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mssv at Turf Club (18 Apr 2025)
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Although it might not have been obvious from the billing, a night at Turf Club had a host of luminaries as mssv came to St. Paul to play.
The Charlie Parr Trio kicked things off for the evening. Parr is, quite simply, a prolific artist. He has nearly 20 full length albums and an unbelievable number of other released material. He is a machine when it comes to shows, including a January residency at Turf Club for the last several years. He plays a blues country/blues rock style both solo and in bands like this concert’s trio. Although no one was making a big deal of it, the bassist for the trio was none other than Greg Norton, of Hüsker Dü fame. (Bob Mould also happens to be in town, playing at The Palace on the 19th.)
Parr and company hit the first song running. It was a long tune giving everyone a chance to get going, with Parr’s vocals and Norton’s bass work a highlight. A bit of banter about how Parr didn’t like to be standing while playing guitar (but was “going to do it anyway”), also revealed they only had “a couple more songs” before mssv. And given the style of music for the evening, perhaps the fewer but longer songs was the way to go. Drummer Billy Dankert helped hold the center on the second song, keeping the instrumental and vocal sections well connected.
We got a Bob Dylan cover, Ballad of Hollis Brown, and crossed the thirty-minute mark early in the third song of the set. The key here were those alternating instrumental sections with the lyrics; it provided an obvious sign to the audience that the musical sections were key, but none were so long that you lost track of what was going on, and the vocal sections were never too far away. It was a great opportunity for some these excellent musicians to jam within given constraints. Norton’s bass work in the latter part of the song was masterful while always being in support of the music. And as they ended their third song at 45 minutes, the Charlie Parr Trio exited the stage.
mssv, short for Main Steam Stop Valve, is a trio with Mike Baggetta (guitar), Mike Watt (bass), and Stephen Hodges (drums). All three members have long and varied musical track records. This current band lies squarely in the experimental rock genre: unorthodox song structures, improvisational performances and a distinct lack of commercial aspirations. mssv showed that off in spades as they got to the stage.
They started with On and On from the most recent album and Baggetta’s guitar work was off the charts. They simply transitioned into the second song, and you got the feeling that talk from the band might be pretty limited. It amused me that Watt was seated in an old-fashioned looking chair and was largely faded away from the audience. The second song, Hypocrite, was very free form and gave us Watt yelling that one word for backup vocals. As they got started on the third song, it was clear that mssv was there simply to rock. No bluster, no comedy or patter, just the music. Watt took over for some of the vocals on the third song, Careful What You Wish For and was a great contrast.
The jazz background and training for Baggetta became obvious as you listened to the band, particularly on a song like Even So. A strange interlude with Hodges also playing a jingle bell had an off-kilter feel, but quickly rolled back into the rock & roll sound. It got a little harder to tell start and end of songs, though a full stop helped reset and give the crowd a chance to cheer their appreciation. A quieter number got going with a repetitive structure that allowed some improvisations and variations on the theme. It ended with some very improvisational riffs with Watt mostly slapping his bass and Baggetta in full jazz mode. Right as it seemed the band might go off the rails of rock noise, they again moved into the next song. It was quite the display at a band performance level, as they deftly rode a line of traditional songs while giving themselves room to play as they wanted.
A wildly quiet They Can’t Take That Away From Me eventually shut the entire crowd up by the time Watt took over again on vocals and Hodges basically gone silent on percussion. Just as it ended, they launched into a funk inspired song that completely reset the mood. mssv has a seasoned approach that kept the evening moving forward in an enjoyable way. The next few songs flowed from one into the next, with Baggetta having more or less on the lyrical side. At one point, a simple shouted word “bass” from Watt had the crowd laughing and cheering and mssv was starting to head to the end of the set. As they got to the end, they finally talked a little and Watt was effusive in his thanks for the openers, the crowd and then parlayed that into Another World, with him at lead vocals. We also got a long expected extended drum solo from Hodges. Human Reaction was an excellent song to end on, and mssv started packing up their gear. It ended a night of some great individual performers coming together and sharing the stage with each other and the audience.
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