Tickets to see MSSV play Hooch and Hive in Tampa on Tuesday, Oct. 24 are on sale now for $15-$20.
The band—which played Bagetta’s home base Gainesville on its lengthy 2022 tour—has not made a formal tour announcement, but there is an Orlando date on Oct. 22.
Bassist Watt and guitarist Baggetta also do live electronic processing for MSSV—which stands for ”Main Steam Stop Valve”—but the trio also features drummer Stephen Hodges (Mavis Staples, Tom Waits) who joined after drummer Jim Keltner, who recorded the band’s 2019 debut Wall Of Flowers, said he didn’t want to travel. That same year MSSV recorded and released a live album, Live Flowers, which showcases a jazz-ish, but mostly genre-averse, freeform sound.
Since then, MSSV gave fans a self-titled full-length studio album (2020), an EP (Scott Aicher, 2021), the 7-inch record (“Media Kittens”/ “When The Hoarding Has Ended”, 2020). Last spring, MSSV was joined on a 7-inch by guitarist Nels Cline, who recently told CL a lot of great things about Watt ahead of Wilco’s April Bay area show.
Minutemen, which opened for R.E.M. at St. Pete’s since demolished Bayfront Center in 1985, only released music until the late-’80s, but ruined the lives of countless young music fans with a special brand of punk-rock that was political, funny, fast and allergic to genrefication.
The show from MSSV might be Watt’s first stop in Tampa since 2004.
This article appears in May 4-10, 2023.