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Mik “the Stik” Messina, bassist for the infamous Brethren Quick, died on July 16 at the age of 56 next a lengthy ailment, approximately six many years right after the dying of his youthful brother, Don, who was the band’s singer and guitarist.
In the early days of Brethren Rapid, the Messina brothers realized they had been much more than just musicians. They had been showmen.
“To be a profitable band, you’ve got obtained to have extra than just tunes,” Mik Messina told Westword in 1995, the year the team shaped. “If you’re heading to see a band, it need to be a little something that turns you on. There should really be anything amazing to glance at, as properly as good songs.”
Tommy Nahulu, a muralist and longtime fixture in Denver’s audio scene, remembers Mik obtaining “swagger that was unmistakable, and he just experienced a phase existence that was plain. He just carried off this incredibly youthful existence, and I believe a good deal of folks imagined he was youthful than he was.”
The Messina brothers would dress in Velocity Racer-model outfits and massive sideburns. Though they seemed rockabilly, they would normally work funk grooves into their music.
“Groove!” Mik informed Westword. “The way I explain it is just groovin’, correct out groovin’. We just dig it. To me, most likely my most loved guitar player is Brian Setzer from the Stray Cats. That complete scene and vibe is just great and quickly and pleasurable and rockin’. To me, which is the only way to go.”
Mik also had rock-star appears – good lines in his confront and wonderful eyes and a pompadour — that produced the bassist a chick magnet, claims Nahulu. Jonny Barber, who shared a deep affinity for Elvis Presley with the Messinas and performed in the band Spiv with his individual brother, shared numerous a bill with Brethren Quickly, partly for the reason that they ended up the two acts with two brothers.
“I can not even notify you how many girls cried on my shoulder, late night at the bar, that had been just, like, pining for Mik the Stik,” Barber claims. “I never know how lots of there ended up. Just legions. He had so several woman admirers, it was crazy. I experienced so many individuals just appear to me just after the demonstrate, say, ‘Can you introduce me to the Stik?’ ‘For absolutely sure. I indicate, he is really approachable, and you could just stroll in excess of there and say hey. I’m confident he’d discuss to you.’ There ended up a lot of girls crushing on him.”
Brethren Quickly (Don Messina, Gordon Beesley and Mik Messina) participating in on New Year’s Eve 1998.
Krista Koehler
Barber thinks Mik might have gotten his nickname from a extensive-neck bass he performed, but Nahulu states it also could have a further connotation, offered that Mik was a chick magnet. “It could type of fit the invoice in both equally locations,” Nahula describes. “I haven’t noticed 1 terrible photograph of him.”
Although Mik was effortless on the eyes, Nahulu claims he was a truly superior person as perfectly.
“It appeared that he held that presence with the band,” Nahulu claims. “That reckless glance, like boys out of handle. But he had a very good grasp on what he was executing on phase, and he allow his brother go berserk and pleasurable and crazy. I definitely felt like he knew how to study a crowd and deliver the fun that he realized they were coming to see and be expecting. He just had a good feeling about him.”
The Messina brothers wrote a whole lot of tunes for Brethren Quickly about consuming and having a excellent time, something they would equally indulge in.
“There was a element of me that forgave him for not staying able to pull absent in time to, I do not know, conserve his liver and kidneys,” Nahulu suggests. “He’s a guy that should really have stayed with us. But I assume his entire body said, ‘You know, I gave you some enjoyable, failed to I?’ Didn’t we truly have a fantastic experience?’”
Mik died approximately 1 month following Arvada law enforcement officer Gordon Beesley, who was the drummer for Brethren Speedy in advance of signing up for the Railbenders, was shot and killed. Brethren Speedy had a number of other drummers more than the many years, which include Ordy Garrison and Nate “Dog” Nicholson, “and he was a huge presence with them,” Nahulu suggests. “Even with larger bands, there is generally a survivor that you sense like you might be however below — like the Beatles, simply because Paul McCartney is in this article and Ringo Starr is right here.”
But the Brethen Quickly that built these types of a mark on Denver is now just a memory.
Following publishing about Mik Messina’s loss of life on Fb, Nahulu states anyone added a comment saying that he felt “like the street was ripped off the map. And that actually variety of captured that experience. We do have shots and we will have photos that will stay forever, and their recordings. But it really is pretty weird to have a entire band not be below any more.”
A memorial for Mik Messina is remaining structured watch for information.
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