08/03/2010
Blowout Brief
There’s lots of good coverage of Blowout here and here, so I don’t need to repeat a lot of it.
Mirror Twin is officially my favorite Lucas sisters project, beating out the Sisters Lucas. They put just enough rock into the show to qualify as a rock show and it totally worked for me.
I went quite a while without ever seeing DALE EARNHARDT JR. JR., but have now seen them twice in the past month. I’ll see them twice this month too if I get the chance.
Mister was a classic Blowout find. Wait, there’s an MC rapping over Digital Underground style beats with a style that references both De La Soul and Eminem? I would have said no there probably isn’t. But there is, and he’s sweet. His hype man (who’s name I forgot) was also pretty sweet. Plus, his myspace indicates he likes Mastodon… I can relate to that.
I liked Fawn, but to take a critical eye to the matter they do sound a little bit like a new band. Also, I can’t say why, but when Christian and Alicia switched places and instruments — I suddenly was enjoying Fawn more. Could have been the song, could have been that they are more comfortable on the other instrument, could have been that Christian is a natural stage right guy — could be coincidence, no evidence for causation. Matt is an awesome drummer and I look forward to seeing the trio again soon.
Tim Monger was really excellent. Had I anticipated he’d been playing with a band and band that was polished and fully formed out of the gate — I’d have been dragging everyone I know to that show. Tasteful trumpet, smart arrangements and rock solid performance skills — a level of sophistication I just didn’t use to associate with Blowout, but with acts like this I’m starting to take for granted.
Speaking of sophistication, Zoos of Berlin win again. The Naudstache (which apparently had to fly out to Milan for the rest of the weekend) made a brief appearance on Thursday and the band sounded fantastic per usual. I probably call too many bands the “best in Detroit,” when I say it about Zoos I really mean it.
Friday might have been my most successful Blowout night of all time.
I’ve seen the Juliets before, but enjoyed them far more this time — maybe they’re getting better, but I expect I’m just paying better attention.
This is the first time I’ve seen Lettercamp and all the obvious Gorillaz behind the screen jokes I could try to make, they sound excellent. The music is highly accessible but not simple, contemporary and straight up fun. Big Matt said, “this sounds like today” — I concur wholeheartedly.
Fidrych sounds like Blowout in the best possible way. Cranked up guitars, energy and (pardon the cliche) beer soaked lyrics that are a perfect accompaniment to beer soaked minds. I love this band, pure and simple.
I’m also a big Octopus fan and have been since seeing them at last year’s Blowout. Subtlety has no place in the Gates of Columbus main room, to succeed there you need to be aggressive, tight, confident and on top of your game. Octopus is one of the rare bands up to the task of conquering that room.
Some how I ended up seeing the end of the Hard Lessons at the New Dodge and I’ll just repeat what’s already been said. It was packed, the crowd was really into the show and the HL’s delivered. Augie climbed up on the outer edge of the balcony and dove into the crowd (or on to the stage, I couldn’t really tell) and while I’ve seen that before (Nick from MoBz last year) and done better (Evenflow video), it seemed like the exact perfect move in that moment.
Saturday is always a little tough, because it can be so easy to just give up. Big Mess made me glad I didn’t give up. They rocked through an amazing set of songs many people (including myself) were lazily describing as Wilco-y. I think what we were trying to say is that there’s a clear strength to the song-craft, strong interplay between the band (probably the best harmony singing I heard the whole weekend) and a comfortable familiarity coming from the Americana/American Rock idiom they subscribe to. Great stuff all around.
The other brother and Coldwave company on the other side of tiny town also put on a great show. I described them to someone as, “as up to Ryan’s usual standard of excellence” in front of Ryan… since 90% of what I say is sarcastic, this may have been misconstrued. But I mean it, the guy clearly gives a shit about what he does and it shows even when he’s not center stage.
What can I say about Millions of Brazilians? They came out guns blazing, clearly out to prove that there wasn’t a better choice to close out Blowout in the mainroom. As I said before, that room can be pretty brutal — but I think the met and bested the challenge. A lot can be said about the toilet paper cannons borrowed from Girl Talk or the stage mob borrowed from the Stooges and while I think that stuff worked, the band isn’t about gimmicks. They’ve taken their game to the next level and crank out their James Murphy backed by Queens of the Stone Age rock with reckless passion. It seems too limiting to call them dance rock, but at the end of the night and even at the end of the Blowout — they come on and you’re going to dance and they’re going to rock.
Text posted at 10:46
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