Usually my posts fall under one of the tagline topics – music, monsters or mayhem. Theatre Bizarre qualifies under all three. In spades.
The elusive master of ceremonies, Zombo the Clown.
Theatre Bizarre was one of the things that made me first take notice of Detroit as a possible relocation city. It’s the perfect example of the thriving arts and counterculture scene here, and this is one hell of a party that everyone should experience once in their lifetime. Actually, you should experience it every year.
I don’t know what this year’s budget was, but the budget for 2008’s party was $70,000. That is not a typo kids. 70,000 dollah. That buys you one hell of a lot of entertainment, as well as your refillable beer mug for the night. Three stages of music, burlesque and sideshow acts, haunted house, fire artists, hook suspension sideshows, bonfires, AND free beer (well, free after you pay admission.) A chance to see this dark carnival in it’s full glory is worth the price of admission alone.
And if you are even thinking of checking it out next year — and you are crazy if you aren’t — get your tickets early. This event sells out every year, and every year it is selling out quicker. It is hands down the hottest ticket in Detroit around Halloween, and I daresay, perhaps the hottest ticket all year round.
I heard many people say the same thing — after Theatre Bizarre, the
actual Halloween holiday was an anti-climax. Judge for yourself, say I.
Come out next year and thrill to the obscene, from dusk till dawn…
Since Barack Obama’s nomination and subsequent election as the first African-American president of the United States, we have been bombarded with commentary about how he has broken racial barriers, winning traditionally “red” states and southern states. But political superstar that he is, Obama would likely have his hands full winning over a crowd of beer-guzzling, good ol’ boys into metal and hard rock.
For Lajon Witherspoon, it’s all in a days work, and has been for years as the frontman for Sevendust. Witherspoon is one of only a few African-American vocalists in heavy metal, yet has garnered such respect he was named #35 on Hit Parader’s list of 100 Best Rock Vocalists of All Time in 2008.
And when you see Sevendust live, you can see he’s earned his place. He may be short in stature, but he thrashed his muscular frame around the stage, Keith Morris-esque dreads whipping around him as the band covered songs from their full discography, going back as far as “Denial” from 1999’s Home, to “Inside” from their current release, Chapter IIV: Hope and Sorrow.
You’d expect Witherspoon to be a total badass, but he showed the Detroit crowd a bit of a different side that night. At one point, he called out to a couple of soldiers in the crowd still in camouflages, and as they were hoisted over the crowd to the pit, Witherspoon stopped security from booting them out, and took one of the soldiers on stage to thank him for his service. To roaring applause, as you can imagine.
If that won’t win over a rough crowd of metalheads and biker types I don’t know what will.
Then as the set resumed, a drumstick had been thrown in the audience. I watched as two men both had a deathgrip on it, struggling to rip it from each other, neither giving it up. They seemed on the verge of blows, but Witherspoon quickly put an end to that. It’s one thing to have a pit, but he’s not having any fights at their shows — he called to them to stop and handed the men a second drumstick, ending the brewing fight and inspiring the men to hug each other to the crowd’s applause.
Who knew he could be such a sensitive guy and ambassador of peace and goodwill?
The Emerald Theater was sold out for this show supporting Black Label Society, and as I looked up from the front row into the balconies in that old theater, I could see about every face in there, and I only saw one that was African-American. But I didn’t see any that weren’t rocking out.
I can’t see Obama as a rock star, but for Lajon Witherspoon, who knows…maybe he has a promising future in politics and diplomacy, should he ever get tired of rock and roll.
But given the show Sevendust put on in Detroit, I can’t see that happening anytime soon. And thank god for that.
I'm going to guess that many who may stumble on this blog will have no idea what Hamtramck Blowout is. In fact, you probably have never heard of Hamtramck.
What rock have y'all been living under? I recently saw a list on AOL along the lines of "Fastest Dying Cities in America"
and guess who made the top 10? That's right, Hamtramck is number 7
according to Forbes. Or, "Hammy," once you get to be on a first name
basis with her and all.
So anyway, this city on the edge of Detroit is a Polish neighborhood of
bakeries and discount shopping by day, and the stomping grounds of
Detroit musical bohemians by night. So what better place to have the
largest music festival in the country, with 275 bands playing in four
days?
Wait…make that four nights. Just under 300 bands playing
between the hours of 9pm-1am on those four nights. Pretty impressive,
eh? Does that sound like a dying city to you?
As you can imagine, this took place over many venues, but most
within close enough proximity for walking. Doing my first Hammy Blowout
was like a Detroit music sampler platter, and I would shoot 10-15
minutes of a band's set, then move to another venue. With a few
exceptions, where I lingered a bit longer.
Running with Panthers is not breaking new musical ground. They are not challenging the accepted conventions of rock music. They're simply a bar band who rocks out on stage and puts on a good show. They are obviously having fun, and that's contagious.
And that's kind of the point. Not taking yourself so damn seriously — it's rock and roll for chrissakes.
Which brings me to why I chose to start blogging Hamtramck Blowout with this particular band. Below I've reposted a video from their site…MTV Cribs, "Running with Panthers" style.
Humor is a good thing, even in rock and roll. Especially in rock and roll.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m always going on about the Koffin Kats.
I swore to myself I wasn’t going to put up any more photos of them
for awhile, and especially of Vic Victor, but I mean, hey…look at the
pic, you know? This was the last stop of the Nekromantix, Koffin Kats,
Chop Tops show, and I would like to say Vic outdid himself, but
honestly, this is pretty much…par.
Now, a lot of people ask, is that blood real? First, let me tell you
not to ask Vic that. That drives him nuts, because yes, it is real. In
fact, Vic will tell you point blank the only blood you’ll ever see on
their stage is real — they don’t go for that fake blood shit so common
in psychobilly. How does he do this? Well, the boy has been smashing
beer cans into his head and has all these cuts in his scalp. So all he
has to do anymore is headbutt something or smack himself in the head,
and they open right up. FYI — for those who don’t know this, scalp
wounds bleed VERY dramatically, and look far worse than they are. He’s
gonna be okay. Really.
Well, the cuts anyway. As for what is actually going through his head, rather than bleeding out of it — the jury’s still out.
Okay, obviously I have been a bit sporadic with this blog, starting and stopping several times. Well, now I'm getting back to this. For realsies. I have quite a backlog of photos and material to get me started, so some of the entries you'll be seeing will be a bit old. Some perhaps more than a bit.
Like this one.
But the point is to start posting consistently. Many will be photo only posts, but you will start seeing reviews and interviews here as well. But let's get back in the swing of things here with some photos of local band Vic Wayne and the Rockaholics at Blondies, New Year's Eve.
This was an opening act for Faster Pussycat, and hanging out at the venue, I felt I'd stepped straight into an eighties hairband time warp, complete with requisite "Rock Chix ™" in thigh high boots, mini skirts and Motley Crue-esque hair. Not exactly the golden age of feminism. It's a world where men are rock stars and babes are groupies.
I'm not saying that's good or bad, I'm just saying that's how it is. Judge its merit for yourself.
