tunes out of order (my fault), parts out of order or wrong amount (my fault), etc... mike and johnny are there for me, there for the gig-goers and these olympia gig-goers are most happening, truly. it's a real good time.
lots of good word from them when we're done but I do get some pad news... one cat tells me his friend who was from my pedro town but moved here long ago - he was known as p mirkin in pedro (he's part of this tune here w/d boon on cooking pot) and I'm told we lost him like eight or nine months ago to sepsis. very sad. last time I saw him here it was at one of my gigs in the fall w/him barefoot and it's cold for me in these parts and that amazed me. in pedro once he jumped into the water all borracho on a sea lion and got all bit up... I learned to never do that. p mirkin was always very kind to me, so sad to hear he's now gone.
pete and ann are here from kansas city, what a surprise! they help me w/the bass stuff schlep and pete does a great w/the stow job. the bracelet on my port-side wrist was from a bicycle spoke made by him when he had a bike shop in lawrence, ks years ago now and I've tried my best to never had it off. our fourth person vinnie who did a fuckin righteous job for us is parked in front of the boat and he reminds me of being w/me nine and half years ago when me and my missingmen and toys that kill konked at tobi vail's pad (she wrote me she would try to be here tonight to be here cuz her tour just ended but I don't think the flight landed in time, damn) and we watched together raymond's sir drone movie that I'm in w/mike kelley - they're big fans and know all the dialogue, pausing the vhs tape many times to have me explain back story stuff, it was a hoot!
the konk pad ain't far, it's at chris' where I've stayed w/bof the fratelli and the lite brothers back in 2014 when his dawson was only twelve! dawson's out there to welcome us. so very kind to have me back all these years later, most kind big time. I konk really happy.
monday, september 28, 2026 - bellingham, wa
from mike:
Got a long sleep in
Good tacos here, nice hang Jeff!
Best set yet, I think...?
from johnny:
from watt:
pop at twenty after nine, crimony! I never konk this long, I must've really needed it, most grateful I could get it. shaua (romanji "shower") is up stairs but worth it cuz it's happening. chris cooks me up two small blueberry hotcakes w/scrambled eggs and three thing medallions of sausage, I douse it all w/tobasco... love using the hashi shoveling all three into the mouf simultaneously, love the symphony of the resulting flavors being integrating as the go down the in hole. I discus pulgas w/his son dawson - there was a pad I saw on the ford transit sync4 screen called the las pulgas niteclub near where we played in tijuana and it made me think of this time I was looking for an apartment when I was around his age and talking w/the landlady there and thought for sure I was having some flashbacks from eating l but no, it was pulgas ('fleas" en espanol) jumping from her eyebrows, trying to get to me. whoa. I told her maybe this wasn't the pad I was looking for. dawson then has to go to work, telling me he had some toilets to scrub.
we pull anchor at one and a half, very relaxed here. righteous technique w/bracing a light pole here near the boat... dawson was telling mike about these landscaping he did at a park (mike in fact hiked around this park) so I'm wondering if this is his doing? I can dig it.
I wheel us north on I-5, it's only 150 miles to the next gig but we gotta get past seattle and that means plug und stau bof in and out so add another hour, no prob. if you resign yourself to such stuff, I think you'll do a lot for your nervous system.
some terrible examples of human selfishness you gotta experience and we do here we get in much good spiel - johnny's a happening conversationalist and traveling companion and I've dug touring w/mike for a while now. everyone aboard makes all the bother I seem to be belly-achin about well worth get the opportunity to make music w/these cats, truly. after passing the third I-405 we've seen on this tour (one in so cal, one in portland and now here, three digit interstate numbers are not singular, people - they're either a belt or a spur off a singular road that's either one or two digits!) at three and a half I pull us off near lynwood (the washington state one) at an arco" not to put fuel in the boat but to put piss in their head, interrupting the training for future members (mike and johnny in this case) of the kfs (keigo flexing unit). I fill my piss jug while doing guardiano on the boat in the meantime. back on road, johnny recalls a tune off of zz top's "tres hombres" called "master of sparks" (the "ishmael" story behind it):
high class slim came floating in
down from the county line
just getting right on saturday night
ridin' with some friends of mine
they invited me to come and see
just what was on their minds
and then I took my first long look
at the master of sparks on high
in the back of jimmy's mack
stood a round steel cage
welded into shape by slim
made out of sucker gauge
how fine, they cried now with you inside
strapped in there safe and sound
I thought, my-o-my, how the sparks will fly
if that thing ever hit the ground
slim was so pleased when I had eas
ed
into his trap of death
he had slammed the door but I said no more
and I thought I'd breathed my last breath
we was out in the sticks down highway six
and the crowd was just about right
the speed was too, so out I flew
like a stick of rolling dynamite
you might also like
when I hit the ground
you could hear the sound
and see the sparks a country mile
end over end I began to spin
but the ball started running wild
but it was too late as I met my fate
and the ball started gettin' hot
but through the sparks and the flame
I knew that the claim
of the master of sparks was gone
- billy gibbons
well, that's the whole enchilada - johnny said his torioise band used one line for a song of theirs but prolly cuz I love that album, I thought of it in its entirety including its trippy backstory.
at five bells I get us into bellingham and to the shakedown and damn if the "green house home + life" store next to them aren't kind enough to let us use their lot dock the boat, much respect to them. I pour some hydrogen peroxide in my starboard-side ear w/my head tilted to hold in to get some infection I feel there, I hear it boiling away, then straighten my head to drain it. mike finds some tacos for our dinner and I'm way into that.
chow done, we load-in and soundman wyatt their to greet me once again - I was here two years ago w/chris corsano and joe baiza. I get to meet the openers stereo donkey and digging on their soundcheck following ours, I invite them to be a guest on a january edition of the watt from pedro show before kind lady katy let's me backstage - they got a scary low-blow on their hatch that gets mike w/some hurt, feel bad for him. I get to see johnny do some drawing, love his art.
stereo donkey opens the gig at eight pm and does real good, happening instrumental trio w/plenty of reverb, they told me they're a bellingham band, respect. we're next at nine and it'll be what mike tells at the debriefing what he believes is our best gig of the tour. love making mike happy, love making johnny happy. I enjoy the gig and only clam in one verse of "...hole" by playing a 'g' where an 'f' should've been - tight w/johnny and on time but a step sharp, four times in a row. crimony. mike doesn't bring that up in the debriefing though... the bellingham gig-goers don't bring it up either, they bring a lot of enthusiasm and focus, most kind of them. we have mike's buddy jeff crompton on the alto who moved here last december from atlanta w/wife kate do the encore medley w/us for our first four-way of the tour. very happening of jeff!
also most happening of jeff is letting us konk at his pad not too far away. after getting much good word and signing stuff for the gig-goers, and while packing up, I meet bassman robin's brother jeremy who lives here and he gives me some great news that robin has got new music coming. I first met robin when he was helping husker du w/their "metal circus" tour at the sst pad when it was on phelan lane in dondo... got a framed photo of him and tom layton w/me, tom did all my madison gigs 'til a heart attack got him, terrible... I miss tom much. well, rain is coming and damn if we don't do the quickest load-out of the tour yet, boom-bada-binga we're ready to go and soon at his pad and ready for konk. it's a very nice sitch and I konk quick and easy.
tuesday, september 29, 2026 - vancouver, canada
from mike:
Easy border cross!
This band tries stuff out, i like!
Boat is not stolen!
from watt:
pop at six and half w/out any pops for pissing, like six hours plus straight of konk for me. crimony. much thanks to jeff for providing such a pad for something like that to happen. karen and him prepare us chow and we talk of atlanta where they're from and jeff also plays music for johnny and mike which I can hear also... I speak w/jeff about the music bios I've been reading and damn if he don't show me one of the favorites, dave gelly's on lester young... I really am not into a lot these books - love the subjects and that's why I choose them - what bums me out is most of these authors waste so much of my time w/poor writing, padding w/filler, posing as wannabe record reviewers... I hate to be critical but it's hard to ignore this stuff even though I'm hungry to learn all I can about the music of these musicians these people are supposedly writing about and maybe what went into that but I find them really saddled w/lame-ass ballast. however, it seems even w/all the slog a lot of times I find myself doing, I do find stuff I find of value so in good way, I feel it ain't a total waste reading these things. I'll tell you amazing thing that helps me w/the experience: using youtube.com to hear for myself the recordings that get referred to cuz lots of times you can find them and make up your own mind about what you're hearing. I first did that w/the mike barnes book on captain beefheart - I actually liked his book, the second edition written really well for me. I'm trying to speak for every reader, please understand - I'm speaking only for myself, I am not an expert reader - I am still big time learning but I am learning by doing.
we'll see jeff and karen again thursday... we thank them and shove off at eleven and head north on I-5 for the border w/canada for our gig tonight there. rain starts coming down as we pull anchor, our first big one of the tour. a half hour later we're at the peace arch...
wthere's not a huge line in (the other way to our land is zilch) so it's not the long. the canadian borderman is very kind. our plan is do like we did for mexico and so I tell him about us being music trio that's gonna play lanalou's on powell street and give him our passports (mine's a card) and a letter from lanalou's. he asks if we got weapons and if I own the boat, I answer no and yes sir, then get my back wack sack and he asks what I got in it and I answer him "this?" and he nods and I say "my 'puter" and then from it fish a copy of a canadian document, tell him "I got this from your prime minister cuz of being drunk" and hand this paper okaying me to enter after being jailed in el monte twentyseven years ago for dwi even though he says there's no red flag on his 'puter screen, I believe have the right to keep dangerous idiots off their roads and I wanted to show him I've made amends and I was already getting it out, I always carry it in my back wack sack. he gives back our stuff very kindly, let's us pass.
the rain calms to welcome us, hell b.c. it's about a hollywood (thirty miles) to the venue, in the old japantown part of vancouver - I think it's called "strathcona" these and we parking easy in front lanalou's quarter after one. mike begins his roam, says he's searching for guitar stores while soon johnny begins his roam, says he's getting art stuff asking I need something and I show him the buttload of sharpies I got here in the boat and the green one I carry on me.
me guarding the boat, I feed some bits of those nuts I got from backstage at the salem gig to some local crows - they ain't scared of me as I do some toss from the boat's open window.
I then chimp diary. mike brings me a coff after a while and continues his roam... you see can vancouver's space needle from here where I'm parked, rain totally gone w/the temp at 60º f, sun out bright from the clouds... so quick so different this weather! I continue to chimp diary.
four and a half and the padboss lana arrives and hips me to the fact the gas town part ain't far from here - that's where the minutemen played their first vancouver gig.... we're also not far from the harbor... I saw hammerheads (the gantry cranes used to schlep cans on/off canboats) and thought of my secondmen, peetzo and jer... we're soon gonna start recording tunes for our second album - "pick it up and put it over there" is gonna be the title. we do the load-in and soundman mark does soundcheck w/us, nice cat. mike brought the trippiest tacos of the tour... lots of tacos I've chowed use two tortillas, like a double layer but here there used for extending the length! kind of doesn't work and yeah, maybe forgot to put them on the grill also? cabbage and fish but no sauce?
I chow them too soon though cuz my old bassbuddy barry from doers arrives and brings me a bottle of homemade hot sauce he's created, can you believe it?! oh well, the way it goes... I have a good rap w/him and his buddy jesse who does organ and also has a studio called rain city recorders here in town, real nice cat and much good spiel from him all the way up to show time, the padboss lana's husband's band _superchannel_doing what he announces from the stage is the "first and last show" w/him on board, I like his singing and guitar playing much.
our turn next and we go on right on time at nine and right away I stumble like a fucking stumble but I do regain my footing and it's a good time w/johnny and mike. I was last in this town two years ago but before that was like after a decade of not playing here - I think about that and realize it was so baka to let that happen cuz vancouver gig-goers have always been very good to me... there was a promoterman named peter who would do all my gigs here, had a company called timbre... always gave me much respect, a nice quiet cat and I remember really feeling it when we lost him. it's real good to play this room and for these folks, I enjoy it much, really do.
right off the stage, no need to pack... much signing stuff and getting the word from gig-goers, all very kind - one named matt I knew from long beach from like thirtyfive years ago w/his brother! but all sorts of vancouver cats being so nice. there's a one who asks me about d boon end part stuff which is real heavy for me to discus but I try to bring best I can a little bit of that night and me passing the willoughby avenue going south on la brea (a couple blocks north of pink's) in hollywood on my way back to pedro and get a big shiver... then later on my deck getting a call at three or four am from his pop danny boon telling me what happened - that twilight zone episode "a stop in willoughby" forever is in my head regarding the worst day/night of my life, people don't know how fucked up it is to bring up that date to me, not happening and not like they should know but if I tell them how I feel about and they still wanna use me to "celebrate" or whatever, well... that's for me is even more fucked up, really is. I get asked about tonight though also - like how my using my eyebrows helped w/communication on stage, that I find interesting... but then I'm asked why are these keys hanging off my belt loop if I flew in to play and I say, "what, I didn't fly in - we're in the middle of a tour and I'm the wheelman - the boat's out front" and then I'm asked then is that my van the police were outside this gigpad checking on cuz someone try to get in the boat so I grab my crutch and hobble as quick as I can to the hatch freaking out, what the fuck?! I 'pert-near shit a pecan-log! I see johnny and mike holler "pull anchor!" and they said they were waiting on me, what?! anyway, we're off w/out a load-out cuz we're playing here tomorrow and padboss lana is letting us keep our stuff here - mike enlightens me to the fact some plain clothes police were asking him about the boat - not that windows were broken but someone pulling on handles so so fuckin I'm relieved about that. the boat is the center of my touring universe!
mike got this konk pad off the internet and it's in west vancouver so it takes a little bit to get there, a little bit to find where to put the boat and a little bit to see how to get it warmed up but it all works out and I konk 'boom' like that, I'm out. oh, during the debriefing johnny said he felt his playing was kind of "clunky" but I didn't think that, I thought he was happening and dug it much. I myself am still fuckin up some of richard hell's words, damn me for that... fuckin slow-learner watt.
wednesday, september 30, 2026 - vancouver, canada
from mike:
Thankful for heaters
Frustration with my playing
But - we try again!
from watt:
pop at six cuz my lungs feel like dried-out leather sacks, the heater got put up too high for me, very harsh. I get to the controller in the kitchen and set it from where it was at at 80º f down ten degrees. crimony. I brew up some coff, they got like four methods but I go for the drip job w/the paper filter fed from a sack of "pete's" and hose off as it's cooking, a shower w/the big top spout maybe the size a fuckin dinner plate that pours down on you from a bunch of holes.
what's trippy about today is we're playing again at the same pad here in vacouver so that means the only driving is from here at the konk pad to the venue. I 'pert-near feel like getting in the boat and doing laps around the town but I don't. I instead see some stuff like dr collier's rap on making bof a carbon spectrum diagram and a scarf and mr tang's rap on three guys standing around a keg of vinegar plus some other stuff and just being still which feels trippy on tour where you got all this momentum carrying you from moment to moment. mike and johnny go wandering around, I don't see them 'til mike brings me some green curry from a thai chow pad he says has be going for thirtyfive years...
that came just before johnny was gonna bring me something but there's no need but most kind of him... bof these guys are beautiful to tour w/and I wish I could have a better way to put that, they really help me w/so much and make it a fun adventure... I know I've been doing fortythree years of full-on touring so you could think it could get mindless but having good cats w/you make it seem like your very first one and exciting to do, see what happens and I really dig that.
six bells and we head across the harbor back to lanalou's on powell street. I got 'pert-near the same spot where I put us last night. tonight the bosslady lana's band the furniture are w/us and they'll open up the gig at eight. 'til then, many people come up to me to rap... one is tom schlote who witnessed the recording of my second opera twentytwo years ago in my pedro town... he was gonna write something or whatev but you know what they say, "you make plans and life gets in the way" and ain't that the truth? good to see him though. chris crud come by to say hi and we have a good spiel, very kind. also nice to me is this cat gerald w/two fortyfives for me, one by blue oyster cult and one by t-rex, whoa.
the gig begins and the furniture gets things lit for us at eight... our turn at nine and though there's some trippy things like johnny breaking a cymbal stand - actually that's really interesting seeing how he turns that broken stand into a piece of percussion for the next tune! I think we play the best version of "in the coche now w/you" of the tour and I enjoy this gig. the vancouver gig-goers are once again very happening to play for and am so glad to be here. they might not know I feel that way cuz when mike asks me to speak to them for our last stuff, I go into meander mode a little bit talking about the wipers cuz the next time we do two gigs in the same town is in portland, where they were from and where their man greg sage was at our first portland and it how it meant a bunch to us but what? I'm thinking about this now and crimony, that was bizarre... sometimes watt does not have it together! it the dick hell tune I then fucked up the words and said "toin coss" in the chorus! oh man...
the vancouver gig-goers are most kind though, much good word and very nice shared feelings w/me, a cat who shared the stage w/me years ago now helps me stow the bass stuff in the boat, I really am grateful for everyone and what they brought and telling me they can't wait 'til I'm back, really kind. big love saying bye to everyone. I know the way back now to the konk pad and so there's no scary stuff this time (there was a little last night) and back at the pad, a little weird thing from me, what I know of the sad way we lost gene hackman and his wife not too long ago... on the ride home bof mike and johnny said they had some trippy feelings about their performances during the debriefing but then some people rapping to them after cheered them up. maybe that's why I thought of being connected to people in a good way is something that can help us w/other things seem to be out of our control. so glad we got to do these two gigs here in vancouver, so glad I got to do it w/mike and johnny.
thursday, october 1, 2026 - seattle, wa
from mike:
Last easy crossing
Finally get to see my wife
And? A great gig here
from johnny:
from watt:
pop at seven, clear weather in the window (no curtains in my chamber), I make coff. about 150 miles from our konk pad to the ballard part of seattle, first we'll stop off at jeff's in bellingham and it'll be great to see him again even though it's. oh yeah, we got a border to cross also... make coff, eat banana and then chimp diary 'til shove off at nine w/gray skies but no rain for bye bye from vancouver.
we get to the border at ten and mike decides on pac-king which I've never done before but there are zero cars in front and the borderlady is most kind, checks our passports, checks the back of the boat and welcomes us home. I think the quickest crossing of my life? prolly... we're at a quarter tank so I get gas for the boat at a "pilot" in ferndale for $4.90/gallon (most econo of the tour) and johnny gets me a salad for the dash which'll later get chowed for my gut, most kind of him. in bellingham, we visit jeff and he gives me four cds he's recorded - I've got to have him on my show... I notice blood on the boat's starboard-side window, maybe from the night before w/that drama in front of "lanalou's" and the plainclothes hombres asking mike about maybe someone trying the handles on the handle of hatches to see if they're locked? scary...
onward south on I-5 towards seattle w/pretty easy traff as far as plugs go though there's still some pendejo driving, especially w/some big-rigs, like what the fuck? most of these used to be the best drivers on the road and now you got some fucking real klowns dong way stupid risky shit, I try to keep us way clear as possible from them. we pass a sign for chuckanut drive and I'm thinking I wish some could chuck these nuts way far and keep them from driving and making our roads safer!
there's a part of seattle called ballard and that's where we're playing, the gigpad's called the tractor tavern and damned if I ain't played here in twelve years, ain't that fucked up? I think so. it'll be four and half before we can do the load-in so I roam around for parking for like a half-hour 'til we luck out and find a space in front of furniture store next to a burrito pad called "rachel's" and drop anchor there.
across the street is a chowpad called "sunny teriyaki" and miss hiyori brings "curry katsu rice" for me to chow. mike and johnny wander as I guard boat, this is usual way tour down time is spent.
I chimp diary. four and half arrives and I bring us to the best arrangement any gigpad can have for a band, a fucking loading dock in the back where the boat can also dock all night. every fucking gig everywhere I think should have such a thing.
the soundman oly arrives at the same time, a very ice cat who hips me to the fact old friend soundman terry pearson is now retired in living in a cabin in the mountains.
we do check w/soundman oly and then mike brings us tacos that are very good.
oh, I should say that this pad is really happening to have a handrail to help a cripple like me get off the stage. it might be the smallest one ever but it gets the job done and I love it. much respect for providing. there's two bands before us tonight and the first, quid quo gets things going at eight and I watch them, very good band.
after them is vinta and they're using the same equipment so maybe they're buds? I invite bof for my show and they're in to it, yatta!
our turn, right at nine and a half - so kind of the openers to be considerate and not bogart. it's a most happening gig for us, I dig much. the gig-goers here are way focused and respectful, very kind to us. my performance is not clamless but it is making good progress and I have a good time w/the gig, good sound from fourth man oly also. there's some improvising johnny bringing where he's using a stick on a smaller cymbal he's got on the floor tom, holding it down like it was a potato masher and the other stick has got this pattern going where it's doing all the variations while still creating kind of a mantra feel that I really dig. this part of the set I stroll in these parts where him and mike like a twofer going. I love playing w/johnny.
I pack my stuff up, pete and ann from kansas city are here and help w/stowing it in the boat. we take a pictures after.
so very kind of them, always. many gig-goers get stuff signed and say most kind stuff to me, recall things to me... it's a good time. ok, time to get to sandy's... cuz of her business, she couldn't make the show but near her pad in pioneer square, she helps us park in this place where there seems to be always some kind of hangup but finally we dock the boat and get up to where she's at w/her dog meatball dragging a rag dragon around by mouf to show everyone. we all konk in the one big room, she got an air mattress from johnny, I wonder if he's every used one before? I hose off and konk pretty quick cuz I'm way tuckered.
friday, october 2, 2026 - portland, or
from mike:
Me? Forty-nine light
Thanks Alex and Curt for help!
No good slide sounds yet
from watt:
pop at seven. soon sandy's up cuz meatball makes sure everyone's soon up. she's makes us chow while talking about the old days when she was going to punk gigs at fourteen, johnny's curious. I met sandy a couple years later, we've known each other a long time. we have what she calls "fake french toast" which is a kind mike can chow cuz of his allergies, w/bacon and fruit and I dig it.
she's got lots of stuff to cuz of her business so we shove off at ten. she walks us out to the parking paad... bye bye sandy 'til the next time. oh, to open the gate to let the boat free, the parking guy wants $49! no sandy here now to save the day so mike relents. crimony.
the last time I was on this part of the I-5, w/joe baiza and chris corsano two years ago, there was a massive plug and delay but this time none of that but still some dicks being dicks w/shitty driving, more than yesterday and even more w/the big-rigs, fucking pendejos.
there is a stau though, right after going over the columbia river and crossing the state line at a quarter after one we're back in oregon... now to get where we need to get to in portland I gotta get off the freesay due to plug/stau take side streets... johnny asked for us to first go to revival drum shop which takes fortyfive minuts (cuz of fucking stau!) but it's well worth besides being just what it is (stau ain't just a so cal thing now, they're everywhere!) - he can get stuff cuz of the broken stand plus he gets some more chingaderas, happening. he has a good connect w/these cats too. respect.
from there we go to the venue not to far, an actual guitar shop called strum pdx and look around for parking, not too successful 'til I'm helped by my old friend holly and daughter lily rose and son aiden, so good to see them again. they hold a spot for me right in front of the gigpad and damn if they don't find all these four leaf clovers right near!
we have a big spiel nearby, missing one daughter ruby skye cuz here flight got canceled but she's supposed to get in some time today. it's a good catch-up spiel, I've know hol for thirtytwo years now, met her through my fiend doug rockett who we lost to diabetes fifteen years ago, she went to school w/him, he was a great cat and became a foot doctor, actually really helped my buddy and _noncommons sense_ bandmate w/his foot problems. I really dug doug, dug him big time. no souncheck here, we're playing on the deck w/bof tonight and tomorrow sold out, I go to the boat to chow the tacos mike brought me and damn if I ain't out cold for two solid hours... sometimes that happens w/me, even w/no gigs and in the late afternoon in pedro, I'll just konk out real solid for an hour or two and feel like I was buried under two million tons of whatev, it's that intense.
mike rousts me - I completely missed the openers which is really lame cuz one of the guitarists is chris who's pad we're konking at tonight, crimony! I feel like an idiot but at least I can see them tomorrow cuz they're playing w/us again - at the same pad! yeah, second two-night stand of the tour. ok, we bring our set. the portland gig-goers are right on us in this pad but they are most kind to us. we bring a real good set, mike bringing a different strategy to "wishing well" he was talking about during last night's debriefing. lots of balls-out w/this band, no fear and taking chances, I dig that. johnny w/the drums is like skateboarding, lots of different stuff to bring to each opportunity the tunes are set up to provide, he has a good sense for this. I really have a good time. for encore, I dedicate the eric dolpy tune when we finish it to richard meltzer who moved here in the 90s but I haven't seen him a little bit, I think of him much (I even got to collab w/him, ms yuko and mr shimmy for this proj called spielgusher), he's been a big influence on me in my way of looking at art and stuff. ok, the next tune we do: I still gotta work on the dick hell's words even w/improvement, I still ain't got it all the way together, damn me. I get them together prac'n by myself, in my head and even spieling them out loud but the when time comes to do, I clam! crimony.
all done and time to pack up, ruby, helps me much and then I spiel and sign stuff w/the gig-goers, very much much kindness, thank you! out by the boat, pete and ann are here, they got in and so did hol and her family, I'm so glad that happened. hol stows my bass gear real good. I have a good rap w/relating my lawrence and k.c. gigs to hol w/pete and ann, they show their bike spoke bracelets and that kind of blows her mind! like pete says, "life time guarantee" - yep. old friend saul koll says hi (he made the guitar mike's playing this tour), says he's learned stuff from reading the diary like how not to jump off a pier onto a sea lion all borracho and I tell him I'm so glad to help, so good to see him.
we pull anchor to chris' pad in oregon city, like eighteen miles away using the freeway (direct would be thirteen but...) and as I get us near I do a blow-by and of course that can be rectified only by a loop - that's just the way it is: the boat gets a loop. at chris' pad I hose off and apologize for missing his band. I tell him I will make sure I see them play tomorrow. I then konk.
saturday, october 3, 2026 - portland, or
from mike:
Woke in amp heaven
Good gig - ready to record
Thank you Saul and Chris!
from watt:
pop at eight and like what I just experienced in vancouver, I got a powerful hankerin' to get in the boat and just do laps cuz there's no new town to head for... I chimp diary 'til chris fixes up some over-medium eggs and bacon for me, most kind of him. I have big spiel w/chris about his journey through music and also w/making stuff for music and how he's continuing w/it today. very interesting. he's got much bass in his journey also so I can relate w/him on that. I share some ideas about bringing stuff to the world regarding bass that ain't so much from a "wannabe guitarist" tired-ass view (where I feel much fusion stay-away maybe comes up on my) to more of the "four string drumset" way of looking at the thudstaff. off course this means maybe less kneepads for stompbox worship or plugin tattooing, thunderbroom to amp being operated by fingers skippered by creative way to dance w/the kickdrum and help w/gluing the ensemble together in an interesting conversa-meditation story telling good time. there might be sadness of course but of course it will be felt and not jived. this is important to me. amplifiers I think are important for this. I learn much listening to chris here and am big time grateful.
we pull anchor for another gig at the strum pad and it takes 'pert-near an hour but we arrive alive. I notice some artistic improvement w/the dash (it's not only for stowing salad) - yesterday he found some superglue he had stashed on his side of the boat (stashed by him during last year's tour!) and augments the shrine he's got going on the boat's dash, something tom watson really got going on the boat before this one. I'm into such a thing, am grateful to them bof for their creativity.
no soundcheck again so I guard the boat and soon mike arrives w/a container from a thai chowpad of what they call "yellow curry" that I dig much... sort of like what I had a couple days ago in vancouver but w/a thing of its own, I find this w/tacos also, always w/a thing of its own and I love that big time.
I lay down on the back bench but make sure I don't konk like last night cuz I wanna see chris' band _mt terror_ which starts the show off at seven (again sold out - thank you good people of portland!) and I watch them from where their bassman is who also parked in front of the boat but left me good space, much respect. I dig them, a two guitar quartet and the singer (him and chris do guitars) informs us he's an old friend of chris and the work together making chris' amps. this pad has lots of them also. mike told me there's a connect w/chris and the studio we're recording at tomorrow, ok, happening community. the band plays really well together and I find myself really inspired for our turn, thank you music brothers!
eight bells and we bring, portland gig-goers right there - hol and her children I see right port of me, on the deck... it was ruby who gave me her chair, in fact as I remember... you know, I'm chimping this two days later and it's kind of difficult - yeah, fuckin two days later and I'm having some difficulty - this is why I try to chimp diary the very next day! it's fucked up but it's the way it is, I don't wanna space on stuff I think (meaning I hope!) has to be chimped or possibly forever spaced! I am baka. the gig is a blast for me, having a good time playing w/johnny for mike and the portland gig-goers, really am - love this drummerman.
turns out johnny's tortoise bandmate john mcentire is here cuz I meet him once done, whoa - I got so much respect for him, so much! I even did my best version of "you gotta lose" - damn if I ain't a slow fuckin learner, damn me to hell for that but enough kvetch... promoterman trevor's here also, he had me onboard to open for modest mouse back in early august, me and my missingmen flew out to it as a one-off. I made friends w/their man isaac and he wrote me this morning saying he was still away touring and couldn't be here. first time I heard his stuff, reminded me of the gigs I went to in hollywood in the late 70s where I wouldn't know what to expect and get tripped out - I think that's a really neat a way to get a first experience, w/out a clue, you know? out of the past is eli from the heavy johnson trio, so good to see him - we shared many stages together, wow, great surprise to get to hug him again. there was a buddy of his band that always used to flow me 'gars, I remember. brother eli's a great bassman, so glad to hear from him he's got a new proj happening. karen rockett's here, a coincidence she had to be in portland - I dedicated the eric dolphy "hat and beard" to her brother doug tonight. I think it's the first time she's met hol's kids... lily and ruby schlep my bass stuff and aiden helps miss hiyori w/the merch. all three do real good. lily wants to see the piss bottle I got going w/this boat, so I show them where I stow it, in the hatch next to where I man the rudder. of course I got it labeled appropriately, on the top of the screwtop in sharpie I got 'DO NOT DRINK piss inside' written, of course. it was great to see them and their ma, really was.
we shove off for chris' pad in oregon city and it's a little scary finding it's the lowest I've ever been in this boat regarding fuel in the tank. we do find a "chevron" after several warnings are issued by the boat and put five gallons of too expensive but better than being out of the race, like ten miles away from chris' - of course I gotta do a blow-by and a loop 'pert-near there, damn me for that.
I am tuckered and quick I hose off and get in the nightwear... I'm out really quick, like really quick!
monday, october 5, 2026 - grants pass, or
from mike:
Good times in Portland
Warmer weather, walk with John
Great gig back on stage!
from watt:
pop at seven, heather is making coff... her and chris' kids got school but they must be trippin kind of these four strangers camping at their pad for four fuckin days, correct? the wonko (slang for dog in nihon-go) molly has been cool about it though, most kind. I feel bad about barging in on the kid's space even though chris and heather are most generous - they cook up eggs and potatoes for us, I use some cream cheese on them.
yesterday was a day off from the gigs (only one this tour) but not from playing cuz we recorded ten tunes for the first casa sueño album at flora in portland w/very cool people tucker and ryan, much respect to them.
I used chris' bass amp and tucker's 1967 hofner 500/1 "beetle bass" for everything, adjusting the bridge a little (easy to do cuz it's a floater) to get the intonation more in there - it stays in tune the whole time w/me once having to retune the 'g' string a little bit... really amazing bass, it plays most happening and I dig the sound.
I actually have one (scroll down here) from hofner made in china I got for a 2015 tav falco tour I keep where I konk and do 'pert-near all my composing on so I'm used to these babies but I've never played one this old and from germany. what a great bass! I used all the front pick up and like thirty percent of the back one so there was some hum when I took my fingers of the string so I suggest an alligator clip attached to a guitar 'b' string and wrapped around the watch strap on my starboard arm, the alligator clip clamped on the bass' bridge. hum was eliminated.
I end up playing pretty much over the back pickup cuz mike likes the tighter sound, so does johnny. all my suggests ain't great though, especially when I get clumsy w/my spiel trying to baka'splain some music idea... had to cut rope and apologize much on that stupid shit, fucking idiot move on watt's part. early on we did get two pizzas delivered w/out knowing where the fuck they came from - later I find out it was from bassbrother eli who was at the gig last night, crimony! big love to him. you know, this is the third time I've gotten to record w/johnny (other two times were tone scientists experiences in my pedro town at _casa hanzo_ recorded by peetzo who's also my secondman organman) but this one I dig even more cuz I got to watch him the entire time, tucker put a big gap in the foam separators he was using to baffle the drums and I was like only a foot or so from that whole. I used no pedals, just the direct out and the speaker mic'd on chris' bass amp. he had a switch-out he had to make happen and during that time I had a big spiel w/tucker and ryan about what some call the authorship question and the oxfordian stuff associated w/that, ryan especially getting in on that chew toy while I chewed on some of the peetz bassbrother eli provided... this studio is a most comfortable happening space besides having kind sounds, whoa, love it and can't recommended enough. don't know how mike found out about this pad but glad he did.
by the way, mike's on the guitar saul koll built him and he's right next to me sitting down but I gotta pick which dude to look at cuz from where I'm at (in the baloney seat), I can't see bof at the same time so... well... I love playing w/johnny, he's very inspiring for me - fires my shit up big time, can't thank him enough for that - even though mike's got the cues... well he can do that over the mic I used for like ten takes (at least) of "truckstop joe" cuz I won't be needing it any more after that. mike's decided to do his singing later after the tour in gainesville, fl where he lives cuz it's gonna be enough the ten tunes done in this one day we got to do it. so for watt it's eyes on johnny and ears on mike's voice in the cans. we can do this!
it was ten hours later when we get back to chris' but well worth it. I had one more rap w/him in the flora control room, talking about how working w/him was a lot like working w/ethan james which I dug so much, same w/spotski - it's a beautiful thing when you get connects like that going w/what can be a scary sitch w/being in a studio and instead make it fun and exciting. much respect to tucker, truly.
gig day, I pop at seven. chris and heather make us eggs and potatoes - yesterday for breakfast chow they made this oatmeal cooked in an over in a big long glass lasagna like dish that I dug much - damn me for forgetting that, chowing it w/plain yogurt made such a simple symphony of flavor in my mouf! I try to catch up w/the diary as much time as I got while still getting in spiel w/chris - he's going to japan for the first time in a few days and I tell him how much I love my larry graham model moon bass (again, scroll down here) - using it much for recording... what I do is regularly rotate that bass, my '56 fender p, my '66 non-reverse tbird and yellow wattplower II fitted w/a curtis novak darkstar pickup in a paf case in the front and lindy fralin '51 pbass in the back. I never do two sessions in a row w/the same bass, always rotating them cuz I love recording w/all four. oh, my moon bass was made in japan, that's why I brought that up - I hope chris has a great time there... mike just was there for his first time and talked it up w/chris as a most happening trip.
we pull anchor at eleven and right away out the driveway I got the boat pointed the wrong way and gotta bring her about. fucking baka. we go to the studio to get johnny's backpack (one reason I got airtags on everything, even my wallet) and then south on the I-5... at twelve and a half, near a town called donald (I think of buck dharma's birth name!) I pull us over at a "flying masics" where mike fuels up the boat for $4.60/gallon while johnny does a righteous job w/a windshield washjob. miss hiyori brings a salad that's a little too cool and crunchy, definitely destined for the dash after a few moufs being stuffed... watt never leaves his seat at the wheel! we got a great crew for this tour, fuckin way happening and I'm most grateful for everyone aboard pulling together to make it work like it is. respect. back on the road, the sync4 shuffle mode on the boat picks for us from my usb stick a 1958 interview august bloome did w/john coltrane it's one of the two long ones available and a year after he quit the shit, very inspirational to me. what is not inspirational is pendejos driving like selfish stupid dicks, they're on every road 'pert-near I've ever been on so please don't think I'm picking out oregon in particular, nope. speeding w/a trailer in the fast lane w/real curvy spots, real butch and clever, sure. tailgating in a big rig, way einstein - you go, girlfriend. take innocent motherfuckers w/you too if the dice come up snake-eyes - can you believe this kind of shit? whatev cuz like I said, I see it everywhere and every day: the horror. I just try to keep us out of the way and safe. one more pull-off south of roseburg at a "loves" quarter after three not for fuel but cuz two hours plus is over the two hours I like to have everyone sit in one stretch in the boat.
I get us to the sound lounge in downtown grants pass twenty of five, the lady working there dana let's us do the load-in after dropping anchor right in front of their hatch. mike brings a bowl w/some kind rockett w/little chicken piece and a grain (quinoa?) w/a trippy lime sauce that I'm digging. oh, I met the soundman trent who's just starting here and says to scissor the soundcheck, no prop - to the boat w/me...
immediately I konked really fuckin hard and pop maybe twenty minutes our set's go time - fuck, I missed the openers, damn me. the wifi from the gigpad reaches the boat - what? I had the browser open to a spiel from @ANormalAlcoholic at youtube.com yesterday before leaving for the studio and there's a suggest for a hana clio video - in a kigarumi hat! crimony, I listen and it's something I've be trying to develop since playing w/d boon, I mean going back that far, very trippy. I wrote a song called "the tin roof" during the "what makes a man start fires?" days, when I was having bof my knees having surgeries on them one at a time and that's what makes it a trippy minutemen album cuz I wrote all the music, having all that time healing up from the surgeries heal and learning to walk again - twice! yeah, in that tune I talk about "the gap between connecting" - stuff she's saying fortytwo years now later are resonating w/that watt spiel. crimony. "actually, very practical" she says and then is scissored but that's fucking key, to getting at the reality on the dealio, "the wholeness that's way too big" overwhelming in my "political song for michael jackson to sing" I wrote a year later, "do you want new wave (or do you want the truth)" around the same time. what a thing to get me ready for tonight's gig especially w/some of the stumblebum spiel I uttered in the studio yesterday. crimony. "I talk about the difference between acquiring knowledge and actually thinking" says hana clio which now that I think about goes back w/me before I even knew d boon, when my ma bought from a door-to-door salesman a set of the world book encylopedias and I would spend buttloads of my time as a boy reading about something that would lead me to something else just cuz... know one was making me. the other thing I think was important that she gave then was this big blackboard cuz I could write stuff on it, try to express myself... I think down the road was learning bass and writing songs, d boon definitely helped me w/that, I could've never done that alone. anyway time to play w/johnny and mike...
we go on at the 9:30 pm, the scheduled time right on time which has happened so much on this tour and I really dig that. this is one of the funnest gigs of the tour for me. the churn in "digging that hole" blew my fuckin mind (johnny yesterday did overdub w/the biggest sleigh-bells ever), wow! the grants pass gig-goers were way into it also, one lady near mike hollering in between his words on "electric chair" - very kind. I did have some hiccups cuz of the day off, just one day off throws me off my momentum but I got that together quick, thanks to johnny which I can't take my eyes off hardly... I do try to check in w/mike but I can't help myself.
kevin from riverside who was at the talent gig helps me w/the schlep for my bass stuff. I rap w/many grants pass cats including the openers vinnie rip who I invite on my show cuz I wanna hear and learn about them... I did meet the drummerman joe but damn me for konking so hard and missing them! crimony. we get to brother steve and shannon's - we konked here after the gig ten days ago in talent and w/no blow-bys also - what's that about? so good to brother steve and shannon again... I use the most righteous shower on tour (john's in bakersfield second) soon as I can and am in the nightwear... next stop: konksville and I'm out.
tuesday, october 6, 2026 - arcata, ca
from mike:
Redwood Highway plugs
Merrick gets the Buddy Rich
Another great set
from watt:
pop quarter after seven. steve's gotta work soon but wants to rap to me, tells me about this town grants pass and the rogue valley, it's origins w/the rogue river running from crater lake to ocean, this river runs through his town. he ain't from here though, says he's from whittier and boom-bada-binga, I think of the discordian movement cuz it's origins are w/two cats from whittier: kerry thornely and greg hill and their resulting book, the principia discordia (pdf of fifth edition here) had a huge influence on me when I read it the year after graduating san pedro high in 1976, when I got my first apartment, on the west side of gaffey street, between twentyfirst and twentysecond in my pedro town. richard fuckin bonney then calls me and that's scissors that spiel w/steve but at least I got explain some stuff to him and pointed him to the historia discordia website for a resource cuz this adam gorightly cat went to fuckin town to find out and even got connected to the discordian archives greg hill left. steve gives me a jar of arrabbiata sauce before he goes to work, so kind of him and also shannon who cooks up scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, sausage and fruit - very kind.
we pull anchor at noon go through canyon junction where mssv played three years ago - the venue (was called "bruno's cavern") looks closed now and repurposed... damn. I get us going southwest on the us-199 part of the redwood highway which is a beautiful ride, has much construction now so lots of times we gotta stop cuz it's one-lane time and we gotta take turns going each way. make sense, huh? actually lots of using roads w/other people is about taking turns but that's an idea trampled on by selfish pendejos cuz well...
the weather is most bitchin, that would make stuff tougher cuz of much winding turns involved, slowing down to twenyfive mph at times - if cabrons sweat me too much w/tailfeather mode, I just let them pass at a turn out and damn if they ain't right there when construction mandates another halt so all that risky shit they flaunt is for what, naught? don't mean to get all olde-timey w/the expression rock but what the literal fuck? the ford transit-150 sync4 picks for us an eightyeight minute richard hell interview he did in 2013 and everyone in the boat is digging it. I love him and heard so many spiels from - also in person - I could listen to him forever, being patient w/hearing people out I think is a good skill to have. we reach the california state line just after one - we're back home a friendly borderman at the fruit inspection for our last border cross of the tour. I always get a certain feeling get back home to california on tour, always do even w/my pedro town hundred of miles away! crimony. there's big fire evidence but you can see nature healing herself... an hour later we're amongst the sequoias, oldest living things on the planet maybe? tallest and heaviest? they're beautiful and I dig being w/them, a kind of peace here that's they're own, even w/pendejos barging through on roads plowed through their world. right near crescent city we get on us-101 for the coast - there's the pacific ocean! at two and half I have drop anchor at the "elk valley tribal fuel mart" which has gas at $5.41/gallon - more than a dollar cheaper than a mile away in town. johnny does another great windshield job which I wish could've happened earlier for photos but so it goes...
this man knows more than just drums, this is just one example, much respect to him! back on the road (lots of names for us-101), it's not too long before we pass tridinidad which is a town captain beefheart lived in for a while before going back to the desert where he's from. I can't recommend the mike barnes' bio (second edition) on him enough - using youtube.com I listened to every tune he writes about being recorded, my first experience w/supplementing my reading like that and I do that big time w/every bio on a musician that I'm pouring over pages on now, an incredible perspective now to increase me comprehending cats and their work.
I get us into arcata
at four and a half. it took 'pert-near five hours to do the 160 miles to get here but you know what? we arrived alive so for me that's total victory and doing what it takes to get that happening is big time worth it, really do. in a few minutes, we're at the miniplex at richard's goat and it'll be my third time here: first w/the corsano/baiza/trio, then w/mssv and finally now w/casa sueño. johnny gives a rap on the venue hatch but no answer... my turn w/the old sst knock (it's secret) and damn if candle doesn't come out, opens the the hatch that on the gig room to let's us in and we do load-in while mike scours for chow... he comes arrives soon as we're done w/some great ones, hecho a mano maize tortillas. gigboss/soundman merrick gets a huge dose of our version of buddy rich's theatrical side and then we soundcheck w/him... we're the only band tonight and it's an early show, we'll hit at seven and a half. I got big time sneeze attack and candle makes me some herbal tea w/all kind of natural things that cures of me of that, boom! much respect to her.
no opening act, we hit right on time even w/me caught up in chimping diary in part of the pad that ain't where the gig is in like a fucking bozo, somehow I'm there right on go time and we go. I can't see any of the arcata gig-goers cuz the way the lights are right in the eyeballs and making what's in front totally dark. it's a real fun gig and though you can't see these cats who came to see and hear us, you can feel and hear them w/us w/every move each tune brings, way happening. johnny has been playing great all tour but man, tonight... he is way blowing my mind and getting my shit it, love it. it's a real good time for me, a real good time. maybe the best snippet of our "I heard it through the grapevine" of the tour for the closer, a real "o-mind" (stooges slang) for me.
randy helps me w/my bass stuff, we're konking w/him in real close-by eureka, he's most kind. much signing photos and good word before we take it to his pad, johnny actually does the stow job w/my equip like a boss. dannylou and his boy jacob from my pedro town, whoa! I guess jacob lives here now and his pop is visiting him... jacob's a stickman w/a beat in his hand himself and I'm most glad to introduce him to johnny. I use my leash to take a threefer usie!
soon we're at randy's and he's got two happening chihuahua mixes, spencer and opal, that are very happy/intrigued to meet and welcome us to the pack... grey parrot bongo also w/a whistle. randy offers chow but I've learned to wait for morning, just better for me... I hose off and damn if I don't get to konk at ten and a half, fuckin happening.
wednesday, october 7, 2026 - santa rosa, ca
from mike:
Parrot and puppies
Taco walk, and good gig here
Stefano sits in!
from watt:
pop to piss at four, pop at six but lay there for an hour before popping my body up from the air mattress. randy makes coff. randy makes breakfast: scrambled eggs, potatoes w/peppers and onions and it's all real good, he's most kind. he shows me where his work is, his "lab" for making teef for folks.
he used to work on watches... I ask him about his eyes cuz tiny stuff is harder and harder for me but he says he guards them his hands big time which w/the hands I can relate very much cuz of working bass. we pull anchor at eleven w/most happening weather w/us. randy so kind also, I'm most grateful to him and hope we see each other again soon.
I get us back on the us-101 part of the redwood highway south - we'll take this all the way to where we play tonight. there's a bunch of winding road and construction but not as much as yesterday and there's more divided two lanes a side parts but still it does get down to undivided one lane a side in construction places, one lane so a "pilot vehicle" has to guide "caravans" one at a time while the other direction is stopped by a flagman. we get there when we get there so my only concern is being safe, so be it, no prob. around one and a half I get us off in lawtonville at a "chevron" for filling their pad piss and turd, not to fill the boat w/their overpriced gas cuz we got way enough, this transit-150 boat gets twice the mileage my previous econoline one got. I do get some dash veggies which I'll chow when we drop anchor and the venue. the boat's sync4 shuffle mode brings a fortyfive minutes of bill burroughs reading from his "naked lunch" book w/music that included bill frisell amongst other stuff... keeps things lively in the boat!
get into the old downtown of santa rosa and tonight's gigpad, the arlene francis center just after three and half. happening: arrived alive. johnny always thanks for me do the wheelwork and I always tell him back, "you deserve" and I mean it... before every tour I make a vow to myself to do everything possible to get the people in the boat w/me back home safe - that's priority number one w/bells on, absolutely no shorts on that. ok, w/us docked now there's time to chow these dash veggies - the carrots are too terrible though and the celery 'pert-near busted my teef. crimony. the padboss is melinda and she's very nice, just mopped the deck for us. conrad's her helperman/soundman and bof weren't at the other gig I did here, it was on the toys missing tour but I'm glad they're here now cuz it takes a bunch of parts to make a gig. I tell gigboss melinda my oldest sister (a year and a half younger than me) is named melinda.
soundcheck w/soundman conrad and damn if it ain't panic mode for watt when my amp won't come on. johnny figures it out though - all the sockets on the provided power strip are too worn (sixty year old prostitute sydrome = like throwing a hotdog down the hallway) so conrad brings in another one. I should have a backup amp which I usually bring but spaced on like a total baka... that why I really panicked. I'm most grateful to johnny yet again. one of the bands opening up has bassbrother larry boothroyd w/him on drums instead for _inner child protective services_ tonight but it's great though to share a stage w/him again. he gives me this specimen box called "III" that says it has twentyseven tunes w/drums recorded first (w/twentyone drummers!) and seventyseven musicans total - can't wait to hear it. john trubee has come by to give me a bunch of cds of his music, last time I saw him he was playing live on my show at brother matt's 'love grotto' at 'the pleasure point' in our pedro town. I moved to another part of the gig pad cuz for some reason a buttload of flies were plaguing me. absolutely none where I chimp diary now, eat these great tacos mike brings me from not too far... I meet jamie from the spindles, nice cat. can't wait to see his band, they're from here in santa rosa. look who's here! fratello ste has driven from around saratoga to play w/us later tonight, so good to see him again. we will record the week after this tour finishes in pedro, I know, I know: more "can't wait" for watt! I go to the boat just to lay down for a moment...
it is not moment - I am fucking tired baka who konked and missed bof openers like what? like a fucking baka! big sorries to bof bands. mike rousts me and says we can go on fifteen minutes before the quarter of ten agreed-before time so I hobble into the gigpad and up the stage, he has everything prepped for me so bring right a nine and a half. real good support from the santa rosa gig-goers and johnny's tearing it up so he hits his highhat adjust and twirls right off onto the deck where a gig-goer is bitchin enough to hand it back up, respect! man, I wish I was playing like this at the beginning of the tour but that's kind of bozo thinking, delusional. it is what it is and I should be grateful for getting it more together. fratello ste joins us for the three tune closer, I whup out my camera to get a shot of mike and him strumming away:
I enjoy this gig very much, have dug the whole tour but man, am digging these last ones the most which is happening cuz fatigue can set in w/the more you do something but it's quite the opposite. me and johnny playing better for mike makes me really happy - I get really happy playing w/johnny so I'm most grateful to mike for making this happen, having me aboard casa sueño and getting to be on this tour, record what we have. speaking of recording, I will record a week from this weekend w/fratello ste and jimmy from jumpstarted plowhards at _casa hanzo_ w/peetzo for the fourth il sogno del marinaio album, yatta!
I pack up my stuff and fratello ste helps me schlep to the boat - I notice some hurts on the 2x12 bergantino speakerbox cover... maybe from one of the wheels of johnny's hardware coffin? will review our boat-pack procedures. fratello ste does the stow but my bass gets stowed by a gig-goer (many gig-goers so very kind to me before the gig, after the gig, thank you all much) who spiels me a little about "developing systems" has me tell him about this trippy thing about the development of the chariot and of the bicycle being 'pert-near seven thousand years apart but they're bof two wheel devices, the only "development" is adding another fucking axel, not having to invent anything else - it's more about the implementation of stuff already invented, correct? I fit in some tao talk from mr tang also and this kind gig-goer helps stow the bass - it takes him several tries but he doesn't give up and I'm way into that.
we're konking at a pad mike got in nearby sebastopol and I get us there at a twenty of midnight. right away I hose off and get into the. I eat a banana to head off potential cramps in my calves, sometimes I get those and the seem to work. then I'm out quick.
thursday, october 8, 2026 - san francisco, ca
from mike:
Short drive and long walk
Discs came - Thanks Robbin and Ray!
Loud amp? High stage? Hmmm..
from watt:
pop at seven twenty, shave w/what's left of this shitty shaving cream - I like and use "barbasol" but all I could find at the time w/this lame "gillette" and it's 'pert-near fuckin water the far into the can. somehow I don't get cut and feel much relieved cuz I know I've worn face a bunch, especially on tour but I will not do that dance any more, even though I hate shaving, having growth like that is for me like having long hair: ain't into it. weather out the window is like it's been w/only a few exceptions way happening: bright and clear. way into it, like this face of mine after I drag a razor across it. it's a fuckin goofy face but at least not one w/a beard and/or mustache and/or sideburns, whatev. I've already pulled that shift, done w/it. I chimp diary.
if you think I'm fuckin wearing always the same thing. the same thing w/my chones but they're all black. levis are levis w/me, I guess the "model" is 501 cuz they got buttons and ain't flares or bells but whatev - you can have fresh clean stuff even if it's the same type, correct? I mean, yeah you look like someone from a cartoon but... we came whence we were last night, passing much vineyard and then it's the highway... at santa rosa here and going south , the us-101 changes its name from the redwood highway to el camino rael and after about a half hour, I suggest a stop to forage for some dash salad and maybe fill up the boat w/gas but that stop leads to only a stop at a 7-11 where miss hiyori gets me peanuts and two hardboiled eggs but that's good enough for asagohan (nihon-go for breakfast). I did drive us around a little for a mini-tour of - was it still santa rosa? who knows... further on in pentaluma we do get gas when I get us to "speedway" and it's $6.50/gallon. whoa. the navigatore software on my lease says to take the richmond-san rafael bridge near san quentin and then get back to the city via the bay bridge which might sound wack but then tonight's gigpad is in the east part of the city so actually quicker even though more miles are involved.
there's slow down and stau but nothing the way it'd be otherwise, in the portero hill part of san francisco quarter after one I find parking a block and a half away from where we're playing tonight bottom of the hill which will have a spot for us up front when they pop the hatch at five but 'til then... I got to find something else and I do! free parking for two hours and then you have to move a tenth of a mile (528 feet) away, hmm... mike says, "that's insane - try and stay put" so I drop anchor w/johnny immediately out the hatch to wander, mike soon after. I guide the boat who's gauges say it's 77º f - I spaced and forgot it said 100º yesterday after that piss stop in lawtonville yesterday but inside the boat it's comfortable. that is very happening. santa rosa was not 100º, it was mild - we have been really blessed this tour w/weather, really have. miss hiyori gets vietnam chow from a pad called "sunflower" a couple of blocks away, brings me pho while I guard the boat. also, kind of tough to get around for someone like me using tsue (nihon-go meaning crutch) w/all these hills, especially those w/the grade going down, very kowai (nihon-go for scary). it is "seafood pho" which I a kind I've never had but it is really good and I chow it by putting the parts together, the way you do w/this, I dig that much cuz it's kind like you're part of the cooking/preparing of it.
...then I chimp diary and get photos together cuz sometimes that part (the getting together of photos) takes longer...
...and chimping diary can go quicker if it ain't too far back, like the next day or sooner but if you go back further than that, you have to struggle to keep things from getting fuckin mixed up... in fact photos can help w/that dilemma and for that reason I keep them in their old folders, folders w/dates on them: yymmdd format. you gotta do what you what you gotta do when it comes to this kind of shit, correct? I think it's worth the effort... that reminds of a tune martin wrote for me that went on the first minutemen release, "paranoid time" - it was called "validation" and part of it went:
make the effort
hey it's worth the effort
sure it's worth the effort
- martin tamburovich
you know it's trippy, I wrote the music for that on guitar and I didn't write much on guitar, the strings are too skinny but you know what? d boon didn't bother a bit about playing that "solo" I wrote for him at the end of that piece... he was always righteous about stuff like that - not once did he reject any music I gave him. now once he told me my words were too spacey but he never scissored and guitar I asked him to play or bass I asked him to play to, not once ever and it was the same w/georgie, they were bof very beautiful that way w/me. about that tune martin wrote for me and about this town (the city, s.f.): we lost him in this town... it was in 2003. he had moved here from pedro in the late 80s and I only saw him when I played gigs up here. a flesh-eating bacteria had gotten him is what I heard, took only a few days. there's a few other minutemen tunes he wrote words for, like "games" and "tenision" - oh yeah, "martin's story" too, that one he left the title to me though it the words sound like he's have bof a conversation w/him and maybe part of himself? man, did we hear a lot of music together in the old days at his pad on tenth street in pedro... buttloads of music. "riddle me this batman, is the middle of nowhere the ultimate baloney seat or what?" is what I bring to johnny and he's got words beyond anything I got so I yank the cord that spins my own top, most definitely. our host for tonight's konk pad back their vw bus back for us to fit the boat in and I fit it. dr robbin asks me about that gig I did in the summer w/modest mouse cuz she know them from when they were in high school. crimony.
sage's doing the sound and the soundcheck if very nice and easy, nice and easy does it, does it every time (I've heard it said, heard it sung). drummerman scott amendola raps w/me, always great to see him and he's doing a duet w/dr ray right before us. I also get to meet the band kicking off tonight, rituals of mine who are very nice people, can't wait to see what they bring. I go to the boat to get the last of the photos happening so far on the hoot page, prolly the most up to date a tour diary here's been ever in the twentyseven or so years I've been doing them? crimony, I'm a slow learner but I guess the bottom line is keep going, whatev. ok, we can do this...
I hear music and I didn't konk... I was about to though so I force myself out the boat and into the gigpad...
I look up at the sign of this pad I've played for 'pert-near thirty years and this is prolly my last time. I get rush of trippy feelings so to get into the now I get right up on the stage to see the openers from sac-town, ritual of mine. no amps on stage, drummie w/big headphones, everyone w/inside ear trips. I feel olde-timey. big low end from keyboards, two players working them. singerlady w/much moves...
for some reason now, I think of adam yauch trading off w/his beastie-band men... I miss him much, he was the one who taught me "some be calling sac-town" - those were his exact words. I dug the way he worked bass and his composition w/it. it is hard for me to lose people, I never get used to it.
ok, dr ray w/drummerman scott amendola (I had a great spiel w/him when he arrived, very deep music cat... I gotta have him on my show!). they bring their improv w/scott using johnny's kit - I've never heard johnny's new-for-this-tour c & c kit - only next to him on stage but crimony, does it sound fucking happening - huge punches and tight tones - love it! dr ray's violin bow loses it's horsehair but only later I learn it was not on purpose!
our turn is at ten and a half, my old pedro buddy richard fuckin bonney is here and hugs me before I get on stage, love richard. we bring the gig but you know what? I was a fucking total idiot and set my chair up way too back, where it's hard for johnny to make eye contact which is important to the way we play together. he asks me to move up after a few tunes, crimony, I'm such a fuckin bozo. I like to have the chair I'm using even w/his snare drum. I actually had a lot of good feelings during the gig but I can feel also johnny was having some trippy things maybe going even though he soldiered like a mensch, some distracting yammering big time didn't help either, some gig-goers, huh? most were really happening and afterward very kind to us. one good thing for all three of us (mike thought he played too loud) was a development in mike's "electric chair" chorus - I have stumbled onto it once last night but implement it every time tonight, bringing my part a bar later then it was when in unison w/mike. I dedicate our take on eric dolphy's "hat and beard" to bof brother ted and richard fuckin bonney though we gotta restart dick hells "you gotta lose" cuz the band got on the other side of the beat - first chorus still had "toin coss" coming out my mouf though. crimony.
kind words from the gig-goers and I sign stuff and listen to them. I thank folks for bearing w/the way I sign stuff, think the way I sign it is kind of part of my whole signing trip and otherwise it's kind of like someone asking you to do use a typewriter to do it in a way, correct? I mean no disrespect and am grateful for people being kind to me. old pedro buddy richard fuckin bonney helps schlep my bass stuff, we found another tear in the 2x12 speakerbox on the opposite side of the first one, 'pert-near like it was done w/a razor! what's up? I'll see him back in pedro around thankgiving, so very happening. johnny has me rap w/sally who I remember meeting at thee stork club across the bay some years ago but I'm behind the wheel filling the piss bottle so the moment is a little awkward.
we pull anchor - maybe the last time ever from this pad for me? johnny immediately calls for a debriefing - he did not dig the gig. what he says makes sense... sometimes that's what happens and I think it's happening that someone you're playing w/feel safe enough to speak the truth they feel. actually I was kind of feeling that from him but now it's "validated" as martin would say. mike gives his thoughts too, thinks he was bogarting w/his guitar level. debriefing is good for stuff like this, I'm way into it.
there's some traff but nothing like there was after the pacifica gig earlier in the tour. dr ray and dr robbin pass and beat us to their pad in oak-town. we get there and I hose off right away and then dr ray has a big spiel w/me about how me and johnny work the gigs playing w/each other and I explain the idea of stuff being maybe more "event driving" rather than strict on the clock, capito? I think it's the latest I've been up this tour - one and a half when I konk! still though, always glad to rap w/dr ray, truly.
friday, october 9, 2026 - atascadero, ca
from mike:
Traffic day > Traff Way
Volume down, rally gig here
Dirt road, peacock cage
from watt:
pop at twenty after seven... curtains were open and the sun will have it's way w/me even if it's white light cuz of cloud blankie on it. dr robbin and her sister cooks us great chow for the morning shovel, so very kind of them along w/everything else they share, truly.
we pull anchor at noon, first I stow the dash honey - a beekeeper who was rapping to me about my first opera before we played last night gave me this at the boat in the city before w/shoved off for here in oak-town and he said it's from his own cultivation and I don't know the ins and outs about keep such stuff safe, maybe in the boat where the sun can get it is better? gotta make room for any potential whatever dash-chow I do use that part of that for. big bye byes to hour dr hosts, they're the best. I head us south on the I-880 trying to get the us-101 in san jose but there's some blow-by involved and w/get some surface-street tour of the part by college 'til mike navigates to "el camino real" and helps me get fuckin ship-shape.
it's twenty after two when I dock us at a "circle k" in gilroy and I ain't as good as tom watson w/max out a piss bottle (he get's them so stuffed there's not one air bubble), I do get the closest to the brim than I have in a while. miss hiyori brings me two hard boiled eggs I tapatio it up w/some pfeffer supplementing the mix.
there's been clouds but not big ones and we continue down the central costal valley, another bodily liquid and solids deposit stop in some portable facilities in san ardo at four and a half.
there's big twenty minute-plus versions of john coltrane live w/listen to as they're picked for us via shuffle along w/readings of jim joyce's "ulysses" (it's the one I got in dublin when I visited there for three days to celebrate 'bloomsday' in 2004) but for me they seem to fly by as much as the vegetable fields and then vineyard do past the widows... sure, there's starts and stops where the traff will plug up but not out the speakers, that never quits 'til I hit the button that asks it to do that...
I get us to righteous parking in the back of decades hi fi lounge in atascadero at five and a half and what I remember most is their head which has changed an iota and enthusiastically foul it.
the venue itself has changed big time w/the stage at the other end and so much other stuff though for some reason, it ain't totally alien to me... maybe it's the head, huh? new jefe here, gigboss sheldon saw me play when younger in the san jose area. I remember san pedro square in that town but fuck up remembering the gigpad name "laundry works" and he helps me out w/that. I got to share the stage there w/the great trio tripod jimmie w/guitarman tom herman. tom herman had a big influence on d boon and myself, I hope to finish an album I started w/him before my drinking put a kink in that but now w/more and more dry time under my belt, I think I'm getting more and more ready to ask him reignite our twofer. I respect that man so much. ok, backt here in atascadero, after spieling w/padboss sheldon about gigs in the less younger days in san jose, the wife of one of the openers _pronto_ (played w/us when mssv played here) and she wants to know about what happens to us when this tour is done, seeing there's only one more show after this one and I tell her mike's got a tour coming w/eli winter and johnny's got more tour to do w/tortoise and myself, I gotta get this "static" album from me and my missingmen out cuz we got a one april thursday (d boon's bday) to fifteen may saturday 2027 "static" to go w/it. in the meantime there's jumpstarted plowhards and I'm planning a surprise album on my sixtynine bday. I'm doing that at _casa hanzo_ w/peetzo - same place next week I do the fourth il sogno del marinaio album. I'm telling you this cuz she was telling me she thought we'd be wore out by this tour and wanna rest - just wanna clear things up about that! mike brings me tacos from some pad nearby I dig much.
no soundcheck tonight so I got to the boat to lie down just some but damn if I ain't out 'til mike rousts me - I missed the openers again, damn me. eight bells. the way johnny's got his drums so back and me not wanting to fuck up like I did last night, I mostly have my back to most of the gig-goers. didn't mean to, I swear. me getting keep eyes on johnny really helps w/the gig people, I shit thee not. we rally and do a real good gig I think. ok, maybe mike's guitar was the opposite of him kind of bogartiing last night but in other ways I felt way way good about it, digging it much a very good rally for us in my book and what can I say cuz I'm just glad to be a part of it, being part of this casa sueño band. I dedicate "hat and beard" by mr dolphy to sal espana who is a pedro dude who moved here in the 80s, he couldn't be hear tonight cuz he's sick - he wrote me in an email earlier, said he didn't want me sick which is most kind of him.
the atascadero gig-goers are very nice to me, much good word and I'm glad to take photos and sign things, of course - they big time deserve!
traffic record store jefe manual (he's next door) helps w/stowing my bass stuff, taking real good direction and thing brings over jim from the old goldenvoice days (he remembers nels cline and bob lee doing mike watt + the black gang doing "30 days in the hole" w/me at the o.c. festival they put on where sonic youth got all their stuff stolen!), can you believe that was twentyseven years ago? crimony, so good to see jim again, truly. him, manual and me have a real good spiel by the boat while the rest of the stuff gets loaded... hope to see them bof again soon...
mike got us a pad via the internet but man, it's way way out of the way, w/the pave road turning to dirt road! eventually we find it though, there's huge cage w/peacocks and peahens next to it. I get a good hose-down quick, didn't there was such a thing as "old spice" liquid soap... I knew about their aftershave in the little white bottles cuz that's what my pop used as a boy. smells are trippy on the memory, huh? it's the last konk on the air mattress for the tour...
saturday, october 10, 2026 - silver lake, ca
from mike:
Car pad deal's still there!
Beefheart road history lesson
3rd coffee today
Suddenly? We're done
Ripper gig to finish off
Big love to these two...
from johnny:
loop back to mike watt's hoot page
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