Sully’s Flyer, circa 1993 – Photo courtesy of Tom Wilson
Detroit oh Detroit. A veritable cornucopia of memories come flooding in every time I think of the past times I’ve had in Detroit. From my first experiences at playing in Sully’s on a Sunday and when we got there our gig went from just us that night to me opening up for Mick Taylor, ex-Rolling Stone Taylor. Then years later with Ted Nugent’s management there and then later Bono and Edge were hanging out in the crowd. But lately I’ve been gathering my latest recollections from Callahan’s out in Auburn Hills. A spacious club with a good size stage and the layout obviously set up for the main attraction; live music. I’ve always managed to hang on to my stalwart fan base here and at times it fluctuates up and down but never have they abandoned me. I always tried to mix up the variety of songs here too because of the varying tastes and fun side of my fans that seem to come out. I also get a number of fans over from Canada attending cuz’ Windsor is just across the Rainbow Bridge there. This time we have Yoshi with us and that’s sure to change up the vibe and sound. We’re all starting to gel better with the chemistry and musical language on stage. The material is becoming more powerful as we go along.
Auburn Hills is up on the north side of Detroit’s suburbs and at one time half of the city’s major sports teams had their respective venues where they played home games in. The Lions had the Pontiac Silverdome, I guess really that would be in Pontiac, MI. cuz’ that suburb is right next to Auburn Hills, and the Pistons at the Palace. I haven’t seen the Palace yet but the Silverdome as far as I know has been just sitting there. I’m a bit confused now though because I saw some reports that the city was just trying desperately to sell the structure for basically whatever they could get because just maintaining care of the parking lot is expensive much less than huge building sitting idle, and as I saw the weeds that had managed to grow up through the pavement of the parking lot start to resemble a miniature ‘weed forest’ as we would return twice a year, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad for the Silverdome. I have seen a report though where it is claimed the Silverdome had been bought by someone and some of its internal things, the seats and bathroom facilities and what-nots, were auctioned off but I guess it’s still there. That also was the home to the Pistons for a while and the MLS Soccer team and it hosted a game of the World Cup when it was held here in America a while back. Economies expand and contract and there’s different ways of seeing it I guess. From my eyes though Detroit definitely looks to be coming back.
We’ve got us a decent crowd here at Callahan’s and we’re ready to go. Launching into our set with our usual gusto and ‘take no prisoners’ attitude we blast through our first set and mistakes be damned. It’s all part of the package with the emotional style I use but this is how I learn too. Eventually I’ll get this down. I’m slowly expanding the set list from the repertoire of songs we know so as to bring Yoshi up to speed for the next few weeks. I’ve been having to put the keys of the songs next to them on Yoshi’s set list to help him but sometimes it’s me that needs the help cuz’ I just don’t think about the keys anymore. I know visually where my hands are supposed to be when I play in CDG. The only time I think about it is when I’m jamming with someone else and I have to transpose due to the fact I tune to ‘D’ and I must play up a whole-step or half-step, depending on their tuning of course. So on occasion I have written the wrong key down much to Yoshi’s slight chagrin. He’s quick though and he hears my error. We finish up and I say my warm good-byes to many of the people that have been coming to see me for years. A few for more than a decade. I guess I’ve still got something special to hold them after all these years. I am indeed very grateful for my fans and I know too it’s my responsibility to them to keep stretching and working on my craft to provide them with a good experience at my shows.
Thank you Detroit.
