For music lovers, this weekend promises to literally be a ‘Blowout’
Get yer ya's ya's at this weekend's Hamtramck Blowout.
By Alan Madeleine
It’s like a cruise ship after they served bad shrimp: Everywhere you look, there’s a blowout.
This weekend, the garage rockers, electro-noodlers, proto-punks, post punks, post post punks, so-post-they’re-proto-again punks; the drunks, the lunks and the ones blowing chunks, they all converge on our fair 2.2 square to sample the musical wares of some 200-odd (and some of them will be very odd) bands, solo acts, and others.
Absolutely one of Hamtramck’s biggest yearly “tourist” draws, along with Paczki Day and the Labor Day Festival, the venerable Blowout is now in its 15th (!) year, and shows no signs of reform or remorse. Spread out over 14 of the city’s most renowned (and tolerant) music venues, the Blowout is a machine that just keeps on chewing up the scenery.
We caught up with Festival Organizer Eve Doster on Thursday, who was on the run all morning “putting up posters.”
Asked what was different, if anything, with this year’s model, she offered her take:
“It’s really mostly the same,” she said. “Kind of like, ‘not broke, don’t fix it.’” The Blowout has been a big success most years, so the promoters saw fit to basically shine up the wheels and push it down the track one more time.
For those attending, note that there will, as in past years, be multiple shuttles to ferry you between locales. The wait to catch one is typically not very long, either, if past years are any indication.
Tickets are only available now in person for $25 for the entire event, at either Detroit Threads (which will feature on-going DJs from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.), 10238 Jos. Campau, a block and a half south of Caniff on the east side, or at the Polish National Alliance Hall (which replaces Gates of Columbus Hall, from previous years, as the larger venue) at 10211 Conant, also about two blocks south of Caniff, on the west side.
The event is open to those 18 and up, with ID.
Among the many interesting acts is legendary L.A. impresario Kim Fowley’s “Psychedelic Dogs” project (On Saturday at PNA hall at 12:20 a.m.).
Other slots feature appearances by Blowout stalwarts The Polish Muslims, The Muggs, The Dirtbombs, Child Bite, Human Eye, Doop & the Inside Outlaws, The Hentchmen, Dutch Pink, The Beggars, Amy Gore, Outrageous Cherry, as well as buzz bands Bad Party, Pewter Cub, House Phone, and about 180 more.
But earplugs? Them’s on you.
Late breaking news! Due to what Doster referred to in veiled terms as “an issue with the building,” everything originally scheduled for the Atlas Bar will now be held at the Polish Village Café (2990 Yemans, east of Jos. Campau, if it could be humanly possible that you don’t know where it is), in the upstairs area. Times on the schedule will apparently remain the same as they would have been at the Atlas.
