My full-time job is in the field of child development with high-risk youth between the ages of 6 and 18. On most days I leave work and drive home with feelings of frustration and helplessness. Our children lack direction in every aspect of our living. They have been created by a society whose surroundings and ideologies perpetuate the life-support system that made their problems possible in the first place.
And it’s a vague statement, but a problem rooted in the human condition. And I drive home with hundreds of these thoughts, statements and ideas. I eat dinner with them, sleep with them, wake with them, shower with them. And when I walked into the Pike Room Thursday night the first thing I saw was a clown dancing with a blowup doll. My frustrations were swept away and I relaxed. I saw my girlfriend smile and I found myself falling in love with her all over again.
The clown returned to the stage minutes later dressed in drag whose gown, feather boa, long white gloves, and high heels made men in the audience hoot and holler. I laughed and laughed. My girlfriend and I melted as we ignored the world and focused instead on a clown dressed in drag. And in one swell movement he tossed his clothing to the floor and ran off the stage into the audience exposing his pasties adhered with masking tape. This clown fought gravity as he tried to twirl his pasties, the audience was shocked into laughter and I too was among them. There was a word in sharpie marker on the back of his whitey tighties that I could barely read, and instead the word is left to my imagination. And today I am still laughing with the memory.
Duende! was the next act to take the stage, beginning their set with the song “Never (to You)”, a favorite of mine off of their newest album “Remnant Of A Remnant.” Their album was recorded and produced by Matt Verta-Ray whose band Heavy Trash was the headliner of the evening. Duende’s performance last evening was a fast paced wooden rollercoaster ride filled with enough western and urban grit to remind of a fantastic b-movie horror film. Duende ended their set with the song “Garbage Man”, a marauding song that’s became an instant classic in my mind. Lead singer Jeff Howitt emerging himself into the audience with microphone stand and all to finish the song. I’ve come to believe that “Garbage Man” is my Detroit national anthem. Duende! is a band for fans of Detroit rock and roll, heavily stylized guitar and those of you who love cross-genre music.
Heavy Trash review later this evening…
