Blown Out

I thought long and hard and came to the conclusion that this year was our 8th Hamtramck Blowout as a band. That's three under our old name and five under our current name. We've had good years and bad, but I can never fault the Blowout for being anything but a great time. I always get to see bands I like and play at strange venues that aren't even venues. For the last few years at least, we've had really ridiculous crowds at our shows.

This year we came full circle, playing at The Atlas Bar. In 2000 it was called Roadrunner's Raft and we were called The Original Brothers and Sisters of Love playing at our first Blowout. The stage hasn't changed at all... still a small wooden riser with a couple of little speakers. The bar was comfortable when we arrived, but as we watched the crowd swell I glanced at the official fire-code certificate reading "capacity 61." When Matt Jones, fresh from his big American tour opened the show, there were at least 61 people in the room. By the time we finally played after midnight there had to be twice that many.

In between, we hopped on the shuttle bus waiting outside and headed over to The Painted Lady. My parents were with us and it was my mom's birthday. Taking MJ Monger on a Blowout pub crawl via the party shuttle was a surreal experience. Here's a photo of our gang with shuttle driver Cynthia.


Everyone we knew who wasn't at The Atlas Bar was at The Painted Lady. We did shots of tequila and I talked to my dad about obscure beers he drank in the 1960's in Thailand. As Ryan Allen's new band blew through a sweet loud-ass set, I worried about taking my mom around to Hamtramck dive bars on her birthday, but she appeared to be having a wonderful time.

We caught The Night Move back to The Atlas and when we passed our former shuttle everyone cried out "Cynthia!" It was a good night.

The Atlas was a madhouse. We couldn't load any gear in until Four Hour Friends finished their set and the crowed briefly parted. I'm not sure how well we played. I'd had a few and I'm hoping most of the crowd was in the same state just in case we weren't very good. The soundman (Richard, I think?) was amiable which is always a plus at these types of shows. We hit our guitars and jumped around for about 45 minutes to a beautiful sea of faces in a small room. Stirling got up and sang Across the Bridge with us and then Richard spun Bowie tunes and danced in his Donovan "Gift From a Flower to a Garden" shirt.

Blowout is fun. Here are some photos that Doug Coombe took:



Cheers!
Timothy Monger
Lenawee County