North County Times from Oceanside, California • 79

28 Jazz guitarist Johnson heads MiraCosta bill with NuBand Leaving the house means assaulting the ears with rock LocaUSounds STEPHEN RUBIN CAM MILLER For the North County Times If Wayne Johnson had continued his childhood ways, he might have become somewhat of a musical rarity a righthander who played a guitar left-handed. And had that happened, he could have attributed it to watching Elvis Presley on the old Ed Sullivan television variety show. Huh? Well, let the Carlsbad six-stringer explain. My father bought me a guitar when I was 7. My hands were too small, so I wasnt ready for lessons, but I still wanted to learn to play a guitar.

When I saw Elvis Presley play his guitar on the Sullivan show, it looked to me like he was playing left-handed. I didnt know anything about the reverse mirror image thing, so I copied him because I didnt know any better. When he began his formal training two years later, Johnsons teacher squared him away in a hurry and he wouldnt begin to play his guitar left-handed today because itd be a disaster. The neck of the instrument got in my way then, and it would still get in my way. If the name Wayne Johnson sounds familiar, theres a good reason, and its not necessarily that hes been living in Carlsbad for 18 months after a long run in Glendale.

Hes the same Wayne Johnson who was performing with the Manhattan Transfer when the fabled vocal foursome appeared in Poway last fall. In fact, hes been the vocal groups regular strummer for the past 15 years with the exception of a five-year break in the 1990s. And although he also is leader of the newly formed Wayne Johnson NuBand, which will be performing on the same bill as Peter Sprague and the Strummers and Doug Robinson and Jazz America on Saturday at MiraCosta College, the guitarists principal commitment is to the Transfer. And the association with the hip singing group is both cool and not-so-cool, according to Johnson. Theres a consistency to working with the Manhattan Transfer that is good; you always know what youre doing and whats expected of you, mer, Atom Willard, used to play in Rocket From the Crypt.

Yikes, a supergroup! I was a little hesitant about seeing No Knife. I deliberately skipped the bands previous show because it had settled into a set-list rut during the last few years that did not yield to change or audience requests. Of course, fans usually demanded tracks that were of the more energetic, uptempo variety, but No Knife had this thing about playing its more meandering, patience-testing material in concert. The hourlong set revealed nary a surprise. No Knife opened with Hit Man Dreams, which bassist Brian Desjean introduced with one of his killer melodic figures.

Anyone who assumes bass players are simply musicians who cant play guitar needs to hear this guy. From there, No Knife stuck to its second and third records and threw in a few concert regulars from vinyl releases. If youve seen the band in the past few years, you heard the same songs. What began as a renewed and invigorating spirit petered out toward the end. Not that the rest of the audience agreed with me.

The enthusiastic crowd demanded an encore following set-closer Charades. The band obliged but stifled any momentum when only three-fourths of the band immediately returned to the stage. Once singer-guitarist Mitch Wilson revealed himself, we had to endure tuning and indecision before the band launched into Mis- SOUNDS, 27 They released me from the compound for the first time in months and ordered me to see some live, homegrown rock music. Mulder is gone, they said. Forget about him.

Give that guy from Terminator 2 a shot. Reconnect with a passion that doesnt involve the letter1. This journey began last Friday at the Cas-bah, where No Knife was playing its first local gig in eight months. Last year, the criminally underappreciated No Knife was supposedly ready to retire. Over three amazing CDs, No Knife evolved from a creative sorta punk-rock band into a relentlessly melodic, brainy and inventive rock outfit.

But not enough people outside San Diego paid attention. It turns out the quartet isnt quitting, says drummer and Cardiff resident Chris Prescott. The band is recording its fourth CD, which could be out this summer. Prescott also said that when the bands old Web site, www.noknife.com, expired, somebody bought the domain and wanted to sell it back to the band for $500. The band declined and set up shop at www.noknife.net for the mere $30 it costs to register a name.

So there I was Friday night, waiting for No Knife to follow an OK set from Weezer drummer Patrick Wilsons side band, the Special Goodness. This summarizes the Special Goodness set: Hey that song might be pretty good if Weezer songwriter Rivers Cuomo were singing it. Plus the bassist performs in Sugar Ray. Oh, and the drum Wayne Johnson only has played a handful of gigs with his new band, Wayne Johnson NuBand. His regular job is performing with the Manhattan Transfer.

North Couyrr Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2002 MllSiC 1 like to think were pretty open-ended in what we play. It simply doesnt follow any pattern at all. -WAYNE JOHNSON MiraCostas Second Annual Jazz Concert with the Wayne Johnson NuBand, Peter Sprague and the Strummers, featuring Sarah and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, Doug Robinson and Jazz America When: 7 p.m. Saturday Where: MiraCosta College Theatre, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside Tickets: $20 Into: (760) 757-2121, Ext. 6820 he said.

Tim Hauser (leader of the singing group) tries to keep things as uniform and simple as possible. In that way, there are no slip-ups when were playing in a different hall in a different city every night. But that can become tedious, too. I like to solo, and if I get one shot with them at a concert, then Im happy. But some nights, the group sings only piano songs, so only the keyboard player draws the solos.

I just sit there and play rhythm guitar, he continued. Thats the reason I left the Transfer when I did; it had become too restrictive and I needed a change. Johnson rejoined the group a few years ago because the Transfer was pushing a Django Reinhardt album that required a heavy-duty guitarist, and now that hes back in the fold he has no plans to JOHNSON, 27.