Mayhem In Da Clem!

Mayhem in Da Clem!

Wow! The Hayloft was on fire last Saturday night as local rock favorites Critical Bill unleashed a flurry of straight up Detroit Rock & Roll that was nothing short of complete Mayhem In Da Clem! With a supporting lineup that featured, what we believe, may be the best rock bands in the city; Stellar Drive, Lies Unknown and Dismantle. With announced attendance of "over 900" it was the largest Hayloft crowd ever under the new ownership! With spring-like weather in the air, Dr2 was primed and expecting a rather large crowd for the night's show, but who would of guessed with the state of our local economy that the line out the door would maintain a 10-20 person length all night long! This type of turn-out, in these depressed times, goes against the common notion out there that our scene is in a downward spiral and actually reasserts Dr2's position that the Detroit Music Scene is alive and well, you just need something that fans want to pay to see, and that my friends is called "good live music." Rolling into the Clem a bit early as to support local music, Dr2 stopped in at the Emerald Theater where a couple local bands were opening up for national act Sick Of Sarah out of Minneapolis, Lies Unknown, recently called "The Best New Rock Band in Detroit"by the MetroTimes and Broadzilla, the all-female rock & roll group headed up by Detroit Free Press music columnist, Rachael May. The Crew then took a scenic stroll through the Clem over to the Hayloft. Without a doubt the scene at the Hayloft was amazing to take in, cars everywhere looking for that elusive parking space and a line out the door that threatened to extend clear across the parking lot. Even more amazing was the volume of people that were already inside this eastside gem of a venue, not to mention that just about everyone who has a hand in the Mt Clemens Music scene was there, comparing to, and even rivaling, the type of atmosphere usually reserved for events like the Blowout Pre-Party held down at the Majestic Complex in Detroit! One thing we know is there is no way we could mention all the peeps that came up to say hi, you all know who you are and we want to say that it was great to see all of you out there supporting the local scene, all we need to do now is to continue that same level of support every weekend!

 

With the more-than-a-packed-house crowd inside growing restless, Stellar Drive took the task of opening up tonight's show and delivered what may have been the best set we've seen them play to date! Having been together for just over a year now, Stellar Drive has been taking every venue they play by storm, laying down great set after great set, leaving all Stellar virgins with their jaws on the ground wondering what the hell it is they just saw. Dr2 had to step over a few hundred of those tonight as we were bombarded with the proverbial "who was that?" Look for their debut release coming soon with a CD Release Party scheduled for the Hayloft on May 2^nd.

Riding a wave of uplifting press recently, Lies Unknown, who recently played the Blowout & literally blew up the venue they played at in front of a hundred "new" fans that included local music guru, Stirling (if you don't know who Stirling is then you haven't been around the Detroit music scene much (check here for a quick lesson)), stirred the frenzy with their infectious brand of party pop that turned the floor into a fist pumping sea of bopping bodies! Playing their second show of the night, Lies delivered all of our favorites, from Woodward Avenue to their phenomenal cover of Mitch Ryder's It Was Alright before topping it all off by having Justin Herbert of Dismantle join them on stage to help sing their enticing smash-up hit She's A Slut, garnering them a titillating roar from the crowd! Now that's what it's all about!

 

This was a great segue into the Dismantle set as the guys lived up to their name (as they usually do) by tearing the house down. Dismantle has been on the down-low as of late, hitting the studio and working on some new material for an upcoming release that we at Dr2 just can't wait for! These guys have caught the ear of plenty around town and judging by the response they received tonight, a lot of their fans were in the house! Dismantle certainly showed no signs of their time off, opening with their rock-and-roll anthem More Rock & Roll and turning the Hayloft into one huge Liquor Store as they shared some of the material from the new disc cranking out Accelerator and driving it home with Ride Home! All of this and the night wasn't over!!

 

At this point the mob packed into the Hayloft was on full tilt as they readied for Critical Bill to take the stage. The energy in the room was incredible as every act leading to this point, all of them headliners in their own right, had hit it out of the park. Now it was time for the Grand slam! (pardon the baseball reference, must be the World Classic being played on TV). Critical Bill has been building a following for a number of years now, and for the life of us, we cannot understand why a band with this many fans aren't on the local airwaves right now! If these lame ass radio stations in our town didn't notice the Mayhem In Da Clem Saturday night, then who the hell are they to tell us what we should be listening to? It was quite obvious to us here at Dr2 who this mob of people wanted to hear, and if our stations are that out of touch with today's music then frick them and all their pima donna ways cus these guys are the shit! They really need to open their eyes because, as it stands right now, there isn't a radio station around who gets what's going on in Detroit Rock City (maybe it's because We Don't Have Any Local stations anymore.....)! Now with the Hayloft threatening to explode due to the shear mass of bodies stuffed into the room, Critical Bill hit the stage AND there was still a line to get into the place! Exploding onto the stage, Critical Bill threw down one of thee most ferocious sets we've seen in this town in quite awhile, and that includes anything at the Palace, Pine Knob, The State or Fox Theater! These guys came to rock our faces off and that's what they did, from This is Critical to Downtown The World to the brand new Beam Me Up, turning the Hayloft into a sea of moshing bodies that Michael Scott could not resist surfing which then prompted even Powerdise to jump down into the chaos to try and calm it down! Unbelievable doesn't even come close to what Dr2 witnessed during Critical Bill's set; in fact, I'm not sure if we dare try to describe it as words alone cannot capture the raw energy that swelled to the rafters tonight, but maybe the pictures we have may give you somewhat of an idea of how it all played out, so head on over to the Dr2 Photo Gallery and check out what it is that we can't find the words to legitimately describe! Keep it tuned to DetroitRockReview.com where you'll find all the latest in Detroit's Local Music News & Reviews!