Blown Away By The Blowout

on 13 March 2008.

Blown Away By The Blowout

Ok so it’s been a week now since the Blowout began, and I’m finally, I repeat, FINALLY able to sit down and try to clear out all the foggy memories from this years Blowout and try to get some kind of recap written. I’ll use the term recap loosely too, as Dr2 tried like hell to catch every band listed on that damn schedule, and I’ll admit we failed miserably. BUT with that being said, we did happen to catch approximately 20 different bands over the course of the blowout, or in most cases the Brrr-out! Friday night had to be the most miserable night to have such an event where you had to go in & out of so many different venues, and you know what? It wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t miserable, besides, it made being inside all those small clubs packed to overcapacity that much more bearable! Damn we love the Blowout. As always, it was as much an adventure as it was a music fest, running down snow covered streets & sidewalks, walking into bars that appear to be houses, running into old friends, and making a whole bunch of new ones is what makes the Blowout, the Blowout. This year’s Blowout was no different. Starting with the Launch Party over at the Majestic, Dr2 could barely walk 10 foot without stopping to talk to some old friend we hadn’t seen for a while, like

running into Wendy Case, Danny Methric, & Dave Malarsh while William Hafer (the Paybacks Complete Lineup) was playing with Human Eye, or running into Kathy V from Blender Detroit at Kelly’s Bar, or getting to catch up with the Guys from The Bloids & Lime Regal between sets at Kelly’s & Shenanigans all the while making sure they got to their next venue! But it was meeting all those other bands for the first time that will stick in our heads for quite sometime, especially over the next 11 months or so when we run into them again and ask, hey aren’t you……..? Great stuff. So looking back at last weeks marathon, we want to give you our “Blowout Best” list of the most memorable and some not so memorable performances, venues, events, and random things that we saw during the 4 days of the Blowout, no easy task for Dr2 as we love so many different styles of music that it can give you that ping pong ball effect! Here we goes:


Blowout Best “Most Fun Night”	Launch Party @ The Majestic Complex

Blowout Best “Best Music Night”	Thursday Night (too many awesome bands played this night, was almost a bummer!)

Blowout Best “Venue”	Small’s (they do it here all year long here)

Blowout Best “Venue We’ve Never Been Before”	Paycheck’s (can’t wait to get back down here)

Blowout Best “Worst Venue”	PLAV Post (down stairs & the “fast food” were cool, but upstairs sound was suspect)

Blowout Best “Loudest Venue”	Jean’s (after MCSB was yanked, the PA was bigger than the bar itself)


Blowout Best “Hellacious Performance”	60 Second Crush @ Kelly’s Bar (an unbelievable set that rocked the rafters…..along with everyone in the place!)

Blowout Best “Most Memorable Performance”	The Bloids (great warm up to SXSW for these guys)

Blowout Best “Most Sentimental Performance”	Lime Regal (rumored to be their last)

Blowout Best “Hottest Performance”	60 Second Crush @ Kelly’s Bar (if you missed the dancing Crusher Girl….your loss!)

Blowout Best “Most Forgettable Performance”	We changed our minds-we remember all the bands..(just took awhile!)

Blowout Best “Show We Wanted To Catch Most But Missed”	Hellen @ Paycheck’s

Blowout Best “Most Sc-hariest Moment”	Looking for the Atlas Bar Without the map! (this “house” looking venue was only identified outside by three red letters…..BAR…..during the impeding snow storm, Dr2 wasn’t sure if we were actually walking into someone’s home!) 2^nd Place - Double House Fire that caused long detours through dark streets (if you were there, you what we mean)

Blowout Best “I Still Don’t Know Exactly What Happened”	Motor City Sports Bar Scandal (would love the complete skinny on this one!)

Blowout Best “Outrageous Moment”	60 Second Crush arriving to their Blowout gig in a genuine Prevost Tour Bus (courtesy of USA Limo)

Blowout Best “Technological Advancement”	Tie – The Silent Years “Phone” Microphone & That Crazy Looking Silver Camera Thing

Blowout Best “I Don’t Understand This”	No Bud Products @ Launch Party (didn’t they drop the Molson sponsorship for Budweiser?)

Blowout Best “Improvement”	No one-beer monopoly (last year if you didn’t like Molson, you were screwed, but it still brings up the above “I Don’t Understand This”)

Blowout Best “This Band Sounds Just Like….”	Lightning Love …..…Sounds Like…Feist (you know from the iPod commercial (1,2,3,4) -very cool, especially “Dead Beat”)