Shredding Art
North End Studios unveiled their new gallery located on Loraine Street with an exhibit by resident members. Entitled REACTION, the show featured a gallery stuffed with physical art, murals, photography and – of course – a requisite quarter-pipe skateboard ramp adorned in pink and gold. The celebration continued as the gallery transformed into a high energy live music venue featuring performances by Ivy League Crew, Stranger Danger, Deastro and more. Next time we won't forget our knee and elbow pads.

Shhhhhhhhh!! Fiona Apple
gave one of the most emotional and raw performances of the year last Saturday night at the Fillmore, playing all the hits (she didn't even play any new material until the fifth song into her set), from "Fast As You Can" to "Shadowboxer" to "Criminal" and wowing the mild-mannered audience. Everyone was so well-behaved, in fact, that there were echoes of "shhhhhh" heard throughout the Fillmore during the whole show. Apparently Fiona fans don't mess around.

INDEPENDENCE
Fourth of July celebrations kicked off last week at the Stars & Stripes Festival in Mount Clemens. Half a million people came out for carnival food and rides, an art fair, fireworks and tons of local and national bands performing on the downtown stages. Local favorites Critical Bill and Artificial Agent heated things up before the Fireworks, and then after the explosions, we ate yummy carmel apples and rocked out with a killer performance from Buckcherry. The weekend also included performances by Eddie Money, Skid Row and Tesla as well as hometown heroes Kaleido.

Pine Knob 4EVA
It was an '80s hair band invasion Saturday night at DTE Energy. Lita Ford, Poison and Def Leppard performed a sold-out show in 100 degree heat. Lita opened the show and got our hearts pumping with love. She pranced around the stage in a sexy one piece leather ensemble and sang her lil heart out with classic hits like the "Bitch is Back" and "Close My Eyes Forever" (her famous Ozzy duet, sans Ozzy). Poison was up next and Detroit absolutely loves this band! The rain started, but that didn't scare the fans away. Thankfully the downpour didn't last but a few songs and cooled us down for the big act up next – Def Leppard! These British heavy metal legends performed a two-hour set, as we melted in sweat and alcohol. Guitarist Phil Collen had a video camera attached to his guitar, which helped us witness the fast finger shredding he is best known for. One-armed drummer Rick Allen also had a camera at his bare feet, showing his fast footwork on all those drum pedals. Singer Joe Elliott mentioned that he played this venue for the first time back in 1981. He also mentioned how much he loved Detroit Rock City and this venue, and the crowd went wild when he said, "It will always be Pine Knob."

Hot Nights at Riverfest
Our Fourth of July was much more than fireworks and hot dogs. It was a HOT day so rather than sweating our asses off outdoors, we hit happy hour at Clubhouse BFD. After downing a few Michigan beers, guacamole, pulled pork sliders and fish tacos, we made our way over to Meadowbrook for 93.1's Riverfest. Luckily, the hailstorm that ensued never reached Meadowbrook. City and Colour started the festivities with an upbeat yet melancholy performance that even included a public proposal (awwwww!). Death Cab for Cutie headlined the event and hit the stage with an almost eerily backlit stage set up. Playing plenty of stuff off their fantastic new album, Codes and Keys, DCFC had the crowd swaying like only they can.

Tenacious D-etroit
There's something particularly special when local boys hit the "big time." Imagine our sheer delight on Friday night when we witnessed The Sights, one of Detroit's premiere rock bands, open for Tenacious D. Eddie Baranek led his band through a 25-minute set of pure, unadulterated energy. Just before we could fully catch our breath, Tenacious D made their grand entrance in front of The Fillmore's sold-out crowd. Over 90 minutes later, The D finished (see: "cumfetti") and left everyone satisfied and smiling.

Drunken Bar Ride
Exercise is usually the furthest thing from our minds when we're drinking, but we've also been know to be swayed by large groups of people. Over 180 people joined the VELO Detroit Bike Bar Crawl on Saturday. Admittedly, exercise wasn't on our minds that day either – we joined late and drove instead of biking, but that didn't stop everyone else from biking along from bar to bar. Since we started in the late afternoon, we caught the water balloon toss at Fountain Bistro in Campus Martius and then followed the crew over to Cobo Joe's, where we witnessed our second public proposal in a week! And even though we started late, we also bailed early and missed the final stop at Town Pump Tavern, but we're sure there was plenty of fun had without us there to document it. | RDW