| Friday was a bit of a blur. I blame it partly on the Newcastle ale and lemon drops, but as far as I can recollect it was a pretty darn good show all in all. Our bar had some stiff competition with the New Dodge Bar right around the corner on Jos Campau as evidenced early on in the night. There was a group of guys and girls (from one of the bands?) that were standing on the side of the road with signs screaming at the passers-by "3 bands, all you can drink, 5 bucks!!!". Wow! I think I actually contemplated abandoning my duties for some New Dodge craziness. Porchsleeper from Ann Arbor started out the evening with a cool style of rock music with a country twang, most memorably for myself ending the set with a cover of "Rhine Stone Cowboy". Too cool. They certainly got the crowd going and proved to be a cool group of guys. We're hoping to hook up with them for more shows down the road. We took second slot at around 11:30 and played the set pretty much right on. I was having some problems with my rig that caused some extended delays between songs, and It was difficult to get Jackie's violin heard over the rest of the music, but we managed to get through the set without too many problems. A new transducer is on the shopping list for the fiddle. The crowd was incredible and made for a really great time. NYC Smoke turned out to be a great rock band and Howie (singer/ guitarist/ songwriter) was a pretty cool guy as well. He ended up walking out with a major welt on his forehead where he knocked himself with the headstock of his guitar in a rocking frenzy. NYC Smoke headed to Chicago next on their tour after the show. We're looking forward to getting back to Lili's soon as Steve the soundman is now more acquainted with our crazy set up and we can hopefully get a better mix out of it. -CM |
| Friday August 9, 2002 at Lili's 21 Club Hamtramck, MI with Porchsleeper and NYC Smoke |
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| NYC Smoke |
| Sometimes a show is just one in a long string of bars being played in a night. Sometimes a show is nothing more than beer money for the band, and sometimes it's something you do simply to pass the time. This was not one of these shows. This was a show of new beginnings. Rarely does a band in one of these neighborhood bars stand out as anything more than background music while you shoot pool or sip your drink, but this group filled bar with people only on the anticipation of what was to come. This group of men who spent years on different roads, in different cultures, with different passions meet here tonight for the first time ever on this nothing stage in this nothing bar to play music no one has ever heard before. They are not doing it for the recognition or for the fame. They are doing it for their love of music, and I love them for it. -Anonymous |
| After some tense moments trading places with NYC Smoke, TBS took the stage in front of a packed capacity crowd for their debut show. The magnificent scent of stale beer, vomit, and cigarette smoke permeated the bar. The quintessential ingredient of a good rock n' roll dive bar. Although, as with all shows, there were technical problems, they were quickly mended, and TBS bashed on playing crowd favorites like Dick Oskie (picture the Stooges in orange spacesuits playing John Deere chainsaws instead of guitars) and Jonathn (dip off my chip)(a groovy, rythm heavy song that sounds like the beautiful bi-product of a hippie/neo-goth copulatory event). TBS closed out the evening quite nicely, impressing and entertaining both opening bands and crowd alike. -CN |