I’ll have to admit that I spent more years at Wayne State University than the Tigers have spent below .500, but even I was not that familiar with the 4^th Street neighborhood.  There is this little eclectic neighborhood tucked in just above I-94 near the WSU campus that has managed to preserve its spirit and vitality.  Once a year these streets are opened for the rest of us and 4^th Street is transformed into a city-dweller’s fantasy with a mix of music, food, shopping and fun that is never seen anywhere else in the Motor City.

This year was no exception.  4the Street was bustling with 3 stages of entertainment, food, drinks and an assortment of vendors selling everything from Nancy Sinatra records to self-help books on anarchy.  If you couldn’t find it on 4^th Street – it wasn’t worth buying.  The music was as varied as our city of Detroit is; I tried to see as many bands as I could, but could only catch sets by Forge, Hillside Stranglers, Demolition Doll Rods, Queen Bee and a few more whose names I didn’t get.  The printed schedule and times only vaguely resembled the real world.  There were inevitable technical glitches, the friendly and not-so friendly comments from the crowd and usual confusion and last-minute changes that make this place so much fun.  Besides the great music, entertainment was provide via a burlesques show as well as Fire Fabulon which gave everybody enough thrills so that we can forget Devil’s night for good.

After a few hours of all of this excitement it was time to put leave Oz behind and re-enter the real world at the Magic Stick, for this was the highly-anticipated CD release party for the Gore Gore Girls.  I promised to stop whining as soon as I got my copy of “Knock Loud” in my hand and it was well worth it.  First up were the Bloody Hollies & I was late for that.  In another effort to salve my guilty conscious – I bought a copy of their single, so at least I could hear a couple of songs.  It was a well-spent $3.00 and the record almost makes up for me being late.  Next up were Slumber Party; these girls have 2 CD’s out on Kill Rock Stars and they quickly attracted a large crowd near the stage.  Their music is a kind of buzzed-out, almost dreamy sort of rock that periodically jumps out and catches you in frenzy of energy.  It is usually not a good idea to be standing next to the amps when they do turn it up and I learned that on Saturday. 

After all of this build-up it was finally time for the Gore Gore Girls to hit the stage.  They haven’t played in Detroit since last November and their excellent web site details all of the reasons why.  My only motivation at this point was to get as close to the stage as possible and scream along with the songs until the show ended or I lost my voice.  It all came together beautifully – the band sounded better than I ever remembered them to be and I could almost make my voice last; after all I needed to talk to the bartender even though pointing to an empty bottle of beer also usually works too.  Sometime during the second or third encore I realized that this was not going to ever get better.  Here I was after about 8 hours of listening to bands, a few feet from the stage listening to the GGG cover a Paybacks song (how awesome is that) and I’m living in the only city that allows me do to it on a weekly basis !!!!!   Needless to say, that GGG new CD has not left my CD player since and it probably won’t for a very long time.