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 (at Small's Bar) was one of those exceptions.

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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.

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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.

Running with Panthers CRIBS ONLINE

PS. FUCK YOU Forbes magazine, with your "dying cities" bullshit.