What are you doing? You should be at the Blowout launch party at St. Andrews right now.

You really should be here. I'm sorry I take such awful photos, but Doug Coombe is here tonight and his pictures will look a lot better. This party is happening right now and it's the most fun. It's your last chance to get wristbands for only $20, which covers any venue and show at all happening as part of the Blowout Fest, across the metropolitan area from tonight until Saturday night. Here's a handy list of how and where to get a wristband after tonight, OK.

I caught most of the Rebel Kind show tonight, and since our friend Tony Viviano will be sending along his review of their show and we'll post that soon, I thankfully don't have to write about them. I say thankfully for two reasons: 1) You really enjoy a show differently if you're just lost inside of it and not thinking, "Man how do I write about this?" while it is happening, and 2) That sounded like a complaint, and it isn't, however I do feel currently at my limits for how to say much new about the band, since they're one of my favorite bands in the world now, and I've written half a dozen little things about them thus far but still feel like I'm just scratching the surface. That's a picture of them right there: Shelley, Autumn, Amber. 

See that chandelier? That's because St. Andrews is the kind of place that has chandeliers, in what's typically used as a dressing room. How classy and cool is that? The upstairs venue tonight, where I need to get back there in a minute because the awesome Complainers are about to perform, has kind of funky sound but it's a really neat and intimate venue. Then there's the main hall where the Cheerleaders just did a killer, competent and very rocking set, replete with a fog machine pumping out fog. 

This is my first Blowout Fest, and I'm so psyched to witness this celebration of such a wide array of local music. Detroit has one of the most vital music scenes in the world. It's so coo to walk around and see bend members watching and enjoying other bands. they're clustered in threes and fours and fives, smiling and catching up. Blaire Alise, who I thought would be nine feet tall based on her music but now that I see her it appears she is a little more than half that in height, she was standing front and center and obviously and sincerely digging the Rebel Kind.

I need to shut up now and get back inside. Hope to see you there, and sorry if any of this sounds cheesey but I'm genuinely super impressed by the quality of Detroit's music scene. I know it's not all represented at Blowout 18, but I think it's still a killer fest, with a lot to offer. Especially for twenty bucks. Still so much left to happen here — Complainers, Jamaican Queens, Flint Eastwood, Blaire Elise, Juiceboxxx, Andrew W.K.! 

We'll be posting at least a dozen total writeups of the event — not sure any of the others will be as immediate as this one, and generally looks at one band's set from a particular show. So stay tuned to the blog between now and Sunday for these. Do people say "stay tuned to this blog"? I don't know how else to say it; it doesn't sound right, but I'm not going to worry about it.