A re-post and update from a 2019 article by Jeremy Porter chronicling his 29 year history playing and passing through Columbus ahead of Jeremy Porter and The Tucos opening for WATERSHED this Saturday at the Rumba Café!
Read More75 Songs in 3 Days! Watershed Hullabaloo Recap - by Colin Gawel
Listen while you read! Spotify Playlist of the Watershed Hullabaloo.
Watershed Hullabaloo / Spotify Playlist
As crazy as this sounds, I think the recent Watershed shows as part of the Hullabaloo were the highlight of our...ahem…“Career.” Joe and I were celebrating our 50th birthdays and our 36th year playing together with Herb and our leader, Biggie. (And Rick Kinsinger of course, but he hasn’t put in 36 years yet.) The idea was to play three very different shows on consecutive days with very little overlap. In the end we played 75 different songs in less than 40 hours. so that’s a pretty good effort. I’m confident in saying a good time was had by all.
Natalie’s Friday August 9th.
Either people confused us with the Rolling Stones or Natalie’s has a hardcore following but this date sold out so fast even my family couldn’t get a table. We had never done a “storyteller” type of show before so I was a little nervous we could deliver the goods. Luckily, we pulled an ace out of the deck with the legend Dave Masica joining us on drums for the first time in many years.
Dave’s drumming and rock n roll attitude saved Watershed, as he was the motor behind the glory years of The More It Hurts and 5th of July. If you want to hear a master at work, listen to Dave on the live record Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust 2. That record is basically a drum clinic with a band thrown in for good measure.
In fact, the whole theme of the Natalie’s show was paying tribute to the people who have kept the band going. We talked about the importance of Willie Phoenix, Slim Dunlap, Dave Masica, Pooch, Mike Landolt, Joe Peppercorn, Tim Patalan and the COTA #2 bus. I’m sure some others too but whatever. It was really fun to play some songs that had remained unplayed since Dave retired from full time drumming.
Click here for the full set-list from Natalie’s
Ace of Cups Saturday August 10th
Speaking of people that help Watershed, Biggie is the real MVP of the Hullabaloo (with a big assist from Ricki C.). Not only was the artwork for each show of a collector’s quality, but he designed three different stage sets for all the shows. Friday was a laid-back, cheap college apartment look for the laid-back vibe at Natalie’s. The Coleman cooler strategically placed between Joe and I was all the rage.
Since Saturday was the big rock show, Biggie had fashioned a bright red background with a 3D style Watershed sign hanging over Herb. The kicker was it didn’t reveal itself until after the first song. Ah yes, the double beginning. An arena rock classic executed in a club. Ace of Cups is pretty much the perfect venue for us. It feels big and small at the same time. Sorta like Watershed itself I suppose. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was sold out in advance or having Earwig on the bill got everyone extra stoked, but that was the best crowd we had ever played to. People were singing along to parts of songs I barely knew. Having Mark “Pooch” Borror join us on Anniversary and Can’t Be Myself didn’t hurt either. Slim Dunlop once said, “Musicians get gifts all the time, you just have to look for them.” I didn’t have to look very hard to appreciate what was happening at Ace of Cups. 99.999999% of all the bands on Earth never get to experience a night like this. Very humbling indeed. We are lucky guys.
I FORGOT to mention that on Friday at Natalie’s I was talking about Slim and musicians getting gifts and I shared a story of playing a show in Wisconsin years ago. The crowd was kind of light and we had driven a long way so it would have been easy to feel bummed out. Towards the end of the set I noticed a guy standing down front singing along knowing every word to a song. Suddenly I heard Slim in my ear, “Here you are, 600 miles from home and a guy you have never met is singing along to a song you wrote alone on your bed years ago. That’s pretty cool.” And I thought to myself, that is pretty cool. This is a gift.
After the show at Natalie’s a guy came up to me and said, “That story you told: that was me and the song was Sad Drive.” Damn. That was the song. He was the guy. He had driven down from Wisconsin for the Hullabaloo and we were meeting for the first time. How cool is that?
Click here for the full set-list at Ace of Cups. / Visit the Watershed Facebook page for video.
Sunday August 11th. Little Rock Bar
So this show was the X-factor. The show smart bands don’t schedule. The show that takes the weekend from good to great or puts the shit in show. Biggie had a sweet backdrop of the #2 COTA bus behind our gear jammed into the corner of Quinn Fallon’s excellent Little Rock Bar. The setting was the exact opposite of the night before. No stage, no lights, no room to move.
This gig turned out to be the most fun of all. It was billed as Watershed & friends and that is what it was. Jim Johnson, Dan Cochran, Mike Sammons and Marcy Mays crashed the “stage” as we played songs from The League Bowlers, The Lonely Bones, Why Isn’t Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? and all sorts of Watershed deep cuts. Plus the loose setting allowed plenty of time for catching up with friends who had traveled in from near and far. SO MUCH FUN.
Click here for the setlist for Little Rock Bar
Watershed Hullabaloo Box Score August 9-11th
68 Original Songs Performed: (in order)
Sensational Things (new)
Laundromat
Chemotherapy (Colin Gawel)
Cracking Up
We Don’t Get Hurt (new)
Dad Can’t Help You Now (Colin Gawel)
Mercurochrome
My Lucky Day
New Life
Good Day
Romantic Noise
American Muscle
Set the World on Fire
On a Broken Radio
Manifesto
Over Too Soon
Slowly Then Suddenly
The Best is Yet to Come
---
You Need Me
Obvious
The Habit
Suckerpunch
Best Worst Night
Black Concert T Shirt
How Do You Feel
Broken
If That’s How You Want It
Hey Lydia
Blow it Up Before it Breaks (new)
Eyes of Fire (out of print)
Little Mistakes
Nightshade
Another Night in the Ruts (new)
New Depression
Laundromat (x2)
Superstressed
Anniversary (w/ Pooch)
Can’t Be Myself (w/ Pooch)
Star Vehicle
5th of July
The Best is Yet to Come (x2)
Sad Drive
Mercurochrome (x2)
I’ve Been Looking Everywhere
---
Healthy Rivalry (The League Bowlers) w/ Jim Johnson
Two Sets of Rules (TLB) w/ Jim Johnson
Kids Down South (TLB) w/ Jim Johnson & Dan Cochran
Saturday Night There’s A Party (TLB) w/ Jim Johnson & Dan Cochran
Something Wrong
Everywhere I Turn
Easy Way Out
She Picks the Songs
Waiting For the Greatest w/ Mike Sammons
AM Boy
Superior (Colin Gawel) w/ Dan Cochran
Consolation Prize
Twister
Give a Little Bit
Wallflower Child
Half of Me
Another Night in the Ruts (x2)
I Deserve You
The Best is Yet to Come (x3)
Black Concert T Shirt (x2)
7 Covers:
Hey Little Girl - Willie Phoenix
I Wish You Were My Girl (w/ Jim Johnson) - Willie Phoenix
Downed / If You Want My Love / High Roller (w/ Marcy Mays) - Cheap Trick
Battleship Chains (w/ Jim Johnson & Dan Cochran) - Terry Anderson & Georgia Satellites
Let it Rock (w/ Jim Johnson & Dan Cochran) - Chuck Berry
Below are the final two songs from Ace of Cups
(By the way, that’s Watershed guitar tech Ricki C. and frequent Pencil Storm contributor Scott Carr - drafted in for extra roadie duties on Saturday night - wrangling mic stands at the 9-minute mark. Scott’s in the Johnny Thunders t-shirt. At the 7:05 mark you can see Ricki telling Scott, “These guys are possibly just crazy enough to try to pull off the ‘Taking the mics out in the audience’ stage bit in a place this crowded. If they do, get out there in the middle and hand ‘em back to me.” That’s our crew.)
What Columbus Means To Me: My History In Ohio's Biggest City - by Jeremy Porter
Jeremy Porter and The Tucos will be performing at the Rumba Cafe in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, January 19th. Doors 7 pm. Jeremy and the band are on at 8 pm. Colin Gawel and the Bowlers follow. FREE SHOW.
Growing up in northern Michigan, far from Ann Arbor and that great rivalry, Columbus wasn’t even on my radar. We knew about Cincinnati because of WKRP and the stampede at that Who concert, we knew Toledo from M*A*S*H, and we knew that Cleveland was a place, but not Columbus. Then I moved downstate in the fall of `88 and overnight Columbus was a thing to be hated, in November at least. A few years later, the guy who ran our record label turned me onto a band from there called Scrawl, who did a cover of Cheap Trick’s “High Roller” that he knew I’d like, and I’d been hearing about a band called Watershed too, that was supposedly cut from the same cloth as I was, but I didn’t pay that any mind.
October 21, 1995 I was playing in a punk band from Detroit called SlugBug. We had just come off a couple years of playing a ton of shows, a couple Midwest and east coast tours, and a lineup change. We weren’t getting along all that well at the time and it was cold. We drove down to Columbus for a one-off at a place called the High Street Downunder. We thought it had to be a cool place because Scrawl had recently played there. Maybe it was, but you can’t even find it on Google today. I remember I was under the weather, and after load-in I had to go #2 (sorry, TMI) and there was NO WAY I was doing that in the disgusting men’s room, so our bass player’s girlfriend stood watch outside of the much more presentable ladies room for me. If memory serves, we played to a decent crowd but didn’t get paid, the other bands weren’t very nice, and it was a long, cold, depressing drive home though the frozen Ohio night.
September 27, 1997 I became obsessed with Keith Richards and The Stones in the late `80s and by `97 I was all in. I bought tickets in Ann Arbor, but for the Columbus show. I didn’t have to wait on line, because the Detroit show’s tickets had gone on sale an hour earlier. Seventh row center, right between Keith and Mick. I remember the marquee at Taco Bell on High Street said “Free Taco for Mick Jagger” and I loved that. I was feeling great as my wife and I walked across campus into the Horseshoe, and all the way down front. It was a beautiful evening and they were the best band on the planet that night.
November 9, 2003 I was playing in a powerpop band called The OffRamps. We got added to a show at Small’s in Hamtramck, MI being promoted by my friend Brian, supporting a band I really liked from Texas called Grand Champeen. Brian’s band Porchsleeper was playing too, but it was a Sunday night, so it was bound to be a disaster. Still, I was happy to play with both of those bands. A few days before the show a band I’d seen at The Elbow Room in Ypsilanti a couple of times called Two Cow Garage was added to the bill. That really annoyed me. I didn’t really like them much, and I hated the idea of a fourth act being added to a Sunday night show. But Brian said it was kind of a done deal because they were touring with Grand Champeen, so I went along with it….but they were playing first, dammit! After soundcheck their bass player went out of his way to sit next to me at the bar, extend his hand, and introduce himself as Shane. “Goddamnit,” I said to myself, “they’re really nice dudes too.” That was equally annoying. I had to begrudgingly admit that they were good that night, better than I’d given them credit for. Channing, the singer for Grand Champeen, was sick as hell, there was no one there, and it was otherwise a fairly miserable night. A few months later, Two Cow Garage released their second record, The Wall Against Our Back, and I got completely sucked in by the stripped-down production and balls-out execution of amazing songs that just completely resonated with where my musical mindset was at the time.
They’ve put out better records since, but I still have a soft spot for that one, and take some joy in prodding them even today to pull out one of those tunes occasionally (they never do). Over the next 16 years, I’d go see them when they came within an hour of Detroit, eventually weaseling my way onto most of their Detroit shows, and becoming dear friends with Micah and Shane (and Murph, Vanessa, Todd, George, and Jay), and I just think...God I was an asshole back in Hamtramck that November.
June 28, 2012 For a few years I wrote for a now-defunct Detroit blog called Motor City Rocks. I was asked by a friend, Sue Summers, to do a book review for a new book by Watershed’s bassist Joe Oestreich. Sue was an early champion of my music around these parts, she knew Watershed early on, and she’d been telling me I need to hook up with those guys since I’d met her in 1990. The book really connected. The opening scene takes place in Small’s (the same bar we played at with Two Cow Garage nine years earlier), one dude is playing Cheap Trick deep cuts on the jukebox while another is washing down Percocets with PBR. Next thing I know, the protagonist is pulling giant bong hits with the guy who was currently producing our first record at the time. To say the book hit home is an understatement. So on this night, June 28, 2012, Watershed was playing Small’s (same bar, again) after a book reading. I couldn’t make the book reading, but I made the show, met Joe for the first (and only) time, and enjoyed the set.
April 4, 2013 Jeremy Porter and The Tucos play Columbus for the first time, at The Tree Bar, a cool little place down a scary, dark alley that looks more like back-woods Mississippi than the middle of Ohio’s biggest city. I don’t remember much about that night, but I remember Roni was our bartender and had a heavy hand. I know that we’ve played there a bunch and none of the shows were amazing but they were all fun, and there were always good people around.
February 26, 2014 The Tucos opened the first night of Columbus-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Lydia Loveless’ tour for her album Somewhere Else at a sold-out, converted Ponderosa restaurant in Pontiac, MI. Trust me when I say that “The Tucos” and “sold-out” rarely appear in the same sentence, plus I was completely mesmerized by that record, so it was a big deal for us. I said hi to Lydia and we talked about Shane and Micah for a minute, but I kinda hit it off with her guitarist Todd May, who was digging our set, and hit it off even more with her bassist Ben, who was selling merch next to us at the end of the night. We’d play with her again in 2016, when she was supporting Real (my #1 record of this decade so far), again up in Pontiac, and I’ve been completely mentally immersed in her amazing music for five years now.
July 14, 2015 Somehow I was asked to play guitar and lend some backups on two songs Watershed had recorded but not finished for a summer single. On this day I drove out to The Loft in Saline, Michigan (where they’ve done most of their recording) to add my parts over their songs. I came prepared, and Tim Patalan (reference the bong hits above) seemed excited as we tracked. I tried to act cool, but I was just beside myself to do it. The songs, “Best Worst Night” and “Hey Lydia” happen to be my favorite songs they’ve ever done, but I am biased. Damn, that was fun.
July 21, 2015 I was surprised to wake to an email from Colin Gawel - Watershed’s singer/songwriter/guitarist - thanking me for playing on the songs (I’d had no direct contact with the band about the session, and I hadn’t met Colin yet) and complimenting me on my work. I was still in awe that they’d asked, and to this day I’m super proud of it.
September 17, 2015 Another sparsely attended but heavily imbibed show at Tree Bar on the 17th, memorable only because Two Cow’s then drummer Murph and his girlfriend Erin were there. We traded war stories with him all night, and Erin and I bonded over our love of hair metal, and I told her all about the Saxon concert Gabe and I had just attended two nights prior in Detroit. She requested a W.A.S.P. song during our set, which sadly we couldn’t deliver, and I may or may not have promised to learn “Love Machine” next time through. (Please don’t hold me to it this time!)
September 18, 2015 The next morning The Tucos stopped at Colin’s Coffee for a triple espresso on our way to Louisville. We traded coffees for a record, had a good long chat, mostly about Cheap Trick, and have since become good friends, albeit mostly through email, text, and rock & roll. After that we stopped at The Starliner Diner in Hilliard, strongly suggested by Murph, and that’s been a priority every single time since. Possibly my favorite breakfast spot on Earth.
March 11, 2016 This was the last time we played Columbus, at The Tree Bar, to about five people. We were on a run with a band from Lexington and a band from Cincinnati and I don’t think there was a local on the bill. We ate at a nearby sandwich shop before the show. Our then-bassist Patty and I got tomatoes on ours, drummer Gabe didn’t. Patty and I would spend the next 16 hours climbing over each other in and out of the bathroom of that horrible Motel 6 room. Goddamn tomatoes.
September 7, 2016 My first article for Pencilstorm, the Columbus-based blog that Colin runs, was published. It was a review of a fairly forgettable Ace Frehley concert in the parking lot of a Harley dealer in suburban Detroit. I’ve since written a bunch for the blog, participated in a KISS Non-Makeup-Era Song fantasy album draft, gotten photo passes for a Steve Earle concert, typed up a Grant Hart obituary, and more. It’s a thrill to be on the roster.
December 9, 2017 I played a small, sold-out solo acoustic show with Two Cow Garage’s Micah Schnabel and his partner Vanessa Jean Speckman’s pop-up art show at the AirB&B Loft above PJs Lager House in Corktown, Detroit. We couldn’t find a venue worth doing, and PJ saved the day with a great idea. It’s the only show they’ve had up there, and was the perfect setting. I wanted to bring my little amp up but Micah talked me out of it, and it was the right call. No amps, no PA. Solo acoustic shows can be hit or miss, to put it generously. This was a special night and I was so happy to be a part of it. (photo credit: Marlissa Shwarz, in front of Vanessa Jean Speckman art on the door to the Claddagh Loft at PJ’s Lager House, Detroit, 12/9/2017.)
This coming Saturday, January 19, 2019, we are playing at the Rumba Cafe with Colin Gawel & The League Bowlers. We are on at 8 sharp and it’s pay what you want. That means it’s cheap and you can go to bed early. It’s our first show with our new bass player Bob, who’s never been to Columbus before. I can’t wait for him to meet you all and take him to the Starliner Diner for breakfast. We’ll be avoiding tomatoes. Come and make this our best Columbus show yet. I’ve paid my dues here. Xo
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos.
www.thetucos.com
Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic
Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
Attempted Suicide Stopped by the Rolling Stones. Listen to Ricki C. Tell the True Story on 614Cast
Hey gang, Colin here. As I've said many times, Ricki C. is my favorite rock n roll storyteller. In my humble opinion, everything he posts on Pencilstorm is pure gold, as good as any rock story you will read in ANY publication. But of all his great writings, I think his essay, "The Bathtub" could be on the short list of greatest rock stories ever told. It originally appeared on his old MySpace page, and in his former blog "Growing Old with Rock n Roll" and then Joe Oestreich made sure it was published in the footnotes/index to his acclaimed Watershed memoir, "Hitless Wonder - A Life in Minor League Rock n Roll". (In fact, just the footnotes to Joe's book are better than Butch Walker's actual books. Seriously, thumb through a copy and prove me wrong.)
Anyway, with the Rolling Stones coming to town, we decided to team up with the very cool and new Six One Four Podcast so Ricki C. could tell the story of "The Bathtub" himself. Please do yourself a favor and give it a listen. I promise you'll be glad you did.
Click Here to listen to Colin and Ricki C. telling the story of "The Bathtub" on the 614Cast. They start at the 27 minute mark after the excellent Eric Davidson interview.
The Bathtub by Ricki C.
I was 13 years old in October 1965. Eighth grade just was not working out. I had been a shy, book-reading child, now hormones were kicking in. I loved rock & roll but I just knew I was NEVER going to know how to talk to girls. (This was years before I got a hold of a guitar.) One really bad Saturday night I decided to kill myself. I had it all worked out. I’d seen a movie just that week about a guy getting electrocuted when a radio fell into the bathtub he was in. (I was a very impressionable child.)
After everybody had left for the evening (my mom and dad were working their second jobs, my sister was on a date, my brother was at the bar) I went around the house and found a radio with a cord long enough to reach the bathtub. I ran the bath, plugged in the radio, settled into the warm water, said a little prayer for forgiveness, and let the radio drop. What I hadn't factored in was that although the cord was long enough to reach the tub, I hadn't filled it full enough. Right when the radio hit the water the plug pulled out. I got a nasty shock, I was seeing big purple and black blobs in my field of vision, but it didn't kill me.
I lifted the radio out and laid there in the water a few minutes to let my head clear. I got out and ran some more water in the tub until I was certain I had the right water level for the job at hand. I plugged the radio back in and what was playing? "Get Off My Cloud" by The Rolling Stones. I stood there naked – dripping & chilly, eighth-grade skinny – and listened to the entire song. Right at that moment I quite literally loved that song more than I loved life itself. And then a thought came very clearly into my head: "What if the next Rolling Stones single is even BETTER than this one, and I never get to hear it?"
I set the radio down on the sink, got back in the tub, took a bath and went to bed. If "Danke Schoen" by Wayne Newton or "Roses Are Red" by Bobby Vinton had been playing at the moment I plugged that radio back in I'd be dead now. Long live The Rolling Stones. So began a life of rock & roll. Thanks Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill & Charlie.
© 2005 Ricki C.
Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame? Announces Two FREE Shows and a Crowd Funding Protest!
"I believe there are two types of people in this world. Those who believe that Cheap Trick should be in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and those heretical unbelievers who shall be cast into a fiery pit of Rock and Roll Damnation to burn for eternity."
- Lou Brutus, 2013 & 2014 Radio Contraband Award Winner: Best Nationally Syndicated DJ in USA (And Degenerate Cheap Trick Fan).
Hey gang, Colin here, I have a question and I know you have it too: Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame? Certainly somebody must have the answer, so please come forward if you or anybody you know has any clues to solving this puzzle. In the meantime, the band "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?" returns for the third straight year hoping to shed some light on this most mysterious of all mysteries.
Saturday April 18th: Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, OH. Afternoon show! Doors, 1pm. Teenage Fanclub Fanclub opens the show at 1:30 with WICTITRNRHOF following.
We scheduled an afternoon show to avoid any conflict with the actual Rock Hall induction ceremonies being held that evening just down the road. Rumor has it members of Green Day may attend as they too are trying to find the answer to this question.
Click here to purchase a "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?" t -shirt and help us raise money for a FULL PAGE AD in Cleveland Scene magazine running the entire week of the induction ceremony. (April 15th)
Friday April 17th: Ace of Cups Columbus, OH. Doors, 8pm. Teenage Fanclub Fanclub on at 9pm. WICTITRNRHOF on at 10:15.
As always, shows are FREE and we will be playing a set of all Cheap Trick covers that will surely make you long for the real Cheap Trick. Haters please piss off as I am a fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and visit with my son every year. Just trying to make a cool place even cooler. And spare me who YOU think should be inducted. Don't care. If it bugs you so much, start a band called "Why Isn't BTO in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?" PLEASE help us spread the word and together we can finally find the answer to this troubling question. Thanking you in advance, Colin Gawel.
Please note the band, "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?" is NOT affiliated with the real Cheap Trick or any other "Induct Cheap Trick" movement though we applaud and support our comrades in arms. Please visit the Facebook page "Induct Cheap Trick" hosted by Patricia Zander by clicking here or click here for the fabulous Cheap Talk with Trick Chat Podcast hosted by Ken Mills.
Click here for press and previous Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Click here to read my Complete Cheap Trick Song Rankings. (It takes 3 days to do it right.)
That's me holding a copy of Hitless Wonder when Watershed opened for Cheap Trick Oct 2014