Brian
Just curious if anyone went to the Detroit Volcanos / Madeira / Breakers / Hearseman show? How did it go?

Rick? Ivan? Care to chime in?

Brian, it was a fun night! Only about 30 people or so in attendance, but they were enthusiastic. The club is really cool, with a great stage - and even an area on the side where you can store the gear between the bands! I wish more clubs had that, and that they were half as organized about bands tearing down and setting up.

The Volcanos were on fire! A great set by them. It was their new bass player Mark's third gig EVER. But man, I don't think I heard one mistake from him all night. Chris was playing a Mosrite through a vintage Super Reverb, and Rick was playing an MIJ Jazzmaster (and a Hallmark Sweptwing for a couple of songs) through a reverb unit and an old Airline amp (!!) and a Twin Reverb (reissue?). The Airline amp sounded very good, surprisingly so (though it did start making 'erupting volcano' noises at one point of the show, to which Bill the drummer quipped "it's kinda funny, but not really"! Rick probably could have been a bit louder through the PA, and I wonder if that was due to the amp, or simply cause the soundman didn't have him as loud as Chris. But they sounded really good, very full.

Their set was full of new originals, stuff they hadn't recorded yet. Some titles: Passage to Budapest (where Rick played a Coral Sitar for lead - it sounded awesome!), Open Road, Escape Velocity, Wave Beat, Frostbite, Volcano Twist, Side-Swipe and even an original so new it doesn't have a name yet! These are really great songs, and I can confidently say that whenever the third Volcanos CD gets recorded it'll be a worthy successor to their first two albums, which are Third Wave classics for sure. (I haven't been able to get Open Road out of my head since Saturday night! I heard it twice before, and that's a really cool song...)

The rest of the set consisted of the Volcanos staples, such as the incredible Avalanche and Whirlpool - total goosebumps! Things went a bit wrong during another of my favorites, Riverside Run, as Chris was having technical problems which threw him off enough to forget a verse or two. As Rick put it, "we swerved off the road for a bit there, but were able to get back on it by the end!" A few other Volcanos tracks: San Andreas Fault, Mount Erebus, Where It's Happening. They also did two Astronauts vocals (!), Buy Me a Round and Devil Driver, and a very cool version of the Sonics' Boss Hoss.

So, a set tilted heavily towards new stuff which was really exciting to hear. The guys played really great, and it was just a joy to see them. I'm SOOO glad we have these guys in our neighborhood! If they would only play more often...

Our set went well (besides my two forays into free-jazz that I mentioned in another post). It was our first ever gig in Detroit and we had a very good time. The one bummer was that the stage lights were so bright that we couldn't see the audience AT ALL. We were just gaping into a black abyss. It's hard to get into a show under those circumstances, when you can't see the people's reaction to anything. But it's a small thing. We premiered a new original, "Surf Fidelis" (always faithful!), and it was our first time playing "Everybody Up!", both of which went very well. I got some more kudos on the sound of the Showman... Every gig now since I've started using it!

There were two other bands on the bill: the Hearsemen and the Breakers. I was expecting the Hearsemen to be kinda like the Mummies, but I was totally off. They have nothing to do with surf music. In fact, I have no idea how to describe them! Very quirky, more of a comedy show than a music show. The lead guitarist/singer is very funny, kinda reminds me of Jerry Lewis, and his lyrics were pretty interesting! All the songs had three chords that just repeated (in fact, their setlist had the three chords written down next to each song, which I thought was hillarious! Just in case they couldn't remember...) Anyway, bizarre but entertaining stuff.

The Breakers are a new surf 3-piece band from Detroit. I think they show promise but are still a bit green. The drummer and the guitar player are quite good, but I don't think their bass player has the right feel for surf music yet. His tone was much too modern and too agressive, and just too much in the foreground. I think he also often didn't play the right basslines, which in some case dramatically changed the feel of the songs. They played an all-covers set, pretty standard stuff: Squad Car, Out Of Limits, Penetration, Jack The Ripper, Surf Beat, you get the idea. Their lead guitarist had a good tone, a Mosrite through a reverb unit into a Twin Reverb. I look forward to seeing those guys again in the future, and I believe they'll continue to develop and get better. It's really nice to have another surf band in Detroit, that's for sure! (The Breakers have a myspace site: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=27269322)

So, overall a great night! Really enjoyable. We didn't get home until 4 am, though! Ouch. Why do we do this? Oh yeah, cause we LOVE it!!

On to Chicago on the 27th, where the Volcanos and the Madeira hook up with the Cocktail Preachers!! That's gonna be amazing!!

Ivan

Ivan
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