I finally made my way to the 3rd Street Saloon and it was well worth the wait. With the closing of the Gold Dollar - we desperately needed a small club where one can just show up, relax and listen to some great music. It looks like we have two: the Lager House and the 3rd Street Saloon.
The biggest problem with the 3rd Street Saloon is finding out who is actually playing there. These guys don't advertise anywhere and you almost have to know somebody in the band to find out that there's a show there. Luckily, I found about about this show through Dale's awesome Smashing Transistors web site, but I'm not sure what else I can do except swipe their events calendar off the wall each time I go there. In spite of the security blackout a very good crowd piled into the 3rd Street Saloon last Saturday to see the Mystery Girls (not the Detroit band from the 80's) and the Buzzards.
The Mystery Girls hail from Green Bay, Wisconsin and joined Boris the Sprinkler as the only bands that I had ever seen from the football capitol of the great Cheesehead state. I'm forced to admit the Green Bay is 2 for 2 in producing great bands, even though I still hate the Packers and hope the Lions finally win against Brett Favre and company on Thanksgiving Day. In spite of some equipment difficulties, the Mystery Girls played a very good, if abbreviated set. Unfortunately, the entire set was ruined by one drunk jackass who continued to fall into onto the stage and knock things over while the band was playing. Eventually, the guitarist from the Mystery Girls settled the issue with a few punches, but the set was over by then. I hope to see the Mystery Girls again soon in the future (hopefully under better conditions).
The stage at the 3rd Street Saloon is slightly larger than your average phone booth and I was amazed to see the Buzzards jam all five people (including two drummers) on that tiny stage. Their set more than made up for any problems that previously occurred with the Mystery Girls and and I'm sure that everybody in the room at the time was no more successful than I was in trying to remember that the Buzzards don't even have a record out yet and have no business in being that good!!! There was only time for one encore before the lights went on and were being pushed out into the foggy Detroit streets. I can just say that the 3rd Street Saloon is a welcome addition to the Detroit club scene and the Buzzards are just one more reason that we need all of these clubs.