CrayCray's at Blowout 16
For my second Blowout, I better understood the happenings in Ham-Town, and (sort of) had a plan to catch as many bands as possible. Arriving at the Polish National Alliance (PNA) hall just short of 9 o’clock, I was able to jump into the middle of Deadbeat Beat’s set, a trippy psych group who played every song in a different way than the previous one, and they actually pulled it off well. They have a really cool girl drummer who knows how to keep time, and they’ve got some great original material. Look forward to hearing more from these guys (and gal) soon. After they were done with their half an hour set, I crossed the hall into the PNA Lounge and caught the CrayCray’s, a very loud energetic Detroit group that provided me with the best song title of the night, “Don’t Come Inside Satan”. Alright, maybe it’s not the best title, but the band was Cray Cray themselves, not to mention the almost required presence of a female drummer. They also debuted two new songs that were amazing, too. Up after the CrayCray’s were Secret Twins, a two piece power-pop-rock group that sound like the Gore Gore Girls , except that this group has a male drummer. At the end of their set, I jumped on the Blowout shuttle and made my way to the New Dodge Lounge and caught the very end of Danny And The Darleans set, ex-Gorie Danny Kroha’s new group. As I’ve come to expect with Kroha’s bands, it was great and full of energy. I also met with Blaire Alise and The Bombshells, a young group comprised of teenagers that recalls 50’s-60’s pop rock (Think Ronettes with a teenage Amy Gore). I almost forgot about the main reason I attended Blowout this year;seeing Sponge. I ran back to the PNA hall and waited around until they started to play. The Sponge show began with a 5-minute saxophone player, who seems to be a new member of the group. Tonight, Vinnie Dombrowski was donning his cowboy hat and Ghetto Rags shirt- the ultimate rock star. They played tunes from all of their albums including 2003’s For All The Drugs In The World, and 2005’s The Man. Not to say the set wasn’t packed with familiar songs, they played ‘Molly’, ‘Plowed’, and ‘Rotting Pinata’ from their best-selling debut album, and kicked out a new version of the Speed Racer theme song. Now that’s class. Sponge also came back with an encore, performing The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, with ex-Seduce member David Black on lead guitar.
Sponge
This Blowout was not one to miss,and I look forward to next weekend’s Ferndale Blowout that will hopefully show more amazing undiscovered Detroit bands. Until then, over and out. -JK
