It Is Legendary

For three decades, Book Beat in Oak Park has been a bastion for the printed word and it was gratifying to see the store thronged with loyal customers on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. A plethora of equally loyal authors were on hand last Sunday afternoon as well. We spotted Kathe Koja, Susan Whitall, Rick Lieder, Dan Austin, John Carlisle, Dan Ewald and others congratulating (and thanking) Cary Loren and Colleen Kammer for staying open and independent in a world compromised daily by corporations and electronic gizmos. Loren himself remarked that he felt "like the Omega Man. You know, just doing my best to keep the vampires at bay." We always knew there was a connection between literacy and garlic.

Getting Slaughtered

The sixth annual Summer Slaughter Tour ripped through Saint Andrews Hall last Wednesday, with some of the heaviest metal bands out there. It was a steamy hot day and the place was packed early. The music began at 2 p.m., with some of the best bands playing early in the day. Cannibal Corpse and Between The Buried And Me headlined the show with support from bands The Faceless, Periphery, Veil of Maya, Job For A Cowboy, Goatwhore, Exhumed and Cerebal Bore. BTBAM seemed to be the most popular among the young crowd, as dozens of kids sported the band's t-shirts – and the place was packed to the max during their set. The heat didn't slow down the moshing circle that lingered throughout the day, and we were exhausted and soaked just watching it stir!

Saturdays Night's Alright

Saturday was quite a day in Detroit, with the Woodward Dream Cruise, Motors & Music Experience, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw at Ford Field and a bunch of '80s hair bands at DTE Energy Music Theater. The choices were tough, but D-Days made it out to DTE for a rockin' good time. Cinderella headlined the show, and are touring in support of their 25th anniversary. Singer Tom Keifer looked like a rock god, and Sebastian Bach (of Skid Row) belted out those crazy high notes with such ease. John Corabi (Motley Crue and Ratt), Enuff Z'Nuff and the Lynch Mob opened the show and got us having flashbacks of big hair, bandannas and spandex. Its crazy how many songs we knew, but when you're a kid from the 80's, you know these bands well. We spotted all kinds of local band boys at the show, too. Members from Overloaded, Dark Advenger, Artificial Agent, Throttlebody and even a few guys from Kid Rock's Twisted Brown Trucker Band were all rockin' out, down in the front rows.

Disorder! Disorder! Disooorder!

Last Wednesday night, System Of A Down and the Deftones performed to a sold out crowd at DTE Energy Music Theater. The Deftones opened the show and stole our hearts. SOAD came up and pounded out a bunch of songs with crazed fans singing along the whole time. Singer Serj Tankian doesn't look like your average rockstar, but when he sings, it's quite mind-blowing! They played all their hits, and their song "Toxicity" had everyone raging on the lawn. Good Times at the Knob!!

Intimate Experiences

For those of us willing and able to pull ourselves away from the Woodward Dream Cruise (trust us, it wasn't really that difficult), we were treated to more than our share of fantastic performances at the Motors & Music Experience at the Pontiac Silverdome last Saturday. Killer sets by Citizen Zero, Kaleido, Trick Trick, Ice T and Stone Temple Pilots (STP's North American tour kicked off at Motors & Music) were just a handful of the great musical performances (there were 20+ in total), in addition to cool, fun and dynamic performances all day long by the Detroit Circus. To be honest, we spent more time hobnobbing it with Megan Massacre and Joe Letz, Coco (who was there with hubby Ice T), our homeboy Mikey Eckstein, Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba and all our buddies over at the Detroit Dog Rescue. We also made a couple trips to the food area, which was packed full of some of metro Detroit's most well-known food trucks and vendors. Keeping with the theme of the weekend, there were also displays with enough cars and motorcycles to keep any enthusiast happy. It's pretty safe to say that we enjoyed quite the intimate performance from a fantastically diverse array of entertainment.

Booze Cruise

D-Days swung by Westborn Market's Champagne Cruise last Friday night, and we were pleasantly surprised at just how jam-packed their white-tented party was. With Motown tunes by Modern Tribe, performances by stilt walkers and fire-jugglers courtesy of the Detroit Circus and – literally – a ton of food from all of our favorites (like Slow's, What Crepe, Barrio, Treat Dreams plus a bunch more), the event was definitely a success. With choice brews from Atwater as well as quite a nice wine selection (we enjoyed more than a few of these, thank you very much) coupled all those classic cars cruisin' Woodward, we gotta say it was pretty impossible to not have a great time.

Beer-a-palooza

There wasn't a seat left in the house when we stopped by Fort Street Brewery for their annual Brew-Ha-Ha this past Saturday afternoon, but luckily there was still plenty of hoppy happiness to be had. Owner Doug Beedy treated us to a couple samples of not only their in-house brews but some for their guest brewery's stellar ciders as well, plus a tour of where the Lincoln Park brewpub actually makes their beer. We were big fans of their Lincoln Lager as well as the Summer Sparkler, and even though they're known for their barely and hops, we also took it upon ourselves to test a few of their cocktails out as well. Suffice it to say; they know what they're doing in the every area of inebriate, and how to put on a good time to boot. | RDW