Fans and Friends

The "whooo's" crackle away. Echoed claps fall to the wooden floor. Hearts were poured out and voices were lost and ankles are left sore from zealous stamping; strings broken or wound out of tune and we all feel, or at least hope, that what needed to be told, in song or in shouting-ear-shots-at-bar's-edge, was told...and told effectively.

And the traffic lights steadily shift us all back to abodes and when the morning makes its deceptively swift arrival, it's seemingly quiet.

Sunday morning rain storms' so beautiful. The bodies of the bands are bedded, their amps are off and though their mouths are agape, no sound, no song, no shout, is coming out. Maybe a slight, gargled snore. It feels sacred outside, not just because it's Sunday, but...because it IS Sunday it means that there's no cars bustling around, yet. No one is mowing their rain-drenched lawns. No one wants to walk their domesticated dogs. There is no human noise outside - and yet it's noisy as hell.

The rain is the applause now. The wind is the ambient fuzz from the amps and the birds are picking their own melody. It sounds like a concert out there, a clamor, a buzz of conversation. But the Blue Jays never try singing like the Cardinals...

Proceeds from Detroit-X-Detroit-II a "DETROIT by DETROIT" Scholarship at the Rochester School of Rock!

Hours ago...before last call...we, the characters perpetuating the dramatic/comedic/inspirational coming-of-age mystery of Detroit's Music Scene et al ...were all dressed up as each other and singing each other's songs, embodying and incanting not as ourselves but as fans of other bands, be they Alice Cooper or the White Stripes.

But this marks the chrystllization of a new sensibility, one of rampant camaraderie. Last weekend, at Detroit X Detroit (where a dozen groups performed cover sets of Detroit bands -whether long-gone legends or contemporary cut-ups) we saw something surreal and endearing, weird, yes, but also remarkable - that we know each other, are...into each other's music, each other's live shows, each other as writeirs and singers, to such a level, that we can zero in on each others idiosyncracies, from clothing to nuanced mannerisms. Cardinals and Blue Jays are on their own out there, in nature's concert. Perhaps, in a way, we've blurred together into one unwieldy band as some way of support - surviving not just the waves of the music biz together, not just the waves of a music scene together, but just...hey,...in this Recession-ruined world where Art is bastardized by Google-demons, we're just surviving. Keeping warm together.

Here, in this fleeting era, the New Weird of post-post-post-Millennial music in Detroit, there's no jockeying - and the line between "fan" and "friend" has been obliterated. This was like a 2nd Halloween...

Tom's really going all out, I told Steve, joining his side as we both watched the Ashleys recreate a Pupils set, seeing Tom go as far as mimicing Steve's scant appearance, barefooted, only in bicycle shorts.

Indeed...says Steve. Those are actually my shorts, too!




(<--pic by Lisa Joan)



WATCH: Pupils - performing "Glue Your Eyelids Together" - as ADULT. - video