Mike Watt, circa 1998. His current band, Mssv, plays tonight at Reverb Lounge.

by TIm McMahan,Lazy-i.com

We seem to be lost in a time warp here in Omaha. Earlier this week, a swath of concert announcements brought back memories of the Civic Auditorium and listening to Z-92 in my ’79 Ford Fiesta. We’re talking new shows from up-and-coming acts Journey, REO Speedwagon and Steve Nicks. Can Styx, Kansas and whatever is passing as Van Halen be far behind? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an April Wine reunion.

Ah, but not tonight. Tonight hot new punk trio Mssv is playing at Reverb, a band that consists of Mike Watt, best known as the bass player for early ‘80s punk band Minutemen and 71-year-old drummer Stephen Hodges, whose credits include playing with Tom Waits on his Raindogs album. The trio is rounded out by veritable youngster, guitarist Mike Baggetta. Watt always brings the noise, and joining them is our very own Bad Bad Men. $18, 8 p.m. 

Since its Throwback Thursday, check out this 1998 Lazyeye interview with Mike Watt – one of the funnest dudes there is to interview: You just hit the record button and let him go! From the interview:

“D Boon’s mom taught me how to play bass,” Watt said. “When we first started playing together, we tried to cover the big rock songs, like ‘American Woman’ and ‘Black Dog.’ Then we saw these punkers one night in LA, and they couldn’t even play their instruments. Some of them weren’t even musicians; they were artists, but it didn’t matter. Right then we knew that we could do our own thing and not have to play the other stuff.”

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Las Cruxes at The Brothers Lounge, Sept. 27, 2019.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Playing as a 6-piece with two of the city’s best drummers (Nate Van Fleet and Jeff Lambelet, sitting above the band like a couple rock ‘n’ roll gargoyles) a second guitarist flown in from Chicago, a second vocalist and local hero Landon Hedges doing a unibomber impression on bass, Las Cruxes was pure punk bombast.

The set got off to a rocky start Friday night at a semi-crowded Brothers Lounge as (I’m told) that second guitarist was borrowing Hedges’ guitar, and frontman Eduardo ‘Yayo’ Trujillo could be seen prior to the set showing him some chord progressions. By the third song it didn’t matter as everyone was locked in, with the Chicago guy adding a much needed layer of vocal energy above Yayo’s high voice.

The songs sounded like a cross between The Pixies and every three-chord punk band you’ve ever heard, but propelled full-throttle by the double-barrel drum attack, it was like watching a couple synchronized swimmers in a boxing ring trying to outdo each other, while down below Hedges did his usual rock pirouettes with his back to the crowd (mostly). With everything else going on, Landon was the glue holding it all together.

When music is as powerful (and loud) as this was it doesn’t matter that you can’t understand a thing the Spanish-language singer is singing, and besides, how many punk shows have you gone to where you really understand what was being shouted? The message behind the energy was enough, with Yayo falling backward into the drums at the end of the set.

I’m told Las Cruxes is heading out on tour, down south to Mexico way, and that Hedges is coming along. The band’s albums are backed by Sony distro in Mexico, and I can only imagine what their shows will be like in places like Nueva Laredo or Juarez, where no translation is needed.

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Tonight a punk legend takes over Reverb Lounge. Mike Watt, who carved his name into the Mt. Rushmore of punk rock with his work in Minutemen and fIREHOSE (among others), and his band, The Missing Men, headline.

About the tour that brings them to Omaha, via the hootpage:

“not too long ago original missingmen drummerman Raul Morales along w/Paloma brought on board new shipmate Sofie so that means no more big tours for him but of course he will be on missingmen recordings and local gigs he can do… Raul is now a pop! not too long ago, original missingmen guitarman Tom Watson lost his pop and now he’s like me (lost mine in 1991), we’re both missing our pops. it’s for that reason I named this sally forth the ‘dick watt tour 2019’ – named after my pop which is also the name of the next missingmen album, continuing the theme. me and tom have been touring for twenty years now! crimony. standing in for raul this tour is big man Nick Aguilar who we all think is up for the job. we’ve been doing prac ‘pert-near every day a month before the tour I did bass for Flipper and the three weeks since. d boon, me and georgie went to school w/his pop rudy (san pedro high, class of 1976) so in a way it’s a total connect – ain’t life a trip?!“

Local legends/tractor-punk originators Wagon Blasters opens the show at 8 p.m. $15.

Here’s a sneak peek, from their set just a couple weeks ago in Santa Monica:

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.