Blowout Photo Recon Part 2 (of 2) - The Grand Thaw

I thought the picture above would make a great back-cover to an album...maybe squeeze the tracklisting in between Carjack (right) and Frank Woodman (from Woodman, a.k.a., in this picture, Dr. Zeus...Deeming him Dr. Zeus would be an appropriate reference to the Heston flick, since Carjack pulled out a new song called "Planet of the Amps" which featured the boys from Marco Polio and the New Vaccines, in zebra and kitten disguises, forming a drum circle...which collapsed (or evolved) into total invigorating madness)....

Alright then...
Blowout - it's the same old song...(?)









As many yeasayers as there will be naysayers... This was the year of the underdog (which the newly re-energized Detour rightly focused upon here) - there's an overwhelming amount of bands to keep track of these days... and I'm just stating that as fact. It's gotten to the point where 80% of the freelance articles I'm working on around town are all local...and I'm still keeping busy - and still missing 37 other bands that I could be learning about...

So begins the back and forth - maybe it'll touch on performances, who was good? who got an undeservedly good-or-bad time slot? who shouldn't have even been on the bill? I think it's great to feel so pissed off about MISSING so much and yet still being glad to have been able to see AS MUCH as I did... -isn't that the point? That's usually the statement we hear repeated as a grand summary to every blowout review/debate/argument. That, yes, at any given point you'll see a great band and miss a great band...

I don't really know how much more I can or should say... There's reviews and analysis everywhere...
















At the very least - Blowout, each year, feels like the grand thaw - from winter, from discontent, from cabin-fever, from depression...We all get together, shake hands, pat shoulders, hug, drink, kiss, fight, shove, yell, whisper, nod, acknowledge, smile and simply BE...together. And that togetherness is close and smoky and sweaty and you see...every-fucking-body... We're all back now. We're all awake again. Let spring in... Onward to shows where we can wear our stylish (light) jackets around... Onward to more festivals at the Russell (and maybe the CAID) and more downstairs Garden Bowl shows... Onward to another Detour festival(?) ...Onward to Cityfest - to warmth - to summer - to another year.

Cheers

Photo recon (all pics - Mike Milo)




Carjack: (THE...weirdest, grandest, most elaborate and engaging Carjack set to-date..., complete with cameos from 6+ performers, with as many different masks and as many different robots (...unfortunately, some immoral, shady individual walked off with a few (stolen) robots...(turn yourself in, thief!))

Anyhow..., crazy, entertaining shit-kicking, mind expanding punk explosion...

The Readies: (... fuckin-a!)

Duende: (steady, good ol' goth rock and smoky blues...with their usual weird influences coalescing...and theremin!)

The Oscillating Fan Club: (new songs, including cover of Who's "A Quick One While He's Away")

Wildcatting: (instrumental garage-metal-indie insanity, with a song prominently featuring kazoos)

Terrible Twos: (maybe not packed to the front, but as one can always rely on the Twos, a mosh-pit still formed)

Alan Scheurman: (sounded great with all the sanctimonious reverb and ambient slow builds, plus they handed out percussion toys to the crowd)

The Uproars: (worked hard to upstage their predecessors, Terrible Twos...may be young, but they can be scary... scary good, but also scary intense - Minor Threat would be proud)

Elle & The Fonts: (got their for your last song Elle, but your vocals still sounded swell)

Matt Jones (first time seeing him, still translated well, even if a bit stuffy and cacophonous at the Atlas, with some strange buzzing giant mosquito killer thing hanging from the ceiling)