Article Tools
| [image-1] |
Old Fashioned Holiday Spectacular
Maybe my mind’s been hypnotically pulverized by Charlie Brown and the Grinch, but I feel a magic in the air around Christmas time. (A good bit of greasy, swarming, Mega-Mall-nausea, but more so the magic!) Not so much warm, gooey Hallmark card magic, or "the perfect gift" magic … I find it, simply, in togetherness.
And that arm-in-arm embrace is exemplified perfectly each season by the annual Detroit’s Sounds & Spirits Old Fashioned Holiday Spectacular at the Magic Stick (12/19).
This is the seventh Sounds & Spirits, and it has established a tradition for Detroit’s music community to come together and let their hair down for a cheery “sweater and scarf” cocktail party serving as homage to Christmas variety shows of yesteryear…(specifically, the 1970s). Twenty bands blur through two or three songs each, bouncing back and forth between two stages. Plus, ticket sales go to benefit Detroit’s Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS). Since 2002, the event has raised more than $15,000 for the Detroit-based COTS, which provides emergency shelter and transitional housing for struggling families.
Local musicians Dave Feeney and Thomas Trimble started the event in 2002 as an excuse to have musical yuletide celebrations with their friends from other bands, including Sunshine Doray, Blanche and American Mars (pictured). This year’s lineup includes: The Hard Lessons, Blanche, Javelins, Friendly Foes, The Go, Dutch Pink, Mick Bassett & The Marthas, Pop Project, American Mars, Nice Device, Sunshine Doray and many more!
I caught up with Trimble (from neo-country-pop quartet American Mars) to reflect on 2008: “As a band, we are really proud of the record we put out in February, Western Sides. The record got some great national reviews and it helped us prove to ourselves that we should still be a band.” Trimble added, looking back on past S&S shows, “We are so appreciative of all the bands that have played over the years, especially those that have played multiple years. It’s like a family, but we’re really more like the teenage cousins who raid the basement liquor cabinet while the adults are upstairs drinking eggnog. We’re an obnoxious bunch.”
Catching up with Dutch Pink, singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie, playing his second S&S this year, said that this show gave him the strongest sense of community of any show he’s played. “It seems campy, but that’s usually part of the fun. It’s just about everybody having a good time. There’s not a lot of posturing.” Dutch Pink spent 2008 focusing on recording their upcoming full-length, Times New Roman, some “dark honky-tonk shit” reacting to tough economic times. In January, they hit the ground running, reenergized for 2009, planning more local shows, a summer tour and more material to record.
After releasing Here’s The Whirlwind in January to subtle acclaim, singer/songwriter Mick Bassett (with the Marthas) momentarily questioned people’s hankering for their style of smoky goth blues and hard-fuzzed experimental folk — but once the Blowout hit, it seemed every paper or blog suddenly had their ears opened for them. “That was the spark, everything picked up from there,” said Bassett. The quintet played consistently through ‘08, locally and on tour. “The band is coming into its own; I think I finally know where I’m going now.”
Doors open at 8 p.m. on Friday at the Magic Stick. Other bands include: The Pizazz, Shadiamond le Freedom, Ether Aura, The Barrettes, The Displays, Old Empire, Loretta Lucas, Sean Hoen, Jarrod Champion Sleeps Til Dusk, Danny Dollrod and Sleigher. | RDW
Sounds & Spirits Old Fashioned Holiday Spectacular • 12/19 • Magic Stick
© Copyright by RealDetroitWeekly.com
© 2010
Real Detroit Weekly, LLC | 615 S. Washington Ave (2nd Floor), Royal Oak, MI 48067
| 
Comments (0)