Mike Watt & the Black Gang Crew set out on Tuesday to bring Watt's new album Contemplating the Engine Room to the masses on a nationwide tour through November.

If Watt's live debut of the work in New York last month is any indication, the tour will offer powerful insight to the 20-year veteran pouring out some of the most inspired and well-crafted music of his career.

Watt said fans can expect the band to play Contemplating the Engine Room -- the "punk-rock opera" about his father's life in the Navy and his own days in the Minutemen -- in its entirety, in sequence. "I'll make sure we get to play an hour of Engine Room," he said by phone from his home in San Pedro, Calif. before heading out. "It's 53 minutes on the record, but some of the little parts I want to extend out a little bit."

The bassist, who also played in fIREHOSE, said he's likely to dip into his back catalog for encores such as Blue Oyster Cult's "The Red and the Black" and "Big Train," from Watt's first solo record Ball-Hog or Tugboat? "I don't really want to do too many old songs. 'Red and the Black' I have to play. I was 13 playing that with [late Minutemen guitarist] D. Boon. It's one of my oldest songs that I know and I play."

Joining the former Minutemen bassist on the Sticking the Head Out the Hatch tour are Tom Waits drummer Steve Hodges, as well as Watt's old co-hort from SST Records, Joe Baiza (ex-Saccharine Trust) on guitar. (Nels Cline, who plays masterfully on the album, is unable to tour as he's on the road already with the Geraldine Fibbers.)

The outing, which began in Sacramento, Calif., will see the Black Gang Crew play 45 dates across the United States and into Canada through Nov. 23. -- Chris Nelson [Wed., Oct. 8, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT]