Relive The Time Mike Watt, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, and Eddie Vedder Perform ‘Big Train’ In 1995

It was the mid-1990s, and there was something in the air that made it feasible for rock giants like Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Mike Watt, and Eddie Vedder to come and play a show together. Mike Watt is a legendary figure in the history of punk music, with the bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE making significant contributions to the genre. By 1995, after losing his best friend and musical partner D. Boon, Watt decided to go solo, and release Ball-Hog or Tugboat his debut album as a soloist.

Ball-Hog or Tugboat showcased both his talents as an artist and a conglomeration of every musician that you may know of in the industry. Its songs featured the likes of Frank Black, Flea, Henry Rollins, Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond, Thurston Moore, Dave Pirner, Evan Dando, Nels Cline, J Mascis, Grohl, Vedder, Smear, and more; talk about the album of a lifetime!

Watt never expected to go on tour in support of the album because the record had 48 different musicians in various configurations on each track. But Dave Grohl phoned with a proposal for forming a small touring band, with Eddie Vedder’s band Hovercraft and Dave Grohl’s newly formed Foo Fighters with Pat Smear as the opening acts for Watt. The decision gave us this once-in-a-lifetime moment that one could never regret knowing.

You can watch Watt with Vedder and Foo Fighters Grohl and Smear perform one of Watt’s classic tracks “Big Train” in The Jon Stewart Show below.