Blondies Grand Opening (9-12-08)
Dr2 & Crew headed into the D this past Friday for the Grand Opening of Blondies, a reincarnation of the once famous & legendary Rock Club located on West 7 Mile Rd. If you’re up on your Detroit Rock history, then Blondies should ring a bell as being thee place once upon a time, playing host to some of the areas hottest rock bands, as well as the up & coming National acts rolling through town. The owner of Blondies during the majority of this time was Ruzvelt Stevanovski, before selling it off to John Anton in 1990, only to be sold off by Anton (current owner of The Token) and subsequently closed for good in ‘94. Well, Stevanovski couldn't stay away for ever and has decided to re-open the legendary facility in another location, this time on Fort Street, right along the Detroit River. With all the hoopla surrounding the opening night, Blondies stoic history, and of course Dr2’s favorite heavy hitting band 60 Second Crush on the bill, we knew we had to be there. Fairly simple to find, Dr2 pulled into the fenced in lot only to find it overflowing already, parking just in time to avoid the downpour that stayed with us all weekend long. Located inside an old converted warehouse that has housed many ill fated clubs, most recently 
Club 2281, Blondies is located on the 2nd floor of the complex accessible by stairs or elevator. A rather dark place, the “new” Blondies followed the old Blondies in décor, described as what could be called a plain old Rock Club. Autographed photos of past bands that graced the old place hung through out this new place, covering everywhere you looked. Noting the rather large stack of cabinets sitting next to the stage got our blood pumping as it sounded quite powerful during the DJ set before Syrant took the stage, only to be disappointed by the lack of ability to produce even a remotely clear sound. Not sure of where the fault lays on that one other than the sound man looked lost, running back and forth making adjustments only to increase the feedback that he was trying to eliminate. Who would have thought to invite a band inside the night or week before 
for a “live” sound check to tweak and adjust any problems that might rear their ugly head during the opening night festivities? I know we would of! Never having seen Syrant live before, it would not be fair to draw any conclusions from tonight’s performance as it was marred by a complete lapse of any viable sound from Blondies PA. The good thing is that the place was packed, for now, as the next problem arouse as soon as they flipped the stage lights on. When you go to the extents to employ a “light” man, who was stationed along side the stage, then I would imagine that at one point during the set-up process, one would have some stand ins available to adjust the lights so that they are not illuminating only the band members feet? They had what appeared to be decent lights, but when you’re 20 ft away and can barely see the band, I would imagine someone might think something’s wrong. Well they did, and it wasn’t the people you want figuring it out as we noticed a steady stream of patrons heading for the door. Send More Cops were up next, and with all the clout and experience behind these guys, not to mention the near hour load in, that things would improve drastically during their set. Not. Plagued by more microphone feed back than Jimmy Hendrix ever got from his guitar, Send More Cops should of done just that…… By the time SMC finished their set an hour later than scheduled, Blondies was 
virtually empty, and this was opening night! This is when real pro’s step up and hammer things home, and that is exactly what 60 Second Crush did. Showing their true professionalism, the Crushers took to the stage, and were loaded in and ready to go 5 minutes after they removed the final piece of Gunner Ross’s mammoth, twin kicker set, only to have to stand there and wait for the sound crew to figure out which mic to turn on! Amazing. But what was more amazing is the fact that 60 Second Crush took what they had to play through, and actually pulled off the best sounding set of the night, no easy feat considering all that was against them! Well at least we got the “All Access Tour” of the place courtesy of “On The Rocks Kathy”, which actually helped our view of the place since they do have 4 floors, one of which will be utilized as a restaurant (Dr2 Loves Food), and have plans for a Concert Hall on the other. What an excellent view of The D, The Detroit River, and the Ambassador Bridge from the 4th floor lounge area, should be a great place for some wild parties! Now if we could only get a lesson on how to operate that freight elevator more efficiently! Obviously, Blondies was always a heavy metal type of club, and we also realize that this was opening night, which may have contributed to some of the issues here and we'll reserve our judgement until a follow up visit, BUT, someone needs to step in here & right the ship immediately before the candle burns out before their legend does………Detroit Rock Review- The Only Place For Local Music News & Reviews!