A Long Time Coming...

Watts enjoys a well-earned trip from the basement to the big stage

By Jeff Blout

(this article originally appeared in the September 4, 2013 edition of the Stoneham Independent)

Watts at Casino Ballroom last Sunday, L-R: John Lynch, John Blout, Dan Kopko and Craig LaPointe

                   Photo by Micah Gummel

The Casino Ballroom, Hampton Beach, NH

Sunday August 25, 2013

Led Zeppelin played here.

Jimi Hendrix played here.

The Who played here.

The list is long and reads like a role call for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Sprinkled amongst the icons are the names of instantly recognizable touring veterans (Southside Johnny, George Thorogood, Ted Nugent) and classic pop radio superstars (Chicago, Hall & Oates, Billy Joel). And tonight a new name can be added to the list of performers who have graced the stage of the legendary Casino Ballroom at Hampton Beach.

The name is Watts.

Watts are a Boston-based four-piece rock and roll band whose roots go back more than thirty years. Dan Kopko (guitar, vocals), John Blout (guitar, vocals) and Craig LaPointe (bass, vocals) have been playing together since the 1980s when they were teenage glam rockers, practicing Saturday afternoons in Blout’s parents’ basement in Stoneham and appearing regularly as a major draw at the Rockpile in Saugus and at the Kenmore Club’s Heavy Metal Wednesdays. Several bands and many lineup changes followed—including an earlier version of Watts—until 2005, when John Lynch, the hardest working drummer in Boston, joined Kopko, Blout and LaPointe to form the current, guitar-driven, rock-steady version of Watts.

The Casino show was originally scheduled as Cheap Trick with the Neighborhoods. Then the Replacements invited Neighborhoods’ guitarist Dave Minehan to join them for their reunion shows in late August, creating a scheduling conflict. Suddenly, Cheap Trick were in need of support. But Neighborhoods’ drummer John Lynch—yes, that John Lynch—wasn’t about to give up the drum stool that easily. Hey, I play in another band... Soon the Casino Ballroom’s calendar of events had a new listing for August 25^th:

Cheap Trick with Watts

They were given thirty minutes. They took thirty-four. Ten songs. No messing around. But this is not a critique of the band’s performance, nor is it a song-by-song breakdown in keeping with the traditional template of rock and roll concert review. Because tonight wasn’t about how long the set was, or which songs were played. Tonight was about The Moment and everything that led up to it.

Tonight was about thirty years of lugging amps, guitars and drums down uneven sidewalks and through narrow, poorly-lit entryways, then lugging them back out again three hours later. Tonight was about those basement rehearsals and that rickety drum riser fashioned out of an old ping-pong table. It was about playing Bill’s Bar on a weeknight while the Red Sox were playing across the street and wondering if anybody was going to show up, and how much, or even if, you were going to get paid. It was about spilled beer and cigarette smoke and figuring out who should be added to the guest list and which songs to cut from the setlist. And tonight was about all those personality-fueled brushfires that inevitably flare up, making you wonder if it’s worth it, being in a band.

Of course, not every night was a struggle. There were some great ones along the way. But none like tonight. Tonight was about the comfortable dressing room and the free beverages, the professional lighting and the executive-sized mixing board. And how the main act, a group high on your list of early influences, a group you saw live when they were half the age you are now, entered your dressing room and introduced themselves, knocking down any barriers between who belongs and who doesn’t.

Finally, it was about walking out on that well worn stage, tracing the footprints of rock history, and discovering that it makes perfect sense that you are here, that no matter how big a part fate played, you’ve earned this moment. And when it was over, the crowd’s enthusiastic response stood as affirmation for all of the hard work put in both on and off stage. Because, let’s face it, there aren’t many tougher jobs in rock than that of the little known band opening for the high-profile headliner. Watts proved more than qualified.

The Doors played here.

Janis Joplin played here.

U2 played here.

Watts played here.

Did they ever.