A year has past since Blowout 12, but it may as well have been a decade. For the entirety of March following last year’s festival conclusion, this scribe suffered from a serious bout of ‘Post-Blowout blues’. Freelance gigs came and went. Summer was nice. Christmas blah, blah, blah. The winter was as cold as everybody hoped it wouldn’t be, but as January turned into February and the rest of Michigan was grumbling about the snow like an old lady who missed out on a blue light special by one minute, I was wearing a shit eating grin.
Why?
Because, like a child opening the first window of his advent calendar, I was wallowing in the fact that the Blowout was only one month away.
You see, the Blowout has replaced Christmas as my favorite day of the year, which is no mean feat – up until very recently, I was still struggling to get to sleep on Christmas Eve and I’m 35 years old. This will be my third Blowout, having moved from England to Detroit in January ’08. Now, as I sit typing on the Tuesday before Blowout 13, I’m very aware that I will sleep badly tonight, tossing and turning at the prospect of seeing so much of this area’s rich talent.
As always, I’m faced with the dilemma of who I will see and who I will have to miss due to clashes on the schedule. Even if I dash from venue to venue like a blue-assed fly, I can’t see everyone (except on the Wednesday night at the Majestic complex, where each band can be seen without too much running around). My big task for tonight, after completing this blog, is drawing up a plan of action for the festival. I suggest you do something similar.
This year’s line up is as mouth-watering as ever before. From the established local veterans like the Detroit Cobras and the Hard Lessons, to new heroes like Lightning Love and Millions of Brazilians. From well known musicians in relatively new bands like Amy Gore’s Gorevette and Kenny Tudrick’s Cannon, to the plethora of bands and musicians hoping to make a name for themselves at this year’s festival. Some bands will only get five minutes of viewing time as I speed from the Gates of Columbus Hall (by the way, why the name change from the Knights of Columbus?) to the Painted Lady, but that’s half of the fun, right?
The Blowout is sort of like when you go to Appleby’s and order the appetizer sampler. You get to try small portions of a whole lot of different things to see what you like, and maybe you’ll get a full order of mozzarella sticks next time.
It’s been said before that no other city in the world has anything remotely like the Blowout, and that is undoubtedly true. Here in Detroit, we’re blessed with so many incredible local bands, such a diverse array of talent in a fairly small geographical area, Detroit (and Hamtramck specifically) can host a local music festival and it will be better than most national music festivals year after year.
The fact that I’m gay for Detroit is no secret, and every year I get, ummmm, gayer.
So get ready, kiddies, because we have in front of us four nights of some of the world’s finest music. By Sunday, I’ll be crying into my mini-wheats at the prospect of another 12 Blowout-less months. But for now, I can’t wait to get to the Majestic tomorrow night.
Race you to the front...
