Arts & Culture

What’s going on in metro Detroit this week (April 16-22)

Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Be sure to check venue websites before all events for the latest information. See…

By Lee DeVito

Overlord Scooch Overlord Scooch is a west side native and an original member of the legendary hip-hop group Doughboyz Cashout. He’s penned eight solo albums that have become staples in Detroit’s street and club scenes along with his heavy contributions to Doughboyz Cashout’s lengthy discography. Scooch has also collaborated musically with some of his city’s brightest stars such as Boldy James, Babyface Ray, Payroll Giovanni, Mack Nickels, Allstar JR, and Peezy just to name a few. Above all, Scooch is known for being a true hip-hop head that can drop a hot 16 on any kind of beat. Last year he released two albums, one in which was a collaboration with Allstar JR and a solo project titled End Of The Summer. He brings this experience and history to El Club on Wednesday. Starts at 8 p.m. on Wednesday; El Club, 4144 Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com. Tickets are $54.39.
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Arts & Culture

April indie movie roundup

There are a ton of low-budget, international, and just plain off-the-radar films coming out over the next few weeks, most of which…

By Jared Rasic, Last Word Features

Freaky Tales This passes the vibe check. A batshit-crazy anthology of interconnected stories (set in 1987 Oakland!!) following a goofily animated green lightning that shapes the fates of several disparate Californians. If you’re like me, this movie has it all: punks vs. Nazis, rap battles, narration by Too $hort, fake cigarette burns to give the film that old-school theatrical texture, a deep love of 1980s Oakland and Bay Area hip-hop culture, a deep obsession with genre movies, the Golden State Warriors, kung-fu, cartoonish violence, Pedro Pascal, sword fights, and so very much more. Filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck take all the tricks they’ve learned in 20 years as writer-directors (including their toe-dipping into studio blockbusters with 2019’s Captain Marvel) and made what feels like a deeply personal and goofball love letter to their youth and the things that make them happy. It’s not perfect, but what is? At the end of the closing credits, there’s a brief moment where the statement “This movie was made in its entirety by human beings” appears. Just a group of people making a movie about Oakland in the 1980s with sword fights and rap music. Humanity at its best. Freaky Tales Grade: B
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News & Views

Thousands protest Trump in Detroit as part of nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ rallies [PHOTOS]

Metro Detroiters gathered on Saturday for a rally and march down Woodward Avenue against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. According to…

By Lee DeVito

Image: Thousands protest Trump in Detroit as part of nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ rallies [PHOTOS]
89 slides
Arts & Culture

Everything we saw at Astronomicon 8 in Ypsi [PHOTOS]

Pop culture fans packed the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest for Astronomicon 8. Twiztid and Majik Ninja Entertainment hosted a…

By Josh Justice

Image: Everything we saw at Astronomicon 8 in Ypsi [PHOTOS]
64 slides
News & Views

Detroit Tigers fans celebrate opening day 2025 [PHOTOS]

On Friday, the Detroit Tigers started the team’s 25th season at Comerica Park, defeating the Chicago White Sox 7-4.

By Mike Pfeiffer, Joe Maroon

Image: All the Detroit Tigers fans we saw on opening day 2025 [PHOTO]
50 slides
Arts & Culture

Estate sale of Noir Leather founder Keith Howarth releases more erotic artifacts [PHOTOS]

The estate sale of Keith Howarth has released even more objects from the collection of the Noir Leather founder, who ran the…

By Lee DeVito

Image: Estate sale of Noir Leather founder Keith Howarth expands with more erotic artifacts [PHOTOS]
219 slides
News & Views

20 reasons for Tigers fans to reign optimistic in 2025

Although friends and family who lived and died with the sad-sack Lions for more than a half-century might not be too sympathetic,…

By Gary Gillette

11. Wunderkind Scott Harris When Tigers owner Christopher Ilitch in September 2022 tabbed 35-year-old San Francisco GM Scott Harris to lead his disappointing club into the future, he was going against the grain of Detroit history. The Tigers have been one of the most successful American League franchises in their 125-year existence, but they have mostly hewed to the conservative side when making major decisions. Therefore, hiring a young executive who had never led an MLB front office — Harris served underneath a president of baseball operations with the Giants, just as Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg now serves under Harris — was the kind of risk that Detroit ownership would normally pass over. Detroit’s previous general manager, Al Avila, was 57 when he succeeded Dave Dombrowski late in 2015. As evident now, the risk was well worth it, and it was a master stroke on Ilitch’s part to hire someone who looks, sounds, and acts like a certified genius. Not only has Harris revived the flagging fortunes of the tortuously slow rebuilding process, but the attractive young squad the Tigers put on the field has also revived badly flagging enthusiasm in Detroit’s loyal but recently skeptical fanbase. Perhaps it was the bitter memory of the last time Detroit took a flier on a rising young executive that led ownership to go for an experienced executive in Dombrowski in 2002, and for a safe but uninspired internal hire in 2015. Harris is the Tigers’ first young general manager since ill-fated 29-year-old Randy Smith was brought in from San Diego in 1996 — but Smith was merely a legacy who had risen to his level of incompetence. (Smith’s father, Tal Smith, was a longtime executive with the Yankees and Astros.) Smith quickly earned a good reputation with the Padres by carrying out a fire sale of expensive veterans after he took over in 1993, acquiring a pile of young prospects in return. After taking over the Tigers, he followed a similar blueprint in preparation for the opening of Comerica Park in 2000. Stocking the larder with prospects acquired via trades and the premium draft picks Detroit’s lowly finishes bestowed on him, Smith was named AL Executive of the Year for 1997 by Baseball America, which simultaneously named the Tigers Organization of the Year. Stockpiling largely untested talent for the future is not the same as winning in the major leagues, as Smith — like many other GMs who quite easily could dump veteran salaries for inexpensive youngsters — would soon find out. None of the prospects Smith acquired would prove to be stars of the first order, and few could be considered stars of the second order. Smith cemented his doom by gambling on the acquisition of two-time American League MVP Juan Gonzalez to lead the Tigers in the inaugural season at their new home. It was a bad gamble that turned into a disaster. Gonzalez was a slow-footed slugger who had already peaked before he was traded. His brief tenure in Tigertown was marked by surliness, injury, and underperformance. Tigers fans were only too happy to watch him spurn an insanely generous long-term contract offer from Smith in order to test free agency after 2000. While Gonzo rebounded nicely in Cleveland in 2001, it proved to be his last good season. Proof that everyone else in baseball understood that Smith was an abject failure in Detroit can be found in the fact that he was never given another chance to lead an MLB club after being fired six games into the 2002 season. Dombrowski, at 31, became the youngest GM ever in AL/NL history when he was appointed to lead the Montreal Expos in midseason 1988. When he arrived to Detroit in 2002, he was only 45, yet he already had 14 years of experience running MLB organizations.
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Food & Drink

Photos from United We Brunch 2025

On Saturday, Metro Times held United We Brunch at the Norwood Theatre. The tasting event featured bites from Cornbread Restaurant and Bar,…

By Metro Times editorial staff

Image: Photos from United We Brunch 2025
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Arts & Culture

Detroit welcomes spring with its 2025 Marche du Nain Rouge parade [PHOTOS]

On the Sunday after the vernal equinox metro Detroiters welcome spring with its annual Marche du Nain Rouge parade. A tradition since…

By Lee DeVito

Image: Detroit welcomes spring with its 2025 Marche du Nain Rouge parade [PHOTOS]
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Music

Mary J. Blige brings ‘The For My Fans Tour’ to Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena

After Mary J. Blige released her debut What’s the 411? in 1992, she was quickly crowned “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul” and she…

By Kahn Santori Davison

Image: Mary J. Blige brings ‘The For My Fans Tour’ to Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena
35 slides
Music

The rock ’n’ roll repair crew at Royal Oak’s Guitar Hi-Fi

A strip mall in a Detroit suburb houses a dream team of rock ’n’ roll repairmen — and this in-demand duo has…

By Lee DeVito

Jason “The Rock Mechanic” Portier makes a repair at Guitar Hi-Fi.
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News & Views

Urban explorer makes disturbing discovery inside vacant Ypsilanti funeral home

An urban explorer found what he says appears to be human remains and bodily fluids, along with urns and caskets inside a…

By Steve Neavling

A casket inside O’Neil Swanson Funeral Home in Ypsilanti.
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Arts & Culture

What we saw at Wyandotte’s 2025 St. Patrick’s Party and Leprechaun Crawl

On Sunday, downtown Wyandotte held a St. Patrick’s Party and Leprechaun Crawl including stops at District 142, Grand Dad’s Bar, Firehouse Pub…

By Joe Maroon

Image: What we saw at Wyandotte’s 2025 St. Patrick’s Party and Leprechaun Crawl
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Arts & Culture

Photos from Corktown’s 67th St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Obviously, Corktown is the place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. On Sunday, Detroit’s historic Irish neighborhood hosted its annual St. Patrick’s Day…

By Joe Maroon

Image: Photos from Corktown’s 67th St. Patrick’s Day Parade
99 slides
News & Views

Ten years of the Foilies: The Electronic Frontier Foundation looks back at the games governments played to avoid transparency

In the year 2015, we witnessed the launch of OpenAI, a debate over the color of a dress going viral, and a…

By Dave Maass, the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ain’t no party like a [redacted] party!
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News & Views

The 2025 Foilies: Recognizing the worst in government transparency

The public’s right to access government information is constantly under siege across the United States, from both sides of the political aisle.…

By By the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock News

The Exorbitant FOIA Fee of the Year: Rapides Parish School District After a church distributed a religious tract at Lessie Moore Elementary School School in Pineville, Louisiana, young students quickly dubbed its frank discussion of mature themes as “the sex book.” Hirsh M. Joshi from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a lawyer representing a parent, filed a request with the Rapides Parish School District to try to get some basic information: How much did the school coordinate with the church distributing the material? Did other parents complain? What was the internal reaction? Joshi was stunned when the school district responded with an initial estimate of $2 million to cover the cost of processing the request. After local media picked up the story and a bit of negotiating, the school ultimately waived the charges and responded with a mere nine pages of responsive material.While Rapides Parish’s sky-high estimate ultimately took home the gold this year, there was fierce competition. The Massachusetts State Police wanted $176,431 just to review — and potentially not even release — materials about recruits who leave the state’s training program early. Back in Louisiana, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s office insisted on charging a grieving father more than $5,000 for records on the suspicious death of his own son.
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News & Views

Bernie Sanders draws massive crowd in Macomb County to fight oligarchy

On Saturday, some 10,000 people came to Lincoln High School in Warren to listen to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders speak as part…

By Lee DeVito

Sen. Bernie Sanders greets supporters outside Lincoln High School in Warren.
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Arts & Culture

Estate sale of Noir Leather founder Keith Howarth shows a life lived on the wild side [PHOTOS]

For nearly 40 years Keith Howarth owned and operated Royal Oak kink shop Noir Leather, which helped make the once-sleepy suburb one…

By Lee DeVito

Image: Estate sale of Noir Leather founder Keith Howarth shows a life lived on the wild side [PHOTOS]
308 slides
Food & Drink

Metro Detroit celebrates Fat Tuesday 2025 [PHOTOS]

From lines that wrap around the block at New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck to paczki coneys at American Coney Island, metro Detroit…

By Joe Maroon

Image: Metro Detroit celebrates Fat Tuesday 2025 [PHOTOS]
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Arts & Culture

Photos from Autorama 2025

The 72nd Autorama hot rod show rolled into Detroit’s Huntington Place over the weekend. Here’s some of what we saw.

By Joe Maroon

Image: Photos from Autorama 2025
22 slides
Music

Papa Roach, Kaleido perform sold-out suicide prevention benefit at District 142 [PHOTOS]

On Friday, alternative rock veterans Papa Roach and local act Kaleido performed stripped-down acoustic sets at Wyandotte’s District 142 for a good…

By Lee DeVito

Image: Papa Roach, Kaleido perform sold-out suicide prevention benefit at District 142 [PHOTOS]
20 slides
Music

Bret Michaels brings his ‘Party-Gras 2.0 Tour’ to MotorCity Casino Hotel [PHOTOS]

MotorCity Casino Hotel hosted the Bret Michaels “Party-Gras 2.0 Tour” on Thursday.

By Joe Maroon

Image: Bret Michaels brings his ‘Party-Gras 2.0 Tour’ to MotorCity Casino Hotel [PHOTOS]
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Arts & Culture

What we saw at the final weekend of the 2025 Dirty Show

The Dirty Show returned to the Russell Industrial Center for the second and final weekend of its 2025 event (see photos from…

By Mikel O.D.

Image: What we saw at the final weekend of the Dirty Show 2025
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Food & Drink

New Detroit-area restaurants for 2025

While the restaurant industry has been facing especially difficult headwinds lately, that hasn’t stopped a number of exciting new establishments from opening…

By Lee DeVito

Dime Store Rochester Hills 6920 N. Rochester Rd., Rochester Hills; eatdimestore.com This Detroit brunch favorite celebrated a decade operating out of downtown’s Chrysler House Building with exciting news — an expansion to the ’burbs. Attached to a Papa Joe’s Gourmet Market, the new location is more than double the size of the original Detroit spot, allowing for an expanded menu including pancakes and former limited-time specials like the General Tso’s Benny. The extra space also means it can accommodate reservations for parties of up to 12, private events, and catering orders.
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Food & Drink

Ranking the best Detroit-style pizzas

Thick, crispy, cheesy, and unmistakably Detroit. The city’s signature square pizza is a true local classic that has earned its place alongside…

By Steve Neavling

Loui’s Pizza in Hazel Park is one of the best purveyors of Detroit-style pizza.
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Arts & Culture

Everything we saw at the Dirty Show 2025’s opening night

The temperature may have dropped on Valentine’s Day but Detroit’s Dirty Show kept things hot. Celebrating 25 years, the international erotic art…

By Josh Justice

Image: Everything we saw at the Dirty Show 2025’s opening night
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Arts & Culture

Notable Dirty Show artists through the years

Erotic art likely started on cave walls and continued for millennia, reaching its zenith in the year 2000 with the first Dirty…

By Jerry Vile

Colin Christian, 2016 I was enamored with Colin’s work after seeing pictures in Juxtapoz. His sculptures are beautiful, beyond cool, and he dominated every art show he was in. He was in our earlier shows going back to the Tangent. His work always stops viewers in their tracks. He is my favorite artist. In Colin’s own words: “I love taking part in the Dirty Show, none of us would be here without the feelings that the work on display can generate, of all the shows I’ve done the Detroit crowd is the warmest, most open-minded and diverse in nature, the city should be proud of this wild event.”
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Food & Drink

The most romantic restaurants in metro Detroit

Sure, romantic restaurants can be pricey, but you deserve to treat yourself and your partner sometimes, especially for Valentine’s Day. If you’re…

By Layla McMurtrie

Highlands 400 Renaissance Center, Floor 71, Detroit; 313-877-9090; highlandsdetroit.com For an amazing view of Detroit, Canada, and the river, this is the place to be. Located on the 71st floor of the Renaissance Center, the sights are breathtaking — but you better not be afraid of heights.
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Food & Drink

Forest Bakery is making good mornings in Oak Park

I asked the owners of Forest Bakery how many layers were in their croissants. I hadn’t researched beforehand so was dumbfounded when…

By Jane Slaughter

Forest Bakery bakers Jo Burke, Humna Tak, and Kyle Suczynski are morning people.
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Arts & Culture

Winter Guide: 10 events for your Detroit calendar this season

It’s the coldest, darkest, grayest, and iciest time of year — but it doesn’t have to be boring. Mark these wintertime events…

By Metro Times editorial staff

Friday, Feb. 14-Saturday, Feb. 15, and Friday, Feb. 21-Saturday, Feb. 22 The Dirty Show 25 The filthiest art show in Detroit — and maybe beyond? — is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The show features dozens of works of art in a variety of mediums from artists from the world over, burlesque and drag shows, the Cinerotic Film Festival, and probably more skin than you are likely to see during this time of year otherwise. From 7 p.m.-2 a.m.; Russell Industrial Center; 1600 Clay St., Detroit; dirtydetroit.com. Tickets are $50 general admission, $85 for weekend passes, and $110 for VIP with lounge access and a swag bag.
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Music

The Big Show warmed up Little Caesars Arena with hip-hop

A day after downtown Detroit was reeling from losses by both the Detroit Lions and Pistons, a much needed dose of hip-hop…

By Kahn Santori Davison

Image: The Big Show warmed up Little Caesars Arena with hip-hop
83 slides
Music

Rio Da Yung Og’s homecoming show celebrates Flint rapper’s freedom after release from prison

Rio Da Yung Og’s five-year career in the national spotlight is really just getting started. The pioneering Flint rapper is back with…

By Sam Robinson

Image: New Slideshow
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next

Detroit’s Psychedelic Healing Shack up for sale as owner clashes with city

By Steve Neavling

Image: Detroit’s Psychedelic Healing Shack up for sale as owner clashes with city

Angela Yee opens The Alex, a renovated apartment building in Detroit’s Midtown

By Kahn Santori Davison

Image: Angela Yee opens The Alex, a renovated apartment building in Detroit’s Midtown

If it can happen to Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, it can happen to you

By Lee DeVito

Image: If it can happen to Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, it can happen to you (2)

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