Notes

This was posted on the Metro Times Music Blahg by Eve Doster Kneep (Blowout Organizer)

Never Book a Sports Bar

Hey folks…FYI: The Motor City Sports Bar will no longer be participating in this year’s Blowout. Please do not go there, as we believe it is an unsafe atmosphere.

Drag.

This note is from The Questions.

Sorry mates, it has been a bastard of a week here at camp QUESTIONS.
William broke his leg earlier this week and we have decided after a few Broken Leg rehearsals that this show is not going to happen.
With sincere disappointment we our cancelling our show tonight.

Go see Fontana and Sons of the Gun at Shenanigans anyway!
You wont be disappointed!!!
See you in the Springtime!

Cheers!
Drew Bardo

Also according to Weather.com the “feels like”temp tonight is going to be around 5 or 6 degrees, plan accordingly. – posted by MCR

Night 3- Crowded House

My recap of Friday night is going to look pretty similar to all the other local music blogs. Bloggers got to stick together I guess. I think the obvious observation of last night is that is was way too cold. Walking between waling was miserable. Now I ask again, why is Blowout the 1st week in March?

I arrived at Jean’s at 10:01 to see Last Tourist and could barely get in the door. I had a feeling this was going to be the theme of the night. Jean’s is such a classic Blowout venue with the drummer always being up on the pool table. 1st off I’d like to give credit to the sound guy at this place. I was amazed how good the sound was in this place, it was totally unexpected. I’ve seen this band a bunch of times and this was by far the best they’d played. They were very tight and the layered guitars and vocal harmonies really came through well during the set. Calling Last Tourist just a brit pop sounding band is sort of lazy but, it’s saturday afternoon and I can’t think of anything better right now. They closed the show with a new song called “Race for the Sun” which killed.

Next stop was Whiskey in the Jar. I caught the end of Blair, at least I think I did, even though I couldnt hear him. I would love to know what went into the decison of leaving 4 tables in the middle of small bar knowing the place is going to be full all night? Nice work. While I waiting for 4 Hour Friends it was way too crowded for me and I decided to take off.

This is where “shuttle disater 2008″ happened. Each year you can count on a great shuttle story. As soon as we left there was a shuttle which was cool. So the driver asks where we would like to go, we say Painted Lady. We were then told he doesn’t know where that is, umm ok? I could just direct you maybe? No, so we ask for Smalls, and were told thats not on his route, we would have to get dropped off somewhere and wait for another shuttle to go to Smalls. Ok fine. After getting dropped off and waiting in the freezing cold for about 15 minutes the same shuttle guy comes back. We then pay him errrrrrrrrrrrrr I mean tip him to take us to Smalls. Good times!

Smalls had another huge crowd but was tolerable. The Terrible Twos are insane, and I say that in the best possible way. Listening to their spastic punk makes me want to pour beers on my head, light fires & punch people. Im fairly certain they bought their keyboards from the devil himself. At the same time the Terrible Twos sound both extremely tight and out of control. This band instrigued me so much. While watching them play I couldn’t help but wonder what these guys do all day? What were they even singing about? Where do they get haircuts like that? When was the last time they ate? Anyways the show was great, the crowd ate it up, everyone was throughly rocked.

If you read all the local blogs you may have noticed comments from the band Mazinga saying that they “melt faces they rock so hard” and basically everyone should come see their show because it will be amazing. No other band has been doign self promotion as well as these guys so why not go see them. I must say, Mazinga lived up to all their own hype. They played a high energy set of classic punk rock that won over the crowd. Not only was the music great, but the band was a blast to watch, especially lead singer Marc McFinn who could not be contained by the confines of the stage. He was on the bar, in the crowd, taking pictures with people while singing, trying to dance with girls. Ive never seen a band that tried so hard to stick to the schedule. These guys were setting up at break neck speed. During the 1st song the singer went, mic in hand and ordered a drink. Towards the end of the last song the drummer was already taking down cymbals. I appreciated their commitment to staying on time.

Did anyone else see the house fire down the street from Paycheck’s?

I didn’t know who to see to close out the night, but was talked into seeing Wildcatting. I had never even heard a song by then and were told they didn’t even have any vocals in their songs. But they came with high praise so why not check them out? I must say I was not disspointed at all. I’m not really even sure how I would classify their music. To me they are sort of an instrumental prog rock band, that can get pretty experimental maybe even a bit jazzy. These guys are crazy good musicians. I will say this band was super tight and kept me guessing where each song was going to go next. About midway into the set when they pulled out the baritone sax I was hooked. The light show at Paycheck’s also helped enhance the show a lot. Who knew Paycheck’s had all that cool lighting.

-Matt

Other recaps
Jasper-Part 1, Part 2
Deep Cutz
Five Three Dialtone
Metro Times – posted by MCR

2008 Blowout Pics – Friday

Friday, March 7th @ Jean’s

Friday, March 7th @ Small’s

THE FRUSTRATIONS

Friday, March 7th @ KofC

THE SATIN PEACHES

THE HENTCHMEN

DETROIT COBRAS
photos by Dave Rembiesa

– posted by Big Wave Dave

Round 2

So as everyone who went out last night noticed, the times on the schedule really didn’t apply. As a fan everything just seemed too rushed with the shorter time slots. Going from bar to bar was a bit more difficult last night than in year’s past, mainly because of the shorter times. There wasn’t really even enough time to get all that drunk. Hopefully tonight will be a bit better.

Why is the Blowout Budweiser special 25 cents more at Small’s?

Now on with today’s horrible descriptions of bands.

Last night mostly ended up being a night of seeing bands I haven’t seen before and what may be a 1st, is I really liked all of them. It’s been a while since Ive seen a few new bands that have really grabbed me and gave me that excitement of experiencing a band for the 1st time.

The night started at Atlas Bar for Citizen Smile. The sound was pretty poor but the band was still great. These kids sure know how to have fun on stage. It’s always a joy to see a band that is having so much fun while they are playing. Citizen Smile is sort of poppy-punk band with really catchy songs. The highlight for me was watching 17 year old Adam Padden play bass. You may have seen him alongside Cetan Clawson at the pre-party the night before. This kid is an unreal bass player and makes it all look so effortless. If you have a kid sister they may fall in love with this band.

Next up was Grayling over at Small’s. I know I am way late to this party, like a decade, but still better late than never right? Well I was pretty blown away. I love the style of music they play, which is a hard driving, mid 90′s, grungy sound, maybe a bit cleaner Nirvana-ish sound. Anyways these guys delivered big time.

I’ve been hearing about Champions of Breakfast for a while now but have never seen them. I thought when I got to Baker’s I would be right on time, but of course not, more setting up,which is sort of funny because all they really set up is an IPod. I’ll admit, I don’t totally get what some of the kids are into these days. I was thinking to myself, where are the instruments, oh I see they use cardboard and wooden ones instead of real ones. Then I think, why do they have cardboard battle axes and plastic swords? Well once these guys started I was instantly hooked and it all made sense. More or less the 2 guys in Champions did aerobics while singing to their Ipod but it was SO FUN. They sang about Nintendo, Unicorns, D&D and partying. “Unicorn Bible” may be the greatest song ever, or at least the greatest I heard yesterday.

I took a chance and hit Paycheck’s and checked out Doop and the Inside Outlaws. I liked what I heard on their Myspace page but everything sounded even better live. The band plays country rock/alt-country with a good mix of classic sounding ballads mixed in with some more up tempo rockers. These guys were totaly pros on stage with a lot of experience packed into 1 band. Sadly there weren’t a whole lot of people there to see this great show.

I tried to catch the end of Freer and made in time to see 2 way intense songs to close out the night. Everytime I see them I wonder why I don’t catch their shows more often. I was the told The Muggs had just started playing. They were supposed to start at midnight but now it was around maybe 1:15 or so. I raced over to the KofC and sure enough The Muggs were shredding on stage. Ive seen The Muggs a million times, but last night may have been one of the best. They were spot on and seemed to be really focused on playing an intense set. Too bad it was so late and more people couldn’t have seen them play. It’s possible a lot of fans didn’t even know they were still on, which is why schedules are useful. The band ended right at about 2 am and put a close on a great 2nd night of the Blowout.

More of last night
Jasper
Melody
Metro Times
Five Three Dialtone

-Matt – posted by MCR

2008 Blowout Pics – Thursday

Thursday, March 6th @ Small’s

DEAD LETTERS

GRAYLING

GREAT LAKES MYTH SOCIETY

Thursday, March 6th @ The Belmont

Thursday, March 6th @ Paycheck’s

DOOP & THE INSIDE OUTLAWS
above photos by Dave Rembiesa

Thursday, March 6th @ Baker’s Streetcar Lounge

CHAMPIONS OF BREAKFAST

Thursday, March 6th @ KofC

THE MUGGS

Thursday, March 6th @ Atlas Bar

CITIZEN SMILE

FREER
above photos by Matthew Caruana

– posted by Big Wave Dave

2008 Blowout Podcasts

We’ve decided to bring back the MCR podcast to get you ready for the Blowout. Big Matt & Gorilla (from the now dead record reviews.org) take a look at each day’s schedule, band/time conflicts, showcase picks and just about everything else.

Listen to both parts of the two part Blowout podcast on our new MCR podcast page. – posted by Big Wave Dave

Random Thoughts From Night 1

Last night’s Blowout pre-party flew by like it always does. A lot of the night is always spent talking to people you only really see at Blowouts and other random shows. A couple highlights for me last night were BlackReign & Ohkang which honestly I was suprised how much I liked it. I can’t say Ive seen a ton of rappers in my life to compare, but these guys were great. They performed with more energy than any band all night and the backing beats they rapped over were different and innovative compared to what you would hear from most rap songs on the radio. I have no idea where or if these guys ever do shows, but if you get a chance, check them out.

The Silent Years were once again really solid last night. One thing about the band which I think sometimes goes overlooked, is they are actually playing music that is current with what is going on in the indie scene around the country. I love how the band uses so many layers and instrumentation to create a huge sound at times, but also have no trouble dialing everything back.

Cetan Clawson is a real talent on the guitar. I think he’s 19 and plays well beyond his years. Cetan is a total throwback to the guitar legends of the 60′s & 70′s and even has all the moves down pat. He played behind his head, between his legs & on this knees. I was just waiting for him to light his guitar on fire. The band was very tight but at times were way too jammy for my tastes. Also the drum solo was a bit unnecessary. If you are fan of guitar heroics check out Cetan Clawson asap.

I don’t even know how to describe Human Eye. I guess the are basically a noise rock band,but also the peformance aspect is something to see. Singer/guitarist Timmy Vulgar smashed a tv, lit off some fireworks and who knows what else. I still don’t know if I liked them, but they sure grab your attention.

I missed most of I, Crime but what I saw I was into. I think if I knew the music better and saw the whole set I would be really into it. It took me a bit to get into theEons set but about halfway through I was hooked. I’m terrible at describing bands, but they are sort My Bloody Valentine-sih, maybe a little Doves, I don’t know, but they were tight and played a good set. Too bad they don’t play around here more often.

See you tonight…. – posted by MCR

2008 Blowout Pics – LAUNCH PARTY

Wednesday, March 5th @ the Majestic Theatre

CETAN CLAWSON

THE SILENT YEARS

BUMP

Wednesday, March 5th @ the Magic Stick

EONS

BLACKREIGN AND OHKANG

HUMAN EYE
photos by Dave Rembiesa