Watershed is a strange band. I would say we have peaked out in every decade starting with the 90’s. The Epic signing and Twister, followed by Star Vehicle; followed by The More It Hurts (featuring our biggest “hit” “Can’t Be Myself”), followed by our best record 5th of July; followed by the success of the book Hitless Wonder and the Brick and Mortar record with the fabulous Joe Peppercorn contributing.

Usually depending on their age, our fans have attachments to different eras and band lineups. Of course, I love them all. But I know the exact date we hit our rock n roll zenith, never again to return to such lofty heights. We weren’t headlining in front of 8,000 people. No record executive flew in on the Concord to wine and dine us. Dan Ackroyd or Robin Zander didn’t stop by the dressing room to say hello. It was just a regular working gig for a band that hadn’t stopped grinding since we were too young to drive our own gear to practice.

It was April 8th, 2006 at Upfront and Company in Marquette, Michigan:

Dave “Catman” Masica on Drums

Mark “Poochie” Borror on Guitar

Joe Oestreich on Bass/ Vocals

Yours Truly on Guitar / Vocals

Tour Manager: Biggie

Roadie: Ricki C.

This is the set we played that night; Or more accurately - the three sets we played that night:

(Click here for links on Setlist FM)

Set One:

New Depression

Laundromat

If That’s How You Want It

Superstressed

Consolation Prize

Half of Me

Pretty in a Slutty Way (League Bowlers)

Good Day

Can’t Be Myself

Born to Lose (Social Distortion)

On Top of The World (Cheap Trick)

Sucker Punch

Set Two:

Dave Drum Solo

Obvious

New Life

My Lucky Day

Black Concert T-Shirt

Small Doses

The Habit

Wallflower Child

Magic Bus (The Who)

Since You’ve Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)

The Best Is Yet to Come

Slowly Then Suddenly

5th of July 

Mercurochrome

Police on My Back (The Clash)

Mercurochrome

Set Three:

Romantic Noise

Getting Ready

Anniversary

Star Vehicle

Just For Show 

Sweet Kisses Bitter Scars

Something Wrong

It’s a Long Way to the Top (AC/DC)

All Day and All the Night (The Kinks)

I’ve Been Looking Everywhere

Goodnight Now (Cheap Trick)

For those keeping score at home that is 39 songs; 31 original and 8 covers. We didn’t play one song off our Epic debut Twister either. We played longer than contracted just because we wanted to. When you are this good it is so fun to play you don’t want to stop. It doesn’t matter who is watching. You are playing for yourselves. And maybe for that hot bartender, just a little. 

It is crucial to note that during this period we were such a fine-tuned rock n roll machine that we never used a setlist. Ever. Every single song we would turn to each other and I would shout out the next song or the next couple to the guys. This keeps everyone in the moment because they/we literally don’t know what song is coming next. There is no scanning down the setlist thinking “can’t wait till we get to that one.” It is completely fluid. You have to communicate with each other. 

And we did this no matter the size of the venue or length of the set. We would often find ourselves jumping between bigger venues and bars on a nightly basis but we never changed our approach. God, it was fun. 

Or put another way, a setlist is like planning every play of a football game in advance with no idea what defense you would be going against. How do you know what’s going to work? 

Once the 5th of July tour ended, Watershed became our hobby instead of our passion. Though our individual shows were still excellent and perhaps improved musically, the freewheeling days of no setlists were over. You can’t take a year off, rehearse for two days and get back to where you were. It just wasn’t practical or even plausible. Old guys need a plan. Young guys despise plans.

Now I’m just a regular schmuck like everyone else. Anyone got a copy of the setlist for this Saturday? I forgot mine. 

Colin Gawel is excitied to be playing with TWO different Watershed line-ups at the CD92.9 Big Room Bar this Saturday night, 10/09/2021. The show is sold out but it is being live-streamed and saved for posterity. He wrote this at Colin’s Coffee.

Click here to read 35 for 35: My Favorite Watershed Songs - by David Martin