City Fest to the Lager House Marathon (Sunday 7-8-07)- Part 1 (M)

City Fest to the Lager House Marathon (Sunday 7-8-07)- Part 1 (M)

City Fest to the Lager House Marathon Sunday 7-8-07 

M- Part 1

Ouch!!!! Somebody help me! Dr2 embarked on a "marathon" Sunday, in a mission to follow the Hard Lessons from their Pure Detroit Stage performance @ the CityFest, to their "Closing" set @ the Lager House and all points between. Ambitious for a set of "old folks", but freakin worth every aching minute of a hungover Moanday! I can verify one thing though, if Don & I can pull this off without dying, then nobody has a viable excuse not to experience a day full of Detroit Music! Looking back on this past Sunday, it was just an amazingly fun (maybe a little crazy) day, something that on Monday I just was not so sure of. But now that my head has cleared after a couple of days, it's time to fill you in on our "adventures". We loaded up 2 SUV's Sunday afternoon and headed downtown to the Comerica City Fest to fill up on some food and take in a slew of music. With the sun shining and temp's hovering near 100, you had to thank god for the 40 mph+ winds. We started out at the City Stage and caught a surprisingly awesome set by Citizen Smile. I have heard a lot about this band but had yet to ever see them. Not real sure as to how old these guys are, they look young, but wow what a sweet sound! They had quite the crowd in the "bowl", and a whole lot of them where right up front. These guys really move around on the stage and gave all who came a very good show. I mean how many times do you see bands and all they do is stand there and play music. If they can't get into it, how do they expect us as an audience too? No need to worry about that with Citizen Smile, these guys rock! Check them out at www.myspace.com/citizensmile.

As we picked up some food and cold drinks…..we were blown on over to the Pure Detroit stage so we could catch a set by The Silent Years. As we came in for a landing, Josh was already down off the stage (or was he blown off??) and up front at the rail. Running from side to side clapping his hands above his head getting his fans all worked up. Quite a feat with all that heat and the sweat dripping from his face confirmed just how hard he was working! On top of all this, these guys switch instruments not only nearly every song, but during also! Truly amazing to see such "musicians" playing together with such a wide range of obscure instruments. Check out their EP "Stand Still Like A Hummingbird" or their self titled debut album @ thesilentyears.com. If you're into RadioHead or Neil Young, you'll love these guys! 

A break in the action at the Pure Detroit Stage left us a chance to load up on some more of them ticket things so we could keep cold drinks (aka beer) in our hands. Don headed up wind to check out those Cheap Trick fella's (read his take on the day –D) while I and the rest of the Dr2 crew stayed behind to secure a spot for the Pure Detroit Stage headliners "The Hard Lessons".  It appeared everyone had the same idea as Market Street quickly filled up from the stage to past the walkway bridge & beyond! With the wind blowing fiercely, Augie was desperately trying to secure their trademark Owls to their stacks using lots of Stage Tape! While the crowd continued to pour in, one of my sons (part of the "Crew") spotted 2/3 of the boys from "The Displays". That gave us a chance to get in a quick intro and snap a pic of Brandon & Scott showing some support for Detroit Rock & Roll. Kind of all came together at this point as we were able to spot a whole lot of band members in the audience, like Danny Mehtric (Paybacks, The Muggs), Tony Muggs, & pretty much the entire members of The Silent Years, Citizen Smile, & The Singles! That's what's crazy about this "New" Detroit scene, everybody showing everybody some MotorCity Love! 

The Hard Lessons took the stage right on cue as Don, riding the wind came "flying" back with a soft landing right in front of our Dr2 crew knocking most of us over like a game of of 9-Pin!! Luckily, I was still standing, and while he was still securely holding onto to his beer tickets, I quickly snapped them out of his hands and ran to the Bud Booth before he had a chance to brush himself off! Thanks Don, I really love cold beer, especially when it's free! After some brief Thank You's to & from Stirling to & from Liz Copeland,  "C-A-R-E-Y-S-A-Y-S Alright" could be heard coming over the PA as Augie, KoKo, & the Anvil opened up their set. I love it when a band is able to come out and hit you right between the eyes from their first song on! The band recently completed a true Coast to Coast tour this spring by actually surfing in Cali to the Anvil beaching it in New Jersey, quite an accomplishment since it was still April! As they ripped through all their classics, including the newly penned See and Be Scene (a song written about Detroit) and Shake My Tree, the Hard Lessons had the entire crowd singing along and amazingly knew every word to these new songs that are not even released yet! The power of Myspace, you gotta love it! The magic that surrounds this trio is just awesome as evident in the "chemistry" that takes place on stage between Augie & one KoKo Louise. The highlight of this early evening show took place as Augie was explaining to the crowd that no matter how much or how far they travel, that Detroit still has everything he needs. From North to South and from the "Five Coasts", Detroit, with a reference to the Great Lakes, will always be H-O-M-E to him. "I will NEVER tell anyone that I'm from Nashville!" A direct hit on a self proclaimed Nashvilleite who once hailed from our great city of Detroit. Go Augie Go! 

 As the Hard Lessons set ended, Don & I had to make one of the easiest decisions in our lives, continue onward or go home. Hmm let's see, after putting up with all this heat and wind, it would be way to easy to go home now! And since we are what they call Detroiters, we decided to load up the younger crew members to be taken home by the rest of our crew to safe haven, while Don & I would drop off the wives at the infamous Greektown Casino, and head off into a night of obscurity! Since we had about an hour to kill before heading over to our next "destination" we picked up a beer at the casino and woofed down one of those delicious Dearborn Hot Dogs! (can you tell we love to eat & drink….must be from Detroit!) Anyways the time had come to head back over towards the New Center area and hit up one of favorite little clubs with the absolute best restrooms in town (as voted on by Real Detroit Weekly), Northern Lights Lounge, for the CityFest Afterparty. (see part 2)