The Gizmos at the Outer Limits Stroh-Down, Detroit, Michigan, Saturday July 27, 2019

Geography always makes it tough for the Gizmos - who are literally spread from coast to coast - to play reunion shows, but we made it to Detroit for the Outer Limits Lounge's 1st Annual Summer Stroh-Down. The Outer Limits is a terrifically hip dive bar in the Hamtramck area, which itself is a cool section of the city that is culturally mixed with mom'n'pop shops everywhere (a wonderful experience, coming from Las Vegas, land of the big-box stores), great restaurants and super architecture. Once we got there we wished we had allotted ourselves a lot more time to explore the city, but "real life" and our bank account limits what we can do and for how long. We definitely want to get back, though!

In any case, Melanie and I got into town late afternoon/early evening on Friday the 26th and after getting settled in our BnB, we walked the mile or so down the road, diggin' the Hamtramck scene, to the Outer Limits and arrived in between bands. We found Eddie Gizmos and talked a bit before catching the Sueves, a kinda poppy/glam/pub rock-ish trio with lots of late 70's punky influences from Eddie and the Hot Rods to the Undertones to the Saints and plenty more. All cool players, especially the hard drivin' drummer, and plenty of cool vocals'n'melodies. Really fun stuff!

The Gizmos met Timmy from Timmy's Organism at Goner Fest a few years back and have been meaning to hook up in Detroit at some point ever since then so we were glad that this fest came together for both of us. His trio is a punk-fueled 70's hard rock combo with super heavy guitar (via Timmy), some glam direction and even some Hawkwind sounds (at least to my ears). Dug it a lot and they put on a rockin' show, as well, and had the place packed with lots of girls dominating the first couple of rows! Local rock stars, to be sure!

By this time our travel was catching up to us and we split before Thomas Jefferson Slave Apts hit the stage, but had a chance to say hi to Kenne Highland (who got in even later than us and took a nap before coming by the club) and a few other Bostonian friends of Kenne's who were also playing in town this weekend.

The next morning we all met the Gizmos drummer for the gig, Chuck from the Stools, for the first time and sauntered over to a practice house down the street from the club (thank you to John for setting this up, Andrew from Tin Foil for letting us use your equipment and Tara for putting up with us invading your Saturday morning!). Due to conflicting schedules, out regular drummer and guitarist, Kelsey and Sam, couldn't make it, nor could original Giz Ted Niemic, but we managed to rock the stream-lined, 2-guitar-bass-drums version of the band (me'n'Kenne on gits, Melanie on bass, Chuck on drums and Eddie on vox). Chuck did his homework and we had a great rehearsal with him nailing all the songs the first time through! Thanks to Eddie for finding Chuck and thanks to Chuck for sitting in!

Back to the Outer Limits to drop off our guitars and we caught a few minutes of Ultimate Ovation, a fantastically soulful group with three singers and a crack group of musicians behind them. Unfortunately, we were trying to see some of the city and get some food so we couldn't stick around for them, but what a start to the day!

Melanie and I did manage to get across town and due to Melanie's sweet nature, we were able to join a tour of the amazing Motown Museum, where the woman that Melanie spoke with was a hip, tattoo'd young lady who dug my Sonic's Rendezvous Band t-shirt and mentioned seeing Patti Smith around town recently! In any case, the tour was phenomenal and chill-inducing, especially the studio, where we were allowed to take some photos, including the drum kit that Stevie Wonder once used, the control room (via a window) and Dennis Coffey's ("Scorpio") guitar! Truly thrilling - up there with the Sun Studios tour and highly recommended to anyone who comes to town!

For multiple reasons we weren't able to get a solid night's sleep on Friday so after some terrific vegetarian Mexican food (Hamtramck had fantastic food options with a plethora of veggie options) and a nap, we headed back to the club. We stopped at the Hamtramck Disneyland along the way (photos on my Facebook page) and thankfully got back to the Outer Limits in time to see Outer Limits' bartender Andrew transform into rock star Andrew as he fronted the incredible Tin Foil - another mix of 70's hard rock'n'glam, this time with a healthy dose of psych and a bit of Voidoids noize blended in. They looked great and sounded awesome - and I had to pick up their album, so more on them when I have a moment.

Jack Oblivion was up next with local Memphis legends the Sheiks backing him up, creating a monster of a soulful garage punk combo that was super high energy, super tight and super fantastic. Jack and the Sheiks' guitarist locked into some terrific dual leads, the drummer'n'bass were smokin' throughout and the sax added a hip soul/Sonics sound to the malstrom. Opening with the Oblivions "Trouble" (which Las Vegas noise/garagers, the Psyatics, cover), they blasted through a super fun set with some surprises like a punky version of "Clones" ("here's an old Alice Cooper number", making me think they were gonna do something from Pretties For You!), an odd country punk tune and a super sonic take on Televisions' "See No Evil" combined with their own terrific tunes. They jammed-packed the show room and put smiles on everyone's dancin' faces the entire time. Truly one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while! They even got the MC of the night, Stroh-Man (the fest was sponsored by Stroh's Beer), up and joinin' in on the action!

We had no idea how the Gizmos were going to follow that bit of rock'n'roll mania, but those were the cards that we were dealt and persevere we must. Chuck was ready to go before any of us - despite his young age, he's a trained professional at this point with plenty of touring and some major shows (like opening for the Raconteurs to 5000 people just a couple of weeks previous) under his belt. The club remained filled for our set and we took off with the newest anthem "21st Century Gizmos Fans" (appropriate for this evening!) and tore through damn near everything that we know, outside of Ted's songs. It was a stripped-down band, for sure, but it sounded great - the sound man did a fine job all weekend long - and powerful with Melanie'n'Chuck locking in to hold things together. We wasted no time throughout it all and after our first-EP sing-along, "Muff Divin'", we did our Detroit-appropriate medley of the MC5's take on "Ramblin' Rose" and their wild jam "Black to Comm". The crowd didn't wanna let us go so with no planning, we ran through a wild'n'noisy take on the Stooges "Real Cool Time" (since we were all having one) and called it a night.

(live Gizmos pix by Gee Julie, all the rest by me)

Everyone at the Outer Limits was fantastic, especially owner/promoter John Szymanski, and the place is super hip, with a nice outside patio out back and huge upstairs green room, the drinks are cheap and they had great food all weekend long, as well. There's a limit to what the Gizmos can do as these shows always end up costing us well more than we make, but festivals like these make it all worthwhile! Hopefully, John will continue this tradition! Support him, the Outer Limits and his band, the Hentchmen!

Be sure to look for a more complete Stroh-Down review from Eddie Flowers (as he was around for almost all of the bands) in the next issue of Vulcher!