What A Blowout!

Still trying to clear the head after a 4 night binge of self induced debauchery? Then you must have been romping through the streets of Hamtramck for the 12^th edition of the MetroTimes Blowout along with Dr2 and our Crew, numbering upwards of a dozen of us jumping in & out of over 12 different venues, taking in over 23 acts during the course of this years Blowout! What A Blowout it was! All though the weather didn't wreak havoc on this year's event until Saturday night, it did appear that Blowout 12 was well attended, never ran into an empty venue as in some past years, and actually  Saturday's rain turned on & off at the most opportune times as we shuttled across Ham Town. Friday night had Dr2 checking out a slew of bands we've never had the chance to catch before, a definite bonus of attending the Blowout! Starting off at the Atlas Bar, which is actually a converted house that sits on a corner in the middle of a residential neighborhood, reason enough to just drop in, besides we wanted to catch Eddie Baranek's Battling Siki which we followed up with Four Hour Friends, before sliding down the street to the K of C Hall where we caught the end of the Terrible Two's set as well as Alan Schuerman in the Lounge, then caught some of the fanatical Lee Marvin Computer Arm. They really need to think about hanging something on the walls or from the ceiling of that god awful sounding room to at least try to improve the acoustics, if not, then drop it altogether and move the "big" shows over to the New Dodge. I don't care who plays there, NO ONE can tame that beast, it just out & out sucks they way it is. We eventually found our way out of the cave, and dropped into Small's for the Grande Nationals, who by far had the best set we saw Friday night before we took in Broadzilla over at the New Dodge. First time in this joint and Dr2 was impressed with everything about this venue including the awesome sight lines and fantastic sound, kind of reminds us of a miniature Crofoot in layout.

 

Saturday saw Dr2 load up not only the Dr2 Bus, but a convoy of sorts, as we headed into Hamtramck and the final night of Blowout 12, hydroplaning most of the way there! After great weather, for early March anyways, the heavens opened up tonight and tried to put out the Party that had been burning brightly for the past four days, but from what we saw it didn't dampen anyone's spirits the least bit as the streets of Hamtramck were just as busy as they had been all week! Kelly's Bar was the destination tonight where we were all set to catch Novada & then Lies Unknown. Surprised, to say the least, that Novada was a complete no show, even after nice write up last week over at mortorcityrocks.com, I mean how does a band pull off something like that? The biggest local music festival on the face of the Earth and you miss it? To make matters worst was that as a soaking wet Lies Unknown, who had a 10:20 set time, started to load in an

Los Vikings Del Muerto Satruday @ Kelly's Bar

hour early, word came down that the 3^rd band at 11:20 was also going to be a no show!? I guess the owner of the Atlas asked if they'd go on at 10:10 and "play as long as you want...", so play they did, giving everyone their entire self-titled debut album along with the "Kick Out The Jams" cover of the Mitch Ryder classic It's Alright. They even had the sound down tight in that room, I guess with the extra time to set-up, the sound guy made sure everything was right. It was cool to see a room stuffed full of music buffs jamming along with the band, even though they never heard or seen of them before. Best set we seen this year @ The Blowout! I guess everyone else liked them pretty well too as the lead singer agreed to play an additional ½ hour set of covers that

Friendly Foes Finishing Out The Blowout With a Bang @ The Blowout!

turned into a drunk fest, everyone singing along with him from Journey to Cash! This gave us a chance to hop over into Baker's Streetcar to catch the end of Doop & The Inside Outlaws set and some of those Spitting Nickels, another one of those Baranek projects. That place was packed as the Nickels rocked the "Car", making next to impossible to move through that room, but we did eventually find our way upfront for awhile before returning to Kelly's for the Los Vikings Del Muerto featuring Elliot Moses as the guitar king! Boy do these guys come at you hard and fast, great set from these guys too! With the Vikings of Death finishing up, it was off to the Belmont for a Blowout ending set from the Friendly Foes featuring the antics of Ryan Allen. True to form, Allen delivered the banter while annihilating that small room which was packed to the street, surprised we were even able to squeeze in! All & all an amazing week of Detroit Music! Remember to stop over at the Dr2 Photo Gallery for the Dr2 pics from the week. Now it'll take the rest of this week to recover....... DetroitRockReview.com - The Only Place For Local Music News & Reviews!

 

TNT's & 89X $10,000 I'm With The Band V3.0 Weeks 5 & 6

Finally things have begun to pick up these last 2 weeks of the competition with nights full of good music and great crowds! Week 5 packed the house with a slew of fans heading out to TNT's to support their favorites this week. Smoke Stack Horizon was up first, and is a perfect example of why Dr2 loves this contest as they finished last with the On-line vote and had a similar finish with the Door Vote. BUT, in their own unique way, turned in an outstanding performance of quirky experimental metal, love to see these guys again! Overtow somehow won the On-line vote in a close race with the Matt Austin Band, but failed to bring those voting fans through the door as they finished second to the night's Door Vote winner The Matt Austin Band. Looks like the Matt Austin Band has made some much needed changes to their line-up and it has done wonders for not only their look, but what a difference in their sound that had everyone screaming for more as MAB unleashed two new songs, Dirty Little Drama Queen & the hugely popular Detroit Throwdown that have literally re-defined their sound. The Heavy hitting Nine8Stall took the stage next and actually pulled off a great set in front of a good sized crowd that came to see them. Mikal (pronounced Michael) is a relative newcomer to the scene, although he is originally from Detroit, then transplanted to LA before landing in Boston, recently moving back home to the Rock Capital of the World, Detroit! Makes you wonder what he was thinking.......? Mikal has been nominated for quite a few DMA's in the past, but tonight wasn't his night as Matt Austin Band sweeps the night and will be moving onto the Semi-Finals in May.

 

Mansfield Park

Week 6 turned in large crowds to make it 2 weeks in a row with a packed house for the I'm With The Band V3.0 Contest that will determine just who has what it takes to bring home that larger than life sized check for &10,000. Altered Paradym won the On-line vote this week, while the Crime Scene Vendorz opened up the night with their raw metal sound, before giving way to the high energy of Mansfield Park themselves brought quite a large crowd of fans in what turned out to be one of the biggest turnouts to date inside TNT's. Finding Eden went up third again in an impressive sized crowd who certainly let everyone there know who they were pulling for! Stellar Drive hit the stage as the night's hands down winner with the Door Vote and delivered an explosive set for their fans that included local Detroit Legend Jimmy McCarty (Detroit Wheels, Cactus, The Rockets, Mystery Train) whose

Stellar Drive Won Week 6

son holds down the drums for this "Stellar" group. Altered Paradym finished out the night to another large crowd of supporters making this week the best Dr2 has seen for attendance! With all the votes in, Stellar Drive was announced as the night's winner and therefore moves onto the Semi-Finals themselves for a chance at the $10K!! Getting close to the halfway point in the contest as we hit week #7 of the 16 week event that will also see the winner snag some recording time over at one of Detroit's hottest studios Metro Recording Studio. This week promises to be heavy hitting night as Hell Rides North, SBU, The Disregarded, Death & Glory, and Amplahi battle it out for their chance to win the 89X $10,000 I'm With The Band V3.0 Contest only at TNT's! DetroitRockReview.com - The Only Place For Local Music News & Reviews!

The Octopus Inks The Blowout Pre-Party!

The 12^th Annual Metro Times Blowout kicked off last night at Detroit's Majestic Complex with an all out frenzy of a party that included all we love about the Blowout with the obscure (Electric Fire Babies), insane (Child Bite), wacky (Gepetto Files (Stirling Belongs Here too)), rock (The Octopus), country, metal, rap (Fluent), emo and indie (Silver Ghost), well we almost had them all covered! This is exactly what the Blowout is all about, looking at a line-up and wondering aloud "who the hell put this together", only to look back at it later that night as your cleansing the stale beer from your system when it all comes together and you realize you just witnessed something that you would never see anywhere else, cept the Blowout! Dr2 slide into the Majestic complex, picked up our passes, then embarked on what can only be described as an annual Detroit Music Family Reunion, constantly running into "that" person you haven't talked to since the last Blowout, way too much fun! Dr2 caught most of the acts last night, missed some too due to the constant handshaking and story telling going down, but from what we did see, there was some downright good music originating from both the Majestic Theater & Magic Stick. Of course we also seen some stuff that we're not quite sure of what it was they were trying to accomplish. Electric Fire Babies and Fluent were this years sacrificial lambs, with the early set times they played to sparsely filled venues while everyone was apparently in the bowl catching up with everyone. Not much into either of these two, the slow smooth rap of Fluent or the twisting knobby computer beep sounds of EFB. Moving between the 2 venues proved difficult about this time as we headed into the Stick to catch the wildly insane antics of Child Bite. These guys are like an out of control metal band with a saxophone! All sporting facial hair of some sort it's a non-stop bash it up party complete with a ghostly Ace Frehley Impersonator. Back to the Theater to catch the wacky antics of the Gepetto Files, which is basically a puppet show done to parodies of certain musical stars with a live band playing behind it who were all dressed in black veil type of clothing topped off with huge Viking hats, horns and all. First time catching this crazy bunch and we must say they pulled off a completely hilarious (if not true) parody of the White Stripes with their own version, The Brown Streaks. Had us on the floor when the MC asked if they weren't from Tennessee! Back to the Stick where we caught what was certainly THEE set of the night from The Octopus. Amazingly catchy hooks with an equally amazing voice from Masha Marjieh, this group had the Stick packed with bouncing heads and raised fists. Rampaging through a twelve song set that included Hemisphere, At Her Feet, and by the time they nailed Medium Cool, The Octopus had us asking each other if this wasn't THEE set of the entire Blowout, yet alone just tonight. We got this band, and they had us hooked, look forward to future sightings of The Octopus! By the way, why can't the Stick put in at least a couple white lights on their stage, the Red Glow gets to be a bit much...... By now the bi-hourly migration through the Majestic Café was taking a toll on us all as each run had us deliberately passing no less than 4 bars each way! Back at the Theater, the group Wrong Number was part way through their set when a magic marker chested singer decided he had enough of his Howdy Dowdy Walmart edition shirt, and slowly proceed to unclothe himself, on sleeve & button at a time, an excruciating process to witness. It didn't take long for long time Detroit Music aficionado and local bad boy Stirling to propel himself on stage to take over the vocal duty; I guess the shirtless guy wasn't as bad as we first thought..... Marcie Bolan's Silver Ghost had the headline slot back at the Stick where those damn red lights were on the verge of setting off an impromptu migraine party. At least that smooth almost hypnotic indie sounding music soothed that issue. Never seen this group before but by the looks of the packed house plenty of you have, it just seemed a bit too slow for a show ending set starting at Midnight. They'll be heading down to that SXSW fest in Austin in a couple weeks so who knows, maybe they'll turn some heads down there for themselves. Outrageous Cherry had the stage and the Blowout Crowd to themselves for at least half there set, was it just us or did these guys seem to play for like 2 hours or something? Not much excitement from this gang either as the night was wearing on while the line to Sgt Pepperoni seemed to keep growing, impeding anyone who dared try to pass (they do have damn good pies). The good news is that the Blowout moves over to its original home for the rest of the weekend starting tonight when things kick into overdrive down Jos Campeau and the rest of the streets of Hamtramck. Look for some much warmer weather this year according to Chuck, so we're expecting some huge fun as Dr2 blows through the rest of the Blowout starting tonight as we descend upon an itinerary that is much a guess as it is a throw of the dice, but we look forward to finally dropping in on Love Meets Lust with a few detours along the way to catch The Decks and the newly beefed up Deastro dude! Be sure to check out the entire Blowout schedule complete with links to the bands right over here at MetroTimes.com. DetroitRockReview.com - The Only Place For Local Music News & Reviews!

 

Ladies Night, Oh What A Night!

With no clear cut destination on the itinerary, Dr2 jumped in the bus and headed on over to TNT's for what we thought would be a laid back night trying to win on one of those damn Keno tickets, throw back a couple beers, maybe see a band or two at the same time. Instead, what we got was an unbelievable fill of some of Michigan's hottest female fronted bands that made it nearly impossible to keep up on them damn Keno numbers, although the beers certainly got thrown back! Kickin the night off was the Orange Marsupials, although we arrived just as they ended their set, Dr2 has seen this group a number of times and rest assured we're sure Lil Lisa and the guys nailed their set of funk infused reggae rock!  , Now we've seen the next group, Tiny Lightning, once before but were totally taken back as they took the stage with a new lead singer, none other than local pop hotty singer Christina Chriss! Not exactly what has taken place, but from what we saw it looks as if Tiny Lightning is now the backing band for Christina Chriss? Dr2 has heard of Ms Chriss (who hasn't), in fact a lot of good things, but it was obvious that after the first couple of songs, which played right up Chriss's strengths, heavy electronic beats with a catchy pop vocal over top, things began to unravel as the group swayed towards the more "Rock" side of the Tiny Lightning sound. BUT, getting back to the aforementioned beginning of the set, this girl not only has the look, but showed that she can roll that electronic dance pop sound as good as any, in fact they had us sitting up to take notice as those big crisp movable beats came streaming at us. Actually hope to catch them again soon once they get some more time together and perfect the perfection that they somehow lost as the set moved on. InGray. Quite the story behind this group who actually has performed in front of former President Clinton once, immigrating from the war torn remnants of Yugoslavia, now known as Bosnia, InGray came to Detroit with one goal in mind, to Rock This City! Led by the statuesque beauty, Adisa Cizmic (vox), InGray plays the harder edge rock cut from the likes of Led Zeppelin, actually taking the aptly titled Immigrant Song and turning into one of their own! Keep an ear open on this fine group as they debut two new songs tonight, Sarajevo & Broken, from their upcoming new release, which literally brings an awesome new twist on their already huge live sound! We missed out on our first chance to catch this next group up, dubbed "Detroit's sexiest electro-rock-new wave outfit", OttO Vector, a year or so ago while at the Magic Bag so we were totally ecstatic when they took the stage tonight. Fronted by the ever so delightful "Lady Renee", OttO Vector brings the hooks and the looks that get the party started with very movable synth laced dance rock not unlike Gwen Stefani & No Doubt. Truly an amazing and enjoyable set, although due to the self proclamation of not being ones for a set list, we're not clear on the song names, albeit doesn't really matter as we're raising our hands first to go see ‘em next time their on an eastside stage! Having read about the final act up tonight a number of times, most recently on their opening for the sold out Hard Lessons show at St Andrews Hall, My Dear Disco has scored themselves a spot on the "Michigan Bailout Tour" with The Javelins, The Hard Lessons, & The Great Lakes Myth Society with stops across the Midwest & far south before landing in Austin, TX for a 3 night run during the famed SXSW Festival! A seven pc ensemble out of Ann Arbor, Mi, MDD features an array of synthesized keys as well as a talented hooded lead vocalist in Michelle Chamuel, producing a near techno dance trance type of vibe sprinkled throughout with some fine guitar riffs that gets everyone's feet moving! Dancing through a twelve song set, MDD hit up their hugely popular White Lies as well as Move Your Feet (MYF) before throwing down an awesome rendition of Michael Jackson's Beat It ! What a great night of "Fun" music! Check out all the bands from tonight by clicking on the Dr2 Links where you'll find them all and while you're at it be sure to stop in at the Dr2 Gallery for all the photos from the night! DetroitRockReview.com the only place for Local Music News & Reviews!

 

Honky Tonk Heartache

This is a big shout out to all our readers who are a little bit country & a little bit rock n' roll!  Honky tonk is alive and well in our city!!  We at DR2 are regular attendees when On The Rocks, Detroit presents a Sam Wood show; it is guaranteed to feature the best country, rock, singer/songwriter talent you will ever see.  Most recently we found ourselves in Pontiac at the very cool Eagle Theater for "Honky Tonk Heartache" featuring a lineup of John Holk & The Sequins, Delilah DeWylde & The Lost Boys, Doop & the Inside Outlaws and Whitey Morgan & The 78's.  This show, like past Detroit Honky Tonk shows was a great night of rock & roll flavored country!  Don "Doop" Duprie has an incredible talent for writing songs that tap into that working-class experience in the same way, and with a similar style to The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.  He often performs acoustically around town when he is not fighting fires Downriver in his regular job.  These shows are very intimate and a lot of fun, but it is something special to see him with a full band.  "The Inside Outlaws", Doop's troupe, is an incredible collection of talent with Matt Lollio groovin' on Bass, Matt Van wailing on Guitar, the incomparable, mood setter, "Pedal Steel" Pete Ballard on, well, pedal steel guitar, Jay Row crushing the drums, and Bobby Emmet working the Hammond. Put them all on stage and you won't stay in your seat for long as they rock through crowd-favorites like Blood River, Let You Bleed(a personal favorite), and Done ‘em Right, an occasional Springsteen cover, and lately some great new tunes like MFNJOB (pronounced M-effin-J-O-B), and Saturday, that will be featured on a new disc due to drop summer '09.  Doop & The Inside Outlaws is so natural and authentic, that inevitably, you find yourself smiling and singing along!  His natural, humble, easygoing, style connects him to the audience immediately.  And, as if that's not enough, you will often find, Atlantic Records recording artist, Ty Stone joining him on stage for some fun! Ty often takes part in the acoustic shows, billed as "Revolver" around town and is a truly special talent.  He has that unique ability to inspire emotion with both his songs and his emotionally charged voice.  He will be playing, with a full band for an "On The Rocks" promoted bill on the "Detroit Princess" dubbed SHIPROCKED, a new river cruise rock series starting this May 16^th (check our Gig Calendar for details) that looks to be a must-see show.

 

 

Finally, another recent fixture in the Honky Tonk shows has been Whitey Morgan & The 78's (see our recent review of their disc Honky Tonks & Cheap Motels) Whitey has put a lot of miles on the tour bus this past summer, literally playing his way across the country, from here to Texas promoting the new disc. But, we have been lucky to keep him around town recently.  With music that has that outlaw feel of Waylon, Willie and Hank (you gotta know who I mean if you've read this far) Whitey and the boys are a country throwdown every time they hit the stage!  With all the the country bases covered, from cheatin spouses to blue collar drinkin' tunes, they tear it up with crowd-pleasers like If It Ain't Broke, Crazy, Another Round, and Cheatin' Again !!  If you haven't been out to see the guys, you are truly missing something special.  I don't think these guys will be "local boys" for much longer.  We at DR2 feel it won't be long until we lose Doop, Ty, Whitey, or other Inside Outlaws affiliates, Brandon Calhoun, Robin Horlock, or Matt Dmits to the bigger stages across the country.  It is only a matter of time till the rest of the world discovers the talent in this collection and they blow up.  So, if you see any of these names on our Gig Calendar, get out and see them, we guarantee you will not be disappointed! You can catch Doop & The Inside Outlaws at Baker's Streetcar this Saturday in downtown Hamtramck during the Metro Times Blowout or, as always, in our Top Friends at www.detroitrockreview.com the only place for local music, news, and reviews.

 

Lithium Turns Hayloft Into An Asylum!

Last Saturday Night Lithium turned the Hayloft into their own Insane Asylum complete with padded walls in a spectacular visual display of pure mental instability before reappearing in front of their congregation of disciples for an impromptu midnight mass! In celebration of the release of their debut album, Manic Obsession, Lithium filled the Hayloft in Mt Clemens, Mi with friends, fans, and a support bill that shook the rafters. With a line out  the door that stretched into the parking lot, show openers Cold Burn took the stage with a solid set before yielding the audience to the winner of the coolest drum kit award, Archetype, who turned in yet another ferocious set of off the wall metal, complete with a "Lighted Kit" that  was

Facture Rocking The Loft

unlike any we've seen before! A long time Mt. Clemens (and Dr2) favorite Facture brought the house down with their typical high energy flare that had the entire front of the stage bouncing along with Joe Serra (vox) as he pranced across the stage like that damn Energizer Bunny! These guys can throw down

Chaos Theory Turning up the heat

with the best of them and they back  it up with an extremely tight sound that is as enjoyable to watch as it is to hear. Stalwart metal masters, Chaos Theory, hit the stage next to what has now become a huge crowd milling about the front of the stage. True to form, the guys from Chaos Theory hit the crowd gathered in front of them right between the eyes, never letting them rest with their mix of hard hitting tunes drawn from their recently released disc The Art of War. A pretty amazing "opening" line-up that succeeded in priming the venue for what was about to go down. With a huge white curtain draping the stage,

Lithium's Grand Entrance

the Hayloft was now nearing a fever pitch in anticipation of tonight's headliner's, that certain feeling of "something big is about to happen" fell over the crowd that was now standing shoulder to shoulder in the pit. It felt as if you were standing main floor at the Palace when the lights went down, revealing the silhouettes of Lithium appearing behind the now back lit curtain. The crowds reaction was overwhelming, to say the least, as the silhouette of the all too familiar spiked hair of lead singer Pauly Vino came towards the curtain with outstretched arms. As he toyed

Father Vino Praying To His Disciples

with the drapery, his trademark lighted glove flashed through the ripples and music started to fill the room when all of a sudden the curtain crashes to the stage unveiling tonight's heroes, Lithium, launching into their set that would span the entire new disc and then some! Pandemonium ensued as the all white set was revealed, mimicking that of a padded cell straight out of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest! It was obvious that the guys Vino, Carl Shank (guitar), Tommy "Two Fingers" Koppmann (bass), & Pat Vadnais (drum), including manager John Jones,

Lithium Brought Down The House

went to great lengths to put this show on with a flair towards the imagination, even going as far as bringing in supplemental wash lighting to top off the visual props on stage, not to mention the band themselves! Midway through the hour long set, a break in the action took place and the impromptu "road crew" rearranged the set into a black motif while Lithium slipped out of view, only to return moments later with Pauly, now sporting his "fatherly" collar, conducting midnight mass from behind the huge pulpit that was now front & center on the stage!

Lithium Fans Witnessed an Awesome Show

Tremendous attitude persevered during the final moments when it appeared Lithium was poised to deliver a final communion to Father Vito's newly appointed congregation, but after a second look, we realized it was only a monstrous mosh pit of the mentally possessed hoping for a mass exorcism of their demons! What an unbelievable sight during an unbelievable night! Dr2 takes our hats off to what was one of thee hottest CD Release Parties yet this year, be sure to check out the photos from this event in the Dr2 Photo Gallery. Check out the Dr2 View of Lithium's debut disc, Manic Obsession, inside the Dr2 View section, then head on out to a Lithium show were you can purchase your own copy of this truly amazing disc! Find Lithium in the Dr2 Links, or head on over to the Dr2 MySpace page where you'll find them listed in our "Top Friends". DetroitRockReview.com - The Only Place For Local Music News & Reviews!