Is it fair that a part of me went to this concert because I believed the rumors that Meg White, drummer of the White Stripes, was to make an appearance?
Scruff-ball folk rock singer, Ray LaMontagne, showed up at the ROMT last night. It was the first concert I have ever been to where after leaving I thought, “his shit sounds better in my car…”.
Even the opening act musician, Leona Naess, tells the truth on her MySpace. It didn’t help she ended her set with demanding, “shut the fuck up,” from a crowd she insisted be quiet to hear her. If you have to convince a crowd to listen to you, are you really WORTH listening to? Everyone who came out to the show last night had ulterior motives. No one was there to listen. The women in attendance only knew LaMontagne’s hit singles, screaming out all the words, to the point of drowning out the miked singer. The men brought their lady friends to score extra points. I think the majority of men were at the bar. After having a few “yagers”, they came back to stand like uncomfortable cattle and proceeded to obscenely yell “Ray, I love you!” or my favorite, “Ray, YOU are a GOD!” all of which sounded insincere. After much bantering from the ill-behaved crowd, LaMontagne said,

“you guys have to be quiet for this next song. you gotta be real quiet. I mean, look, this night is all about you guys anyway, so if you wanna drink and be loud and party then that’s fine, and if you wanna listen that’s fine too, but if you’re gonna wanna hear this next one, you’re gonna have to be quiet,”… *yelling continues* “even quieter”.

It was as if the bar at the back of the ROMT had taken over the actual show.
If LaMontagne wanted a venue where he would get an intimate connection with his audience, he should have investigated further. I do not think I have ever been to a “quiet folk concert” at the ROMT. I believe with its main floor standing, it’s accessible bar, and it’s acoustics, it is a great place for rock concerts. But for folk…head down to the Ark.
Most disappointing was the lack of knowledge from the Detroit public in attendance about the huge crush LaMontagne has on Meg White. On his new album, he actually has a love song to her, entitled after her namesake. When he played the song last night there was complete disinterest. You would think with Meg White being from Detroit and all, the crowd would have at least given a nod. Instead they just bought more drinks.

As some of you may or may not know, the deadline to register to vote is fast approaching here in Michigan. There are only 5 days left to register to vote until the deadline of Oct. 6 – so get out there Detroiters and do your civic duty. With so many important issues facing everyone we all know how important it is to have our voices heard.

To help motivate Detroiters, and Michiganders (Michiganians?), as well as show some support for his candidate of choice (Barack Obama), Jay-Z will be in town performing a FREE concert. The concert takes place in Cobo Arena and all you need to do to check out this show is pick up your FREE ticket at one of the many offices of the Campaign for Change found in Detroit, Dearborn, Southfield and Wayne County’s Canton Township. So what are you waiting for? Go get those tickets!

I don’t know about y’all, but hopefully I’ll be able to make it and maybe I’ll even see you there.

This is a belated post on Movement 2008 which was held Memorial Day weekend.  This was my first year attending – well last year I was on the inexpensive side of the fence – and I cannot imagine missing the festival in any years to come.  My phat pants were pulled out from my youth for the occasion.  Techno reverberating off the freighters was a novel backdrop to Hart Plaza’s delightful, but ludicrously expensive, playground.  Despite the oppressive heat of the days and the plunge into frigid nights the weekend was wonderful.  Diesel Boy was my favourite performer but watching Moby close out one night was even more awe striking.  The scandalous attire of the Paxahau girls was not even the best people watching; day glow slinkys adorning pigtails and Milla Jovovich’s outfit from the 5^th Element were but a few of the novelties sported by festival goers.  A week after the festival I was flying out of Detroit International and proudly spotted a tourist sporting a Detroit Techno Militia shirt.  I have done a modest amount of traveling around the states and the Detroit Techno Militia symbol is one that I have happily seen far and wide.  Techno, be it your thing or not, is something that puts Detroit on the map.  Thank you world for coming out and supporting our city during the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.  We look forward to hosting you in years to come.    

The Detroit summer festival season was kicked off this weekend with the Downtown Hoedown.  I am not a connoisseur of country music but I do like a little country now and then; I also have a fascination for cowboy hats and the people that sport them.  This year was my first at the largest free country music festival in the nation.  Overflow from the Wings and Tigers games on Saturday contributed to the sea of attendees and packed People Mover.  One could only navigate the festival grounds with the ebb and flow of the crowd.  Local retailers were packed with out-of-towners eating and purchasing supplies to make it through the weekend.  It is going to be a grand summer in the city.  The thing most disturbing to me at the festival was the presence of the Marines’ tent.  Young men were stepping up to the challenge and parade of completing as many chin ups as possible for the city to see.  While men and women in uniform are much appreciated, the reminder of active recruiting for this war is frightening.  My fear is that it will not stop any time soon.     

MOCAD Gold is a first annual fundraiser for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and will feature a broad survey of Detroit bands to play “pop cover songs spanning the last 30 years in their band’s own distinctive style.”

Here’s the line-up:

9:30 – Rabid Eye (ex-Lee Marvin & Genders)
9:45 – Dark Red (ex-Paik, current Chris Turner)
10pm – Esquire
10:15 – Bad Party (ex-White Devil & Tamion 12 Inch)
10:30 – the Silent Years
10:45 – Deastro
11pm – Tyvek
11:15 – the Sisters Lucas
11:30 – the Go
11:45 – T-3 presents

all night – Dee Jay Frankie Banks

MOCAD Gold will include the current Holy Hip-Hop and Re-Fusing Fashion Exhibits. See my review of these exhibits here.

Tickets are $15 for the music part of the evening, with a ritzier early program for $75.

This from my pal, Whalebomb:

I started taking guitar lessons with local Detroit guitarist, Rob Bourassa, about 18 months ago and I cannot believe how much I’ve learned. He has taught me how to play any song I hear, in any key I want to. He makes it very simple and never wastes my time teaching me how to read or write music (reading and writing anything is boring). He teaches you how to play the guitar. He teaches you how to improve playing the guitar. This guy is amazing!

Starting April 1, 2008, you can hit his youtube site and get his first seven lessons for free! These are the seven most important things any guitarist needs to know about playing the guitar. Check out this youtube video where he describes his plan starting April 1st. Become one of his subscribers and you’ll get the most important guitar lessons you’ll ever have in your life. Whether you’ve been playing the guitar for many years or just want to start out, you’d be a fool not to check these FREE lessons out.

Who wouldn’t want to take lessons from a guy that makes this look easy?

This is what you should do:

FRIDAY

Stare Into The Sun, Lightning Love, Emily Rose at Jacoby’s.

I saw Stare Into the Sun and Lightning Love at Blowout and both = awesome. Saw Emily Rose at the Elle and the Fonts CD release show at the Belmont a few weeks hence. Emily Rose, I found, also = awesome.

LATE FRIDAY:

You will go to this:

Here are rules for going to this (Fourth paragraph down. Be sure to completely skip over paragraphs 1, 2, and 3).

SATURDAY DAY:

You’ll be here:

So far, I haven’t found anything that says when each band is playing. If you know the schedule, please add it as a comment. I wanna know.

SATURDAY NIGHT

The legendarious Meatmen will play a reunion show–their first in Detroit in a long, long, forevertime–at Small’s. If you love The Meatmen, you’ll be there. If you’ve never heard of The Meatmen, you won’t be there. Tickets on sale here. Opening are Year of the Pig and Millions of Brazilians, a band with this many members: 1,000,000 – 999,997 = x.

This is simply a report. I’m not making any claims to truth–it’s just what I witnessed and heard.

A few bands were playing the Lager last night and one finished their show with some beer bottle tossing and knocked around the stands and equipment a bit. It wasn’t the most courteous way to treat house gear, but they weren’t tossing the Lager’s microphones across the room or anything. Either way, the sound guy shut the stage down and wouldn’t let the last band go on–the place wasn’t full, but it wasn’t empty either, perhaps 30 people were there.

It’s not cool to spontaneously cancel the next act just because the previous band did something the sound guy doesn’t like. That band was booked. Not cool.

So no show goes on. The sound guy starts putting away mic chords and folding stands. I finish my beer and get ready to leave with some friends when some dude walks up asking us for bud. I say “I don’t drink Bud,” and he says, “No, weed.” I say sorry I don’t have any and he asks if I know anyone who does. He’s so persistent that I ask why. He says the sound guy would let his band play only if they could score him some pot.

WTF?

I don’t know if this is correct. I don’t know if it was just a joke and I was the butt. That’s just what this guy told me. If it’s true, then it’s absolute bullshit.

This message courtesy of a friend of mine who writes under the name of Whalebomb:

I’ve just been listening to Mr. Duey’s “Class Dis-missed” CD, which is a brand new rap/hip-hop album straight out of the local Detroit area. It’s excellent and I’m really enjoying it. The beats are fantastic and the melodies and rhymes are extremely catchy. Oh wait. What’s that? This is an educational CD? It’s geared towards 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders?

So yeah, it’s an educational CD made for teachers and students, but it’s definitely not limited to that market. Mr. Duey takes up topics stressed nation and statewide by teachers, parents, and school administrators and turns them into study guide rap songs for children. What topics? Topics that are on standardized tests. Want your students and children to do better on their MEAPs, as well as their school work? This CD is made for that.

The CD includes 17 songs on the following topics: Math (Integers, Point Plotting, Factor Tree, and Fractions); English (Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Writing Essays); Science (Animal Cells, Atoms, States of Matter, and 3 Types of Rocks); Social Studies (Longitude and Latitude, Core Demographics, and Government Branches); and History (Martin Luther King Jr.). The CD also includes a bonus track on Measurement.

Mr. Duey is not only a rapper, writer, and musician, he is also a teacher! He uses innovative ways of teaching his classes and has seen lots of success from this work. There are testimonials on his website as to how successful students can be after listening to this entertaining CD. Also on his website is a streaming mp3 of “Verbs” and a music video for “Fractions.”

I’ve been lucky enough to hear most of the CD before it gets released tomorrow (March 14), and I have to say it’s still entertaining for me even though I’ve been out of middle school for years now. Mr. Duey is having a CD release party tomorrow (March 14) from 6-10 p.m. It’s at Orlando’s Familia Banquet Center, 15001 Sibley Rd., Riverview, Michigan, and includes a live performance at 8:00 p.m.

If the party is too short notice, you can order CDs right from his website starting Friday afternoon, or contact the record label, Kaas Records, LLC, P.O. Box 765, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48332 (phone: 248/275-5708).

The CD is excellent and is a must for teachers. Go to the CD release party or check out the website (www.mrduey.com) for more information. The state demands for the MEAP and other standardized tests are so high, you’d be a fool not to consider purchasing Mr. Duey’s “Class Dis-missed” for your classroom. It’s good for your children, your students, your ears, and your community!

MOCAD Gold is a first annual fundraiser for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and will feature a broad survey of Detroit bands to play “pop cover songs spanning the last 30 years in their band’s own distinctive style.”

Last 30 years? Does that leave out early Motown?

Bands on the bill are T3, The Go, Lee Marvin Computer Arm (really? I thought they’re breaking up?), Tyvek (heard great things about these guys), Bad Party, Dark Red, EsQuire, Deastro, The Sisters Lucas, The Silent Years, and Dee Jay Frankie Banks.

MOCAD Gold will include the current Holy Hip-Hop and Re-Fusing Fashion Exhibits. See my review of these exhibits here.

Tickets are $15 for the music part of the evening, with a ritzier early program for $75.