Mike Watt is one of the most influential bass players in alternative and punk music today.

Watt’s bass playing career began with the legendary Minutemen.

Watt, D. Boon (guitar/vocals) and George Hurley (drums), made the Minutemen one of the fastest and funkiest bands in the history of punk rock.

After Boon’s tragic death in 1985, Watt and Hurley began playing with Ed Crawford (guitar/vocals) under the moniker fIREHOSE.

After five albums, fIREHOSE disbanded under friendly terms.

Watt’s first solo record, Ball-Hog Or Tugboat? (AKA “The Wrestling Record”) is a star-studded affair featuring Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Thurston Moore, J. Mascis, Frank Black, Mike D and Evan Dando (just to name a few).

Ball-Hog displays Watt’s ability to play comfortably in a number of styles with a cast of two dozen or more musicians.

His second solo effort, Contemplating the Engine Room, brought out the personal side of Watt.

On Contemplating, Watt explores his hometown Pedro, Calif., his father’s life in the Navy, life as a musician and the death of the late, great D. Boon.

Each song on the hour-long album leads almost perfectly into the next. And when Watt performs the songs from the album live, he plays them all in succession.

This “punk-rock opera” is Watt’s greatest accomplishment to date and, since its release in 1998, has been whipping his fans into a frenzy over what may come next.

This time around, Watt is bringing his newest set of songs to Tampa on the “Cord That Spun Its Own Top Tour 2003”.

Concertgoers will find that Watt is one of the most down to earth musicians around (as his fans will tell you) despite the fact that he has played in and with bands like Porno For Pyros and Sonic Youth.

Watt even handles the merchandising at gigs, while simultaneously signing autographs and talking your ear off about John Coltrane, the Meat Puppets or James Joyce.

The new material (modeled to mirror the classic story, Dante’s Inferno) explores Watt’s experiences during his three month hospitalization due to an untreated cyst that nearly killed him.

It was during this time that Watt went into a 38-day fever with all of the bonuses (chills, tremors, vomiting, hallucinations, etc.).

To bring his experiences to life, Watt has enlisted Pete Mazich (Hammond Organ) and Jerry Trebotic (drums).

After this tour (which ends on May 28), Watt will be in the studio recording songs for the tentatively titled, The Secondman’s Middle Stand.

Mike Watt and The Secondmen will be performing at The Orpheum in Ybor City on April 18.

Contact Richard Schmidt at oracletunes@yahoo.com