Last Blasts of Summer
Loaded
So the city's crammed with Labor Day fests? Go see these bands.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. will be performing Friday, 9:15 at Arts, Beats, and Eats in Royal Oak
Jason Stollsteimer will be performing with The Hounds Below Saturday, 5PM at Arts, Beats, and Eats in Royal Oak
Phantasmagoria perform Friday, 2 p.m at Arts, Beats, and Eats in Royal Oak
The Sugarcoats perform Sunday, 8PM at the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival
Published: August 31, 2011
Its summer's end and school's still out, which can only mean it's time to freak on three non-jazz fests this weekend — Panic in Hamtramck, Hamtramck Labor Day Festival and Arts, Beats & Eats. Here we chose, with few exceptions, the killer local bands playing this weekend that you need to see.
Arts, Beats & Eats
Three days, 250 bands, Royal Oak
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
Friday, 9:15 p.m., Michigan Lottery National Stage
This show marks the band's first back-home show since impressing 10,000 fans at Lollapalooza. If you've had your nose in our pages, you'd know about the breakout year Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein are having. Almost a year to the day, these Detroit dudes, both multi-instrumentalists, were playing in front of a couple dozen tastemakers in West Coast bars. This September, with a full-time drummer, sometime horn section, and rotating skeleton choir, they're off for another national tour, with stops at Austin City Limits Music Festival and Popped Fest in Philly. Then they'll head abroad, with multiple London shows already booked and an appearance at Iceland Airwaves festival in Reykjavik.
Why You Need to See 'Em: Kid and Em aside, they're Detroit's biggest band at the moment, and rising.
The Hounds Below
Saturday, 5 p.m., Soaring Eagle Stage
Jason Stollsteimer's Hounds Below has fast become his best group, and that's cool, because it's driven by songs that are at once beautiful and weirdly sentimental — but like some experience you've yet to feel. That's hard to do. See, Stollsteimer's songwriting has evolved at an eyebrow-raising rate of late, making much of his Von Bondies work sound like kids' stuff, which it probably was. More, the Hounds lineup has changed drastically; what began as a local super-group of sorts, with some hired guns, has become a proper band, including bassist Gjon Gjevalini, guitarist Skye Thrasher, drummer Brent Nagy, and keyboardist Allison Radell.
Why you need to see 'em: Because, by next year, you'll have to be crammed in for a blurry view from a distance.
Amp Fiddler
> Email Metro Times music staff
To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.
Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.
Full Feed