Crazy Chief & Thee Mapes @ the Motor City Cafe, Sept 21, 2013

This was a fun night of pretty divergent bands taking over one of my favorite dive bars in town, the Motor City Cafe. My band, the Swamp Gospel opened the show and was followed by the hard rockin' Crazy Chief, featuring Jesse and Roxie from local cool guitar shop, Cowtown Guitars. They've got a tight, heavy, Gibsons-through-Marshalls sound that calls to mind the classic 70's bands as well as (comparatively) more modern groups like Monster Magnet. Great riffage by guitarists Nick and Jesse, Dan and Roxie (drums/bass) form a solid rhythm section and singer Drew has a fine, rock'n'roll voice (I believe he also does a Doors tribute band, to give you an idea of his style) and the girls seem to find him easy on the eyes! Excellent hard'n'heavy rock'n'roll! Really looking forward to their upcoming single and vinyl album!

Local punk rock loonie legends, Thee Mapes closed out the night with their own brand of goofy, tasteless, good-time, old-fashioned punk rock with silly costumes and lots of mania. Singing duties are split between manic bassist Jason (in the monkey fur jacket and skull mask) and guitarist Kurt (the cowboy), while second guitarist Dave (the boy scout) and drummer Clay (in the wrestling mask) do what they can to hold things together. While lyrically the songs are as puerile as you could possibly imagine, there are some pop elements to the melodies, some interesting licks (I think that they can all play better than they want you to realize) and Clay plays some unexpectedly cool rhythms. They are known for making a complete mess of every club they play, but managed not to do that this night - let's see what they do when they gig with power-pop legend Paul Collins on Oct 5 at the Dive Bar!