Back to the Mike Knott Articles Index
At a Costa Mesa, CA dive known as the Stag, sideman/collaborator-gone-AWOL Brian Doidge rejoined Mike Knott for a one-time-only performance. Abandoning his brutally ventilanted Taylor acoustic (Knott took an enormous chunk out of the guitar's body a couple of years back with a microphone stand at the Whisky in Hollywood, and "repaired" the wound with packing tape), Knott abused a semi-hollow bodied electric guitar borrowed from Terry Taylor. Doidge played bass, while returning regular sideman Ed "Giles" Benrock played drums. All three sang.
The trio began with "Double," Knott's semi-autobiographical barfly opus from his LSU project-band's 1995 album, Grace Shaker (Alarma Records). Also performed were several numbers from the Aunt Bettys' self-titled Elektra Records release, favoring ravers such as "Addict" and the rollicking "Star Baby." The set was also peppered with lesser-heard tracks from Knott's last solo album, Strip Cycle (Tooth and Nail Records), including "Sugar Mama."
After the 50 minute main set, Knott brought the band back for an improvised 35 minute encore, dragging Doidge and Benrock through unrehearsed territory including "Transistor Sister" from Strip Cycle, and a surf-rock instrumental. The trio closed with the more familiar "Kitty Courtesy," a tale of spousal cannibalism, followed by the anthemic ode to disappointment, "Rocket and a Bomb."
According to Knott, the evening's set marked the end of his attempts to break into the mainstream as a rocker. "This was the last hurrah," he declared. "From here on out, everything's going to be (Knott sings) 'Crash ... into me,'" referring to the mellow, singer-songwriter approach of the song "Crash" by AAA heavywieights The Dave Mathews Band.
Knott has completed a demo cassette in conjunction with his publisher, Rondor Music Int'l, and is currently shopping himself as a solo artist. The demo includes three completely new songs, in addition to a re-tooled version of "Movie Star," one of the most popular of the post-Elektra-album songs by the late, lamented Aunt Bettys.
- Jeff Elbel