In his own parlance, punk legend Mike Watt is a "tugboat," a reassuring, avuncular figure that wouldn't dream of "hogging the ball."

But even someone who would title an album Ball-Hog Or Tugboat? in the first place has his limits, and they were tested repeatedly last night at The Opera House during one of the year's most hotly anticipated concerts.

Trouble is, most of that anticipation centred on Watt's back-up band, which featured members from two of the '90s' most significant bands, in the form of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.

By show time, every one of the 700 fans on hand long ago knew that:

- Vedder would be performing - in a wig and dark glasses - as part of the evening's opening act, Hovercraft;

- that Grohl would be unveiling his new band, Foo Fighters;

- both would be playing, along with Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear, with Watt's band.

Hovercraft opened the proceedings by wandering onto a virtually pitch-black stage and launching into its only number of the evening, a jagged 28-minute instrumental pounded out over a film montage of flowers, volcanoes, clouds, and birds that could've been dubbed The National Geographic's Greatest Hits. (The band's lone recording so far is actually titled Zero Zero Zero One.)

As he did for his role in Hollywood's Gen X flick Singles, Vedder bashed away on the drums, though he got more than a little help from second percussionist Watt/Foo Fighters William Goldsmith, on loan from Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate. The lineup was filled out by Vedder's wife, Beth Liebling, on bass and guitarist Ryan Shin of Serattle band Space Helmet.

Grohl, meanwhile, simply stole the show. Easily justifying the buzz building up around his Foo Fighters, he ripped through an intense 40-minute, 10-song set that sounded more than a little like Nirvana.

Abandoning his drum seat for a guitar and a piece of centre stage, he had the crowd frantically moshing from the opening notes of Butterfly to the closing feedback drone of Exhausted.

There's no reason you should recognize those titles - after all, the Foo Fighters album probably won't be out 'til July - but you will. Having heard Grohl's phenomenal demo tape, which has been circulating in Seattle music circles for a couple of months, I'd bet my second mortgage that once this music does hit the streets, it'll be one of the highlights of 1995.

All of which explains why the normally good-natured Watt finally snapped five songs into his headlining set. After soldiering through a wobbly version of Drove Up From Pedro, he turned to the rowdy, Vedder-obsessed crowd and snarled, "I'm not used to being in the spotlight, I'm (screwing) up the words, give me a break!," suggesting, "Everyone yell `Eddie' now," to get it out of their system.

Too bad. A good tugboat like Watt deserved better.

SUN RATING: 4 OUT OF 5