Letting loose with big dreams for Crescent City
He is known by day as Michael Goppert, sales consultant at Pacific Auto Sales in Crescent City where he guides his customers to the car they want for the reasons they want it.
At night, it is a different tune. As a vocalist and songwriter, Goppert takes his audience to a place they otherwise might not dare to go.
Wicked Intent is the name of his band. The intent? “To bring the vibe, feeling and freedom to those ground down by what’s been going on all around us,” Gobbert said.
Known as Michael G on stage, he gyrates and twists while straining and grasping at the microphone like a desperate man dangling from a helicopter. And, when a song takes a pause, he emits animalistic shrieks as if he was in the final stage of purging some demon from deep inside.
Yet, Michael G is always in control. Elvis would do no better had he lived to see this day.
Wicked Intent bandmates provide a pleasing and familiar sound, as comforting as a backup generator during a power outage. And each member provides his own frequent flourishes of solo musicality that reminds audiences that they are listening to classic Rock n’ Roll.
The songs are a mixture of familiar old tunes, plus others from Michael G’s own hand and heart. And when performed on stage, they speak directly to each person.
To the men in the crowd, his unspoken message was, “Hey, buddy, it’s okay to let loose every once in a while.” And to the women: “See babe, even decades of decadence can’t stop you ‘cause you got the right stuff.” He would know.
Mike G came of age in the grimy rat-infested bars where “you could feel and smell the edge” to the music.
“Rock ‘n Roll of the 60s, 70s and 80s was the greatest music ever created,” he said. “I sat at the feet of those artists.”
You write a song if you see something. “Find the depth, the height. If it is serious, make it serious. If it is light, make it light.”
For a town that where “the sidewalks roll up at 7 p.m., Mike G has high hopes for the future of Crescent City.
“With just a little thought, this place could be like Santa Cruz.” South Beach, he said, could have a boardwalk lined with shops and boutiques. “Doctors’ wives would be begging their husbands to stay here because they finally have somewhere to shop.”
There could be surf contests, shows and concerts, a “real California gotta go to” place.” he added.
“Why are kids so messed up with meth and other stupid drugs?” he asks. “Because there’s nothing to do, no place to party.”
Mike G would like to see more places that play live music.
“Disc jockeys are paid more money (to spin records) than live musicians. I don’t want to pay to hear what I can hear at home.” And Michael G promises to “deliver what the people have come and paid for. It hasta be good.”
As for selling a car on the showroom floor, “It’s no different onstage,” he said. “The audience has specific wants. Same thing on a car.”
“You read the body language; you understand the psychology of the sale. Recognition, passion, respect, reinforcement. I don’t sell them anything,” he said. “I reinforce what they want to do. I let them find the one they want, and reinforce their decision.”
