I Saw The Come Ons

… and I left with a smile. The Come Ons brought their singsong garage pop to the Lager House tonight. Strumming on her “Fender Jazz Bass,” Deanne’s nonchalant vocals inspired the crowd to dance like nobody was watching. Not to mention Pat Pantano’s dead-on drumming… the guy has to be the best drummer in the Motor City. They played upbeat danceable tunes for the entire show… until the last song when they mellowed it down a bit. At this point, Pat stood up and threw his sportcoat over the drum… a rather unconventional technique that mellowed things out nicely.

Concert Review: Von Bondies @ The Blind Pig

Any show that ends with Jason Von Bondie curled at the bottom of a staircase is alright with me. The kids at Ann Arbor‘s Blind Pig last night got to see a band on the rise to stardom and appeared to have a darn good time doing it.

Confident and laid back, the Von Bondies arrived with no set list. It was refreshing to see that big record deals and continual press attention hasn’t persuaded the band to take things too seriously. They wandered on stage and decided what to play on a song-by-song basis. The result was a spontaneity and carelessness that so-called “professional” bands so often lack. Basically, that means they sounded great and were entertaining.

The packed crowd at the Blind Pig really dug the Von Bondies, and legendary record exec Seymour Stein seems to share that sentiment. After two years at the helm of Elektra Records, Stein is reviving his legendary Sire Records. Stein originally founded the label in 1966 and changed the face of rock n’ roll with such bands as The Ramones and The Cure. The new Sire is championing the Von Bondies as a signature act. The album, Pawn Shoppe Heart, was produced by Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads fame) and will reportedly be released sometime in February or March. — Ryan Sult

Rag Wrap – October 10, 2003

Alice Cooper comes back home for a show on Monday. He talks with the Detroit News about the show and his new cd.

Ever wonder how parade balloons get washed? Well wonder no more by heading to the Detroit Zoo this Saturday.

Everyone’s favorite hipsters,The Strokes, hit town next week and The News talks with the boys from NYC.

Well they have finally found a use for the Silverdome and if you guessed drive- in movie theater you would be correct.

Napster is back... but for a price.

The Freep checks out another new Hamtramck bar, The Belmont. The Detroit Cobras will be playing at their grand opening party on Halloween. After reading the review this may become the new MCR hangout. Who can go wrong with “Punk, Pabst and Porn” night.

New Von Bondies Record Delayed

A new (very cool) Von Bondies fan site reports that the band’s major label debut, Pawn Shoppe Heart, will be delayed until next year. Word on the street is that the band’s label, Seymour Stein’s prestigious Sire Records, is waiting to add more live material… I do remember a camera crew shooting the band’s appearance the the Mistreater’s Benefit…

Festival Review: CMJ 2003

CMJ can be a tiring experience — 1000 bands in only a few days. Luckily, you don’t notice until you get home and realize you’ve gone partially deaf, then start to be concerned about the functionality of your liver. From the snapshots however, I think you’ll see that it is a highly worthwhile road trip.

On thursday night, the Lager House seemed materialize at the Continental – an East Village dive. After catching a bit of the one man act appropriately called Man, I wandered down the narrow staircase to the men’s room and ran into an eyebrow-less Bobby Harlow (The Go)… he said he shaved them off to see what it would look like, which was a good enough reason for me. Truth is, it looked pretty creepy. Wandering upstairs, I found Bogue taking the stage for the first of several great Detroit bands to rock the Continental that night, along with a couple others. The place was packed as The Go took the stage and blew us away. Watching Bobby Harlow carve his chest with a broken beer bottle and jump up and down from the stage, I momentarily wondered if Iggy had joined The Go. There was no question that the show embodied the spirit of Detroit rock and roll and the crowd loved every minute of it.

Party animals the Detroit City Council were next up. Clad in their ultra-swanky white tuxedosdetroit city council and led by dynamic frontman Tom Potter, the Council reminded New York that “it is your civic duty to shake that booty,” and reinforced that notion with their catchy new single “Party Planet Rising.”

Concluding this evening of outstanding Motor City rock was Outrageous Cherry, led by Matthew Smith.

Several others of Detroit’s best were on stages throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the SouthPaw, in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, Saturday was another evening of Detroit bands including the Hentchmen, Paybacks and Gore Gore Girls. On Wednesday, at this same venue, Brendan Benson headlined a show that was opened by the Waxwings. Other D-town acts included Pas/Cal, The Singles, Andrew WK, Sponge, Slumber Party and Molly. Small Brown Bike played what may be one of their last shows outrageous cherryahead of Ted Leo / Pharmacists at CBGB’s. Saturday Looks Good To Me was scheduled to play, but did not end up making it… word on the street is that there may be no more shows with the old lineup. To top things off, former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer played Tobacco Road and delivered the keynote speech at the “Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books” convention.

A few Detroiters were spotted off the stage as well. At the Continental, we ran into some of the Times Beach Records crew and spotted Real Detroit’s Shannon McCarthy. In SoHo, Big Matt ran into Brendan Benson looking sharp in a black & white pinstripe suit. Pas/Cal were seen picking up some suits of their own at H&M, then partying at Brooklyn’s trendy Luxx. Speaking of Luxx, we also ran into a Wings fan in town for the game and toting his personal bottle of Chivas.

Oh yeah, and there were a few hundred non-Detroit bands there as well. We had a blast checking out Longwave and stellastar*. We also really dug a band from Indiana by the name of John Wilkes Booze. With a name like that, you’ve got to put on a show, and they didn’t disappoint. With an Electric Six swagger, they presented their views on the buffoon who runs this country. If they are ever in a town near you, they’re a can’t miss!

Pictures are worth a thousand words (a million if I’m the writer). Come join us for next year’s CMJ pilgrimage. -Ryan Sult