Detroit's Real Clubs

The Detroit Free Press of October 14, 1997 contains an article by Patty Lanou Stearns on the Motor Lodge in Hamtramck. The Motor is yet another trendy electronic dance club, so it's obviously of no consequence to anybody that believes in seeing music performed by real people. The fact that the Motor replaced the Falcon that DID have great shows (Meatmen, Butt Trumpett, Fear...) was the death of another great place to hang and actually listen to real punk rock. I have no problem with the article - I imagine that there are people who actually like this kind of music, but I'm sure that they're the same ones that buy Macarena records. My problem is with this so-called Club Heat index - a list of the "great" clubs in Detroit arranged by Hot clubs (now going) Staying Power (been around) and Gone but not Forgotten (defunct clubs).

There's a few good clubs in the first two lists (Gold Dollar, The Shelter, Magic Stick, Lili's) but the most of the rest don't book live bands, much less punk bands. However the list of defunct clubs is so incomplete that I just have to step up and say what the real list should be.

Bookies & Todd's are both there - a promising start. After that - the Grande & Eastown (both before my time are there), but the rest of the list includes more useless discos and dance clubs. They've got the City Club, but not the original Clutch Cargo's on Elizabeth before the shows got moved to St. Andrew's. A partial list of awesome shows there include Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Exploited, Really Red, Circle Jerks and dozens of others. I don't see any mention of either the Freezer Theater or the Clubhouse. Both were located in the Cass Corridor near Wayne State where I spent many a happy night buying beer at the party store and listening to Detroit's best hardcore band - Negative Approach. Check out their reissued CD for some live stuff from the Freezer. The Greystone on Michigan Avenue seems to have slipped the list too - or was that awesome Black Flag show there just a product of my imagination? Even Traxx on Gratiot, where the Ramones played annually couldn't make the cut. The Second Chance in Ann Arbor didn't exist according the Freep's selective memory. The Red Carpet on East Warren where the Ramrods literally brought down the roof (actually a few ceiling tiles) was bypassed for something called Cheeks????

And what about clubs with staying power? Are you telling us that Paycheck's on Caniff in Hamtramck that's been booking bands for almost 20 years doesn't have staying power? The tornadoes of 97 that demolished the area couldn't shut Paychecks down, but the Free Press would.

It's cool that the Free Press did list some clubs, but missing all of the above is ridiculous - we deserve better.