Thursday, April 23, 2015
taking a walk to detroit’s local anarchist punk house on a nice spring night to see pile (and animal faces)
i spun the wheel of detroit again last night and ended up down option #5 - grand river, up a ways, with an eventual hard right up to the venerated detroit trumbullplex....
grand river was a short walk defined by juxtapositions: casinos tower over devastated apartment complexes. ruins, simply. windows are not merely smashed out, but scavenged, leaving oddly tidy orthogonal squat escapes - if it weren't for the black mold, which has overtaken the space to the point that it looks like fire damage. if you didn't know better, you'd think you were walking through a war zone at points, with bombed out buildings - collateral damage on the aerial assault on the industrial heartland. foreboding side roads fall off the main street, with invisible DO NOT ENTER signs. but, passing glimpses sometimes suggest portals to a past era. there is early twentieth century architecture in tact and in good shape here; one expects to see a classic ford car spin the corner, perhaps trying to outrace the cops to the speakeasy to disappear into a basement tunnel. other side streets have nothing but dilapidated wood buildings in immediate sight, and may very well have lost pets as their primary tenants. abandoned fields give way to large educational institutions and government buildings, which give way to more abandoned fields.
in fact, the media narratives of detroit's ominous urban warzone fade quickly into the context of the city's vast emptiness. walking up this strip of the city, there is simply nobody around to potentially harm you. the most immediate danger seems to be coyotes.
the turn up trumbull took me into a slightly different neighbourhood, full of crumbling victorian mansions - the kind with four or five bedrooms, personal balconies, fenced off porches and, of course, those decorative pseudo-minarets, which i'm sure were interpreted as pretentious (that would have been a good monty python skit...) when they were built, and today just seem bluntly absurd. if these towers ever had princesses, it seems clear that they've long dispersed.
the venue comes of as an extremely large garage (for those reading from ottawa, it's most similar to the old house of targ) and, given the size of the house it's attached to, may very well have been one at one point. well, what's five or six cars in mid-twentieth century detroit? today, it seems to mostly house bicycles, in what was probably previously a storage room. to the side, in what i'm guessing was initially a sun room, there exists a "'zine library" full of an assortment of pamphlets and other literature meant for dissemination - which is actually an excellent idea. curating is important. it might not seem important, but it is.
the first band up was time cat, and they managed to remind me that i live in the midwest, now - without putting me off by it, too much. there's some rootsy elements to their sound, but it's largely a merger of blues and punk. the energy is in the right place to produce a strong set, and the frontwoman for the band is worth checking out simply for her guitar skills. the drumming, however, needs a little work - and not everybody is going to connect to the vocals. if you see them opening, and you like the raw blues punk sound from hendrix to srv to jsbx to the white stripes and everything in between, they're worth checking out. but be wary of giving them too much energy to feed off, because they will play over time if you do.
https://timecatmusic.bandcamp.com/album/quadday
animal faces surprised me. i hadn't heard any of their more recent material or seen them in a few years. i was expecting some thrashing post-hardcore with the amps and drums blaring, and i got a bit of it, but a good portion of the set seems to have focused on expanding the more sombre connecting portions of their previous work into longer sections. the result leaned heavily into the kind of post-rock that do make say think were excellent at in the early 00s.
now, i'm actually a huge fan of dmst. i've seen them something like eight times. and, they were some of the most fun shows i've ever been to - partly because i knew the material inside and out, and they're great at delivering it. given that their output has dwindled recently, i wouldn't be opposed to hearing somebody draw on it. further, this influence was apparent in their earlier releases, so it's not entirely out of nowhere. but, animal faces' attempt to walk into that space lacked the dynamics and subtlety you want out of that sound. over the last ten years, post-rock has become notorious for being monotonous and sort of boring. unfortunately, there wasn't much in the set to separate them from the mass of substandard bands that currently exist in that genre. and, what's a little frustrating is that animal faces were actually really good at what they used to do - really loud, thrashing post-hardcore.
if they're pivoting, so be it. i'm not one to push stasis. but, the shift requires a bit more work before they can say they're as good at what they want to do now as they were at what they wanted to do previously.
destroy this place were locals and they were a little too conventional for my tastes. tight. radio-ready. just not my thing.
i got to talking to the drummer from pile while out on a smoke break, and he seemed pretty chill. we agreed it would be nice if they get on to play, given the show was running about two hours late.
we did get a decent set from them, and they didn't disappoint. generally, the shorter my reviews are, the more i enjoyed the show
here's a full set from the same tour:
i didn't think the show would really be over at 11:00, but i didn't think it would run until 12:45, either. last bus back to windsor? 1:04..
i managed to walk back to rosa parks in 19 minutes (google maps estimate: 33 minutes). that's right: at the platform at exactly 1:04. but, no bus.
"shit.", i'm thinking. "missed it.".
but, i'm stubborn, so i cut up michigan to griswold, hoping it got stuck at a light or something. and, sure enough, it comes rumbling around the corner, causing me to run out into the intersection of griswold & larned, waving and hopping, which got me a stern talking to by the driver...
"what the fuck are you doing jumping into the middle of the road like that?"
"well, i'm trying to steer you into a place you can stop."
"what? really. you're not seriuh-....."
"well, you can't just stop in the middle of the road. at least you're not supposed to."
awkward pause.
"THANK YOU FOR STOPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TO PICK ME UP."
close, though. it wouldn't have been so bad if i was stuck on a weekday, it's only a few hours, i just would have walked up to get a coney dog and a coffee. i think i was more irritated that i didn't bring a book...
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/04/22.html
grand river was a short walk defined by juxtapositions: casinos tower over devastated apartment complexes. ruins, simply. windows are not merely smashed out, but scavenged, leaving oddly tidy orthogonal squat escapes - if it weren't for the black mold, which has overtaken the space to the point that it looks like fire damage. if you didn't know better, you'd think you were walking through a war zone at points, with bombed out buildings - collateral damage on the aerial assault on the industrial heartland. foreboding side roads fall off the main street, with invisible DO NOT ENTER signs. but, passing glimpses sometimes suggest portals to a past era. there is early twentieth century architecture in tact and in good shape here; one expects to see a classic ford car spin the corner, perhaps trying to outrace the cops to the speakeasy to disappear into a basement tunnel. other side streets have nothing but dilapidated wood buildings in immediate sight, and may very well have lost pets as their primary tenants. abandoned fields give way to large educational institutions and government buildings, which give way to more abandoned fields.
in fact, the media narratives of detroit's ominous urban warzone fade quickly into the context of the city's vast emptiness. walking up this strip of the city, there is simply nobody around to potentially harm you. the most immediate danger seems to be coyotes.
the turn up trumbull took me into a slightly different neighbourhood, full of crumbling victorian mansions - the kind with four or five bedrooms, personal balconies, fenced off porches and, of course, those decorative pseudo-minarets, which i'm sure were interpreted as pretentious (that would have been a good monty python skit...) when they were built, and today just seem bluntly absurd. if these towers ever had princesses, it seems clear that they've long dispersed.
the venue comes of as an extremely large garage (for those reading from ottawa, it's most similar to the old house of targ) and, given the size of the house it's attached to, may very well have been one at one point. well, what's five or six cars in mid-twentieth century detroit? today, it seems to mostly house bicycles, in what was probably previously a storage room. to the side, in what i'm guessing was initially a sun room, there exists a "'zine library" full of an assortment of pamphlets and other literature meant for dissemination - which is actually an excellent idea. curating is important. it might not seem important, but it is.
the first band up was time cat, and they managed to remind me that i live in the midwest, now - without putting me off by it, too much. there's some rootsy elements to their sound, but it's largely a merger of blues and punk. the energy is in the right place to produce a strong set, and the frontwoman for the band is worth checking out simply for her guitar skills. the drumming, however, needs a little work - and not everybody is going to connect to the vocals. if you see them opening, and you like the raw blues punk sound from hendrix to srv to jsbx to the white stripes and everything in between, they're worth checking out. but be wary of giving them too much energy to feed off, because they will play over time if you do.
https://timecatmusic.bandcamp.com/album/quadday
animal faces surprised me. i hadn't heard any of their more recent material or seen them in a few years. i was expecting some thrashing post-hardcore with the amps and drums blaring, and i got a bit of it, but a good portion of the set seems to have focused on expanding the more sombre connecting portions of their previous work into longer sections. the result leaned heavily into the kind of post-rock that do make say think were excellent at in the early 00s.
now, i'm actually a huge fan of dmst. i've seen them something like eight times. and, they were some of the most fun shows i've ever been to - partly because i knew the material inside and out, and they're great at delivering it. given that their output has dwindled recently, i wouldn't be opposed to hearing somebody draw on it. further, this influence was apparent in their earlier releases, so it's not entirely out of nowhere. but, animal faces' attempt to walk into that space lacked the dynamics and subtlety you want out of that sound. over the last ten years, post-rock has become notorious for being monotonous and sort of boring. unfortunately, there wasn't much in the set to separate them from the mass of substandard bands that currently exist in that genre. and, what's a little frustrating is that animal faces were actually really good at what they used to do - really loud, thrashing post-hardcore.
if they're pivoting, so be it. i'm not one to push stasis. but, the shift requires a bit more work before they can say they're as good at what they want to do now as they were at what they wanted to do previously.
destroy this place were locals and they were a little too conventional for my tastes. tight. radio-ready. just not my thing.
i got to talking to the drummer from pile while out on a smoke break, and he seemed pretty chill. we agreed it would be nice if they get on to play, given the show was running about two hours late.
we did get a decent set from them, and they didn't disappoint. generally, the shorter my reviews are, the more i enjoyed the show
here's a full set from the same tour:
i didn't think the show would really be over at 11:00, but i didn't think it would run until 12:45, either. last bus back to windsor? 1:04..
i managed to walk back to rosa parks in 19 minutes (google maps estimate: 33 minutes). that's right: at the platform at exactly 1:04. but, no bus.
"shit.", i'm thinking. "missed it.".
but, i'm stubborn, so i cut up michigan to griswold, hoping it got stuck at a light or something. and, sure enough, it comes rumbling around the corner, causing me to run out into the intersection of griswold & larned, waving and hopping, which got me a stern talking to by the driver...
"what the fuck are you doing jumping into the middle of the road like that?"
"well, i'm trying to steer you into a place you can stop."
"what? really. you're not seriuh-....."
"well, you can't just stop in the middle of the road. at least you're not supposed to."
awkward pause.
"THANK YOU FOR STOPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TO PICK ME UP."
close, though. it wouldn't have been so bad if i was stuck on a weekday, it's only a few hours, i just would have walked up to get a coney dog and a coffee. i think i was more irritated that i didn't bring a book...
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/04/22.html
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