Memphis Smoke (Royal Oak, MI) - 2/19/2010

Back to Royal Oak, home of Bruce Campbell and my heart.  Anyway, the show was fun, to read more about the performance and see pics check out http://motorcityblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/photos-by-riaz-k-verona-red-national.html

We closed out the bar listening to yarns spun by the self-proclaimed most interesting man in the world, Jerry (not the Dos Equis guy). After listening to the story of this dude's life for a couple hours I can honestly say I think he might just be the most interesting person in the world. It’s really all too much to get into here, and probably not safe for Jerry if I do…so if you ever see this guy, buy him a beer and take a seat.

After the show we went to the Knights Inn, our hotel of choice.  The rooms are always prepped and clean when we arrive.

Mike was ripe for a snack

This got John all riled up for some weird S&M shit…but Tony knew we had an early morning drive to Cleveland.

It wasn’t until he saw Mike’s bread that he decided taking a face-full might not be a bad idea.

Sexual Favors For Sandwiches = Here We Come Royal Oak, MI!

As the legendary NCAA college basketball coach Bobby Knight once said, "It's not the will to succeed that matters, but the will to prepare to succeed."  For this reason I like to study the musical landscape of a city before a show to help us design a set that will connect best with local culture.

As we gear up for our next performance in Royal Oak, MI (just outside of Detroit) on Feb. 19, I am reminded that the Motor City was the birthplace of Motown and that I would be faced with a plethora of music/videos to sift through in order to get a well-rounded picture of what's been going on in Detroit over the last 60 years.

During my research, I stumbled across one video that struck me as having a very special signficance in recent Motor City musical history.  I'd like to share that video with you today.

The time: August 13, 2009.
The place: a small restuarant in Coney Island outside of downtown Detroit.
The artist: Unknown, but we can assume he's operating under the inspiration of D-town's finest crack cocaine.

Enjoy!



It's hard to believe how much better Michael Jackson is than this guy, when I can probably gaurantee MJ had a multitude of stornger drugs flowing through his system....then again MJ had the evolutionary advantage of growing up in Gary, IN.  Nevertheless...some of the lyrical reinvention featured above is admirable.

Verona Red commits sexual favors for sandwiches in Royal Oak on...

Feb. 19
@ Memphis Smoke (100 S. Main, Royal Oak, Michigan 48067)
with National Ghost (http://www.myspace.com/nationalghost)
9:30 PM
Cost: $0!
21+

Memphis Smoke (Royal Oak, MI) 7/2/2009

We were VERY excited to visit Royal Oak Michigan… two words BRUCE CAMPBELL.

No one made horror movies that were so simultaneously creepy and fucking hilarious.  He has the facial expressions of a rubber band and the soul of coyote. The fact of the matter is Bruce Campbell is the balls and he once called Royal Oak home, so we were happy to call it home for a night too.

Anyway, it was our second trip to the Detroit-land area, and the motor city did not fail to impress. Memphis Smoke was super-classy and kind of reminded me of the a mushroom house in mario.  I went in expecting to pick one of three treasures...that didn't happen, but they did let us play for 2 hours… fun times, but no frog suit.

The Honest Life (http://www.myspace.com/thehonestlife) opened the night with awesome harmonies and funny jokes. These guys were really cool to chill with.  I as seen below, am just creepy to chill with. Adam, their singer, is the non-retarded looking one on the right (I find myself saying that a lot on this blog).

Playing for the Memphis Smoke folk was a blast. We got to try a lot of new stuff out and I think they really enjoyed it. At the end of our 45 minute S&M puppet show, we were kindly asked to leave the venue. But luckily we still met a lot of cool people on our way out. Karen and Kathy were my favs. But we didn’t get pics of them…so here’s some other cool folk.

They told us to keep our heads high and don’t let the man get you down just for trying to make two puppets degrade one another.