dpollen 2004

d-pollen music festival
Hastings Street Ballroom
Detroit, MI
May 21-23, 2004

by Mr. Gary

INTRO

Ahhhh, the D*Pollen Festival has come and gone, and all I seem have left to show for it is a

cool-looking media pass and the lingering aftereffects of a case of pneumonia. Consensus seems to be that D*Pollen went off without too many hitches this year, with the only major problem being the frequent weekend storm squalls that rolled through and pretty much terrorized whoever happened to be playing at the Buzz Stage Tent behind the Tangent Gallery.

Unfortunately for the crew at MCR, D*Pollen weekend was plagued with scheduling conflicts as well, with the staff running off in eight different directions at times to make necessary appearances at going-away-party-bar-crawls and other unfortunately pre-planned social events. Still, from what the crew did manage to experience, it seems that the organizers of D*Pollen can write this year’s event up as a success.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Friday night was a bit of a wash for me, as I wound up not even leaving for the event until after 8:30 p.m. courtesy of a combination of unexpected overtime and the massive amounts of

flooding that took place downriver after that afternoon’s barrage of thunderstorms. Thankfully, the rain hadn’t kicked back in when I got to D*Pollen, allowing me to catch half of Whiskey Tenor’s set out on the Buzz Stage. As low-key as ever, the mostly acoustic act sounded crisp, especially on the few numbers that featured guest trombone and trumpet players. Whiskey Tenor’s brand of ‘drinking music’ drove me to grab a few drinks, and the MCR crew headed inside to the Hastings Stage to unwind from our respective workdays while checking out the international beauty pageant put on by the Hell’s Belles Burlesque troup (which came complete with Vegas-style comedienne dropping cheesy schtick that had me giggling pretty hard for kitsch value).

I managed to check out a bit of The Dollfaces set on the Tangent Gallery stage as well, and it seems that based on the band’s EP and live performance, I’m stuck sharing a similar sentiment as many others I’ve spoken to about the band: The Dollfaces sound decent enough live, and the band plays its influences well. It’ll be interesting to see if, over time, these kids can mesh the effects of their influences together to create a more individualized sound.

MCR’s highlight of the night, yet again, seemed to be catching Back in Spades rip shit up on

the Hastings Stage (once again, feel free to direct all hate mail to derfsucks at hotmail dot com). Stephen Palmer led the band through a few new tracks, and Jackson Smith even popped up to a microphone to take a lead vocal on the band’s last song of the set. Still, the band’s high point was another killer performance of “Five Years Ahead of My Time,” which brought as much punk ferocity as it did guitar solo madness.

I also caught most of Whirlwind Heat’s set, which was oddly subdued. I was expecting madness and balls-out insanity, but things never really came around to that. Most of the band’s set was new material (including a massive 10 minute, cut-and-paste-the-rhythms number that absolutely slayed), and while everything the band played was tight, the set was a lot more low-key than anyone at D*Pollen was expecting.

By that point, most of the MCR crew had all wandered off in separate directions, which left me to check out The Elevations for the first time. This seemed like a nice choice as a closing act for Friday night, with a lot of the crowd clapping along and shimmying about to the band’s Motown-esque stylings. The male/female vocal dynamic came off well live, with the horn sections permeating each song just enough to add a soulful touch without completely overtaking the rhythms.

From there, a majority of the crew reconvened at MCR headquarters for a healthy after-party, and within 12 hours, everyone was back on our feet in Detroit, as slaves to the rock-and-roll once again. -Mr. Gary

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all photos by ryan n. sult