August 24th, 2002
313.jac (Jacoby's)
Detroit, Michigan

Bands: Once a Hero, Ettison Clio, Clairvoyance, Isn't it Yesterday?

Ah, Detroit, Detroit... Home of the Redwings, the center of the American automobile industry, and the posterchild for urban decay. The city everyone loves to hate. This show was the first time for us to play in the motor city. 313.jac is the upstairs portion of Jacoby's, a German Biergarten nestled between two parking lots right down the street from Greektown and St. Andrew's/The Shelter. We were greeted upon arrival by a guy selling tiny American flags on toothpicks. After purchasing our toothpicks for a dollar each, we headed upstairs into 313.jac and set up for the show.



Isn't it Yesterday played first for about 25 minutes, kicking the show off with a lot of energy. Unfortunately, they had to take off pretty quick, so we didn't even get a picture of them or get to hang out with them much. Next up was Clairvoyance (they're in the picture above.) They treated all the folks in the room to a rockin' 30 minute set. A good time had by all.



After Clairvoyance played, Ettison Clio (in the picture, duh) rocked out for their set. Important: Be sure to pronounce "Clio" so that it rhymes with "Ohio." It's not pronoucned like "Miss Clio" or "Letters to Clio." Interestingly, this band has a female vocalist, which is kinda rare for indie bands. They were really fun to watch. Hopefully, we'll be doing some shows with these bands in the future.



We'd like to give a shoutout to a cool group of people who made up a substantial portion of the audience- several students from Graz, Austria who had an internship in London, Ontario for the summer. We were surprised that they made a special trip to go to Detroit, but we were glad they stopped in and checked out the show. Ich wünsche Euch viel Glück, und schreibt uns eine E-mail, ok?



...But I digress. Last, and even sometimes least, we went up to the stage and did our thing. It's sure fun to be playing regularly again. Kinda reminds us of tour... We also did a lot more talking during this show- talking amongst ourselves onstage, talking between us and the audience, talking in German between Doug and the Austrians. Sometimes it's more fun to take a relaxed attitude onstage. Next week we'll be playing for the first time in Concord (near Jackson) and we'll also do our first show in Ann Arbor for the fall at Sigma Phi, with our good friends Dot. from E. Lansing and Kid Brother Collective from Flint. You won't wanna miss this show. See ya there!

-Once a Hero