Sound Check The Spits: Puppets and the Nuge
posted by on January 25 at 2:30 AM
The Spits play punk like pissed off puppeteers. They have no qualms about jumping down from their puppet-operating platform and totally cutting up the show. They land on the little fake Camelot set, crush the cardboard castle, tear up the puppets, and say, “Don’t you kids know this isn’t real? These are puppets! We were just up there controlling them with this stupid string. Mr. King Arthur Pants is fake.” The Spits’ gear is there and they break into their song “Suzy’s Face.” The kids think it’s part of the show and every puppet on hand is destroyed. Cotton stuffing flies and the kids roll around in tangled string. The Spits play and pulverize. There is unison. Lighting strikes the roof of the children’s theatre, the power goes out, and the kids finish screaming the song in darkness. Then they turn on flashlights and eat Kit Kats.
I spoke to the Spits guitarist and singer Sean Wood via hot tub. They are currently in the studio recording a full length with Swami Records’ John Reis.
Sean plays a Gibson SG and uses a 150 watt 1978 Peavey tube amp and a Carvin 412 cabinet. Sean loves his Pro Co Rat distortion pedal too. He got it in his hometown of Kalamazoo, MI.
Talk about your Rat pedal for me.
Sean: The Rat has a raw raw sound. It’s not real fancy, but it has the crunch I like. Ted Nugent plays with one. And that’s really all I needed to know. The Nuge is great. The Spits got to open for him once.
You opened for Ted Nugent?
Yes we did. In Jackson, MI. It was his annual Hunting Bash. He had heard one of our CD’s and invited us to play.
Did you hunt?
There was wild game everywhere. Boars and turkeys and shit. Nugent gave us some of his homemade jerky. We didn’t hunt, but we fired off a bunch of guns.
What kind of guns?
AR-15’s. And you know Nugent is big into the crossbow.
Does Ted Nugent have good aim?
Oh yeah, the dude’s a dead-eye. Great aim. He’s a killer.
Do you have good aim?
I’d say I have OK aim. I’m a naturally gifted hunter. I know scents and can track. Now that I think about it though, I could probably work on my aim.
** The Spits play tonight at the Funhouse with Meepers, Android Hero, and Tv Coahran.
Ah, the Spits; I recall stage managing at a local rock fest one year & they were on my stage... I was trying to find them to get them to go on, but they were out in the alley, which happened to be adjacent to a police precinct... they had started a small fire in the alley and were dancing around it. "What are you doing?" I politely asked. "It's the Spits Dance of Fire!" they earnestly explained... great show though.
If the Spits can help us separate myth from madness, puppets from presidents--I'd say let the Spit fire burn bright so we can all see. Hearing is no problem.
Tante
Trent Moorman interviewing Sean Spits is almost as good as the first time I saw Jaws.
The Spits are both stupid and fun and I love them for it.
No band in Seattle has as much fun onstage as the Spits.
Sean Spits hunting name is "Little Big Wind".
Call him that at the show tonight.
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