No Retreat, Baby, No Surrender
Let's say you're in your mid-twenties and in a band, and wondering if there's any way you'll be able to continue making music without ever winning the pop lottery and having that huge hit record. Now let me show you a role model that answers that question -- Steve Wynn.

I caught Wynn and his band The Miracle 3 at the Mercury Lounge on Saturday night. Here's a guy whose first-ever release in the early 1980's - "The Days of Wine And Roses," which he recorded with his band The Dream Syndicate - garnered rave reviews and established him as a force in indie rock. But the record never went platinum (I dont know if it's even gold, after all these years)and nothing Wynn did after that quite measured up, at least in terms of press and notoriety. Yet here he is more than 20 years later, still earning a living and making great music.

A lot of guys from Wynn's generation turn into oldies acts and pay the rent by touring behind their back catalog. (I call it "Help Me Rhonda Syndrome" after what happened to the Beach Boys.) You stop being a creative force and just make baby boomers happy by touring and letting them sing along to the old stuff. The Smithereens wound up like that; I suspect Bruce Springsteen broke up the E Street Band in the Nineties specifically so he wouldn't.

But that's not Wynn's style. He actually played a couple of Dream Syndicate songs from the "Wine & Roses" era on Saturday, but he didn't introduce them as such and the crowd didn't go extra crazy over them; they were just part of the set, as much a part of what Steve Wynn does today as the songs from his brand-new (and quite excellent) album, "Tick...Tick...Tick."

Wynn actually sounds less like a Lou Reed clone and very much his own distinct stylist today than he did in his twenties; and his band is amazing too, capable of gliding from succinct and witty pop tunes into extended Neil Young-ish guitar jams with effortless aplomb. Assuming that he held onto his publishing, I'm sure his Dream Syndicate days have provided a nice little nest egg over the years. But far from sitting on his laurels (or living off his royalty checks,) Steve Wynn continues to write, record, tour, and make an impact on the pop landscape. No, he's not winning Grammy's or denting the Billboard charts. But I bet he's having a good time (and paying the rent without having to punch a timecard somewhere.) Hey, Mr. Indie Rocker, if you want to take a look at somebody you'd like to be when you grow up, I can't think of a better choice.

Ironically - or, perhaps, fittingly - two of the twentysomething-aged opening acts on the bill showcased the kind of eye-opening talent that Wynn did back when he was just breaking in. In fact, Mason Dixon's Mike Robertson has more in the way of looks, style, and charisma than Wynn did at his age, and Robertson has really come into his own as a songwriter too, with a unique blues-driven style that hints of American icons like Cash and Springsteen. Mason Dixon is just waiting for the break that will let them get their "Days Of Wine And Roses" out to the public. (And it could come as early as this year, when the band finally releases its first full-length.)

Singer/songwriter Graham Smith (formerly of the NYC band Kleenex Girl Wonder) doesn't quite have Robertson's elan or rugged good looks, but his relaxed and ingratiating stage presence and hints of lyrical brilliance (anyone who can rhyme verbose with morose is okay in my book) suggest a promising future for him too.