So Day 1 of the official 3-Day Blowout bonanza is done...
I started off at the Lounge to catch Matt Jones, but 8:20pm rolled around and nobody looked like they were even close to being ready to play. This being Blowout, schedules are tight, and I had a date with Modernlull at Baker's at 8:40pm. Sorry Mr. Jones, maybe next time.
For some reason I expected Modernlull to be a three piece, but they had 6 people on stage. They were really impressive and a great start to the evening... Highly suggest checking them out if you get a chance.
Next we walked over to Paycheck's to catch FAWN - and just like last year I said, "I wish more bands I liked played here - it's such a great venue!" But outside of Blowout, I never end up going there. Sad. FAWN was great, and one of their songs included the line, "I remember our last kiss/ Sign of the Apocalypse." Total lyric WIN. I also had fun looking at all the different band stickers on the front of the the Paycheck's stage. I decided my favorite by name alone were "The Hunchies," but only if it's an actual band of tiny old ladies and Smuggling Plums," because it's one of the only band names that I think can be both kind of adorable AND be about balls.
We then went back to Baker's to catch some of Flatfoot before heading to the Belmont for Macrame Tiger. MC was a lot of fun, but the most fun was the glitter explosion. I call a mandatory glitter explosion rules for all future Blowout sets.
Then back to Baker's for Timothy Monger. Baker's is such a cute little place. Another bar I can't imagine I'd go into without Blowout. I ordered my girlfriend a whiskey sour, and the bartender stopped for a second and said, "Let me see if we have sour mix." This is apparently a rare commodity at Hamtramck bars, as Paycheck's didn't have any. The bartender found a plastic jug at the far end of the bar, held it up (possibly looking for an expiration date?), gave it a shake, and made a pretty generous whiskey sour. For three dollars. Try to find THAT at the Pike Room...
Timothy Monger is a tremendous songwriter, and just a fun person to watch on stage. He seems so incredibly happy to be preforming. He also wouldn't be out of place opening for Lisa Loeb circa 1995. Even though he's better than Lisa Loeb. And prettier.
Off to Atlas to catch some of Carradine's set. We got there about 11:25 and they were just finishing up, so we only saw one song. So I don't feel like I can officially count that as having really "seen" them. But I'm a sucker for 90's indie rock, and it sounds like they are too.
We next headed to G of C Lounge/Hall to see a little of Darling Imperial and wrap up our night with some Invincible. DP was really fun and had a great crowd gathered. They also had french fries - not Darling Imperial, but the G of C. French fries make everything better.
Invincible was supposed to start at Midnight, but it was at least 12:30am before they were done sound checking her band (which included a cellist - nice touch). It was great to get a chance to see her live - despite all the sound checking, her vocals were a bit muddy. So I might be wrong that one of her crowd participation chants involved Harry Potter. I'm probably wrong. But I AM pretty sure her lady rappin' side kick Miz Korona said, "We're gonna drop a baby rock on somebody's porch!" I think this is slang for "I have a recording of my music coming out soon." So look for that.
Holy shit - we're doing this again tonight? Oh, yes. Yes we are.
