Musical Summer

Detroit  has a long heritage in the musical scene. That is probably one of the reasons why the summer weekends are filled with interesting musical offers, covering all different styles. We would like to share our experience of the last weeks, I am sure that although we have been busy with all these events, we have missed many other opportunities of listening to live music.

The first musical event we attended was the concert of Eminem and Rihanna, at the Comerica Park. We had bought the tickets several months in advance, but time went by and, there we were, about to see a strange but interesting duet. As many of you know, Eminem is from Detroit, and thus the crowd was cheering with special interest when he was singing, although Rihanna surely didn't leave anybody disappointed with her great voice. They also did some songs together, like the one that gave name to the concert, 'Monster', which they sang right at the end. I must say that the sound quality was not the best, which made it difficult to understand Eminem's parts. Maybe it didn't help to be a bit apart from the stage, so we basically were looking at the big screens. But some concerts are not about the music on its own, but the overall experience, which was really good


The following weekend started with our visit to the festival "Arts, Beats and Eats", in Royal Oak. As its name says, there is great offer of artistic creations, international food and varied music. We went on a sunny but windy Saturday, and ate some interesting dished (nothing healthy, but delicious ;)). We also went around the art stands, and did see cool objects and photography.

In the late evening we stayed for a concert of the group "Third Eye Blind". It started an hour late because of some few drops of rain, but in the end they did perform great and even stayed longer than they were supposed to.

 

A day later we were listening to some of the best jazz musicians in the world, in the largest free jazz festivals worldwide. Settled in the Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park, it runs for 4 days, with more than 30 different concerts. Our cultural knowledge concerning jazz artists is very limited, so our strategy was to visit all the stages at some points during the day (basically, we more or less chose randomly the concerts that we were going to attend). But the result was splendid: all the concerts we listened to where phenomenal, we felt glad for having chosen that particular artist, and at the same time we wondered what we had missed on the other 3 stages ;) Two artist I would like to mention: The first one is  the saxophonist Joshua Redman, son of Dewey Redman, who gave an incredible concert, finishing with the best version I have heard of the song "let it be". The second would be the group of the French singer Cyrille Aimée, whose incredible voice left us astonished from the first song. 

As a European, the best thing of these festivals is to see so many people walking on the street. Normally everywhere you go in the US, people commute from place to place by car. They may need to walk from the parking lot to wherever they are going, but there's not so much of wondering around without any specific goal. As a change to everyday's not so crowded streets, this kind of events gather a numerous group of people with very varied lifestyles: students, artists, Bohemian, alternative, all wanting the same thing, spend a good time under the sun, get some tasty bites and enjoy the cultural offer of artists and singers... It is a nice way of getting the best out of the Labor Day Weekend.

The last event for this entry is the one we went to yesterday. Its name is "Dalley in the Alley", Detroit's largest community festival, located in the Cass Corridor District, in Midtown Detroit. This event is solely organized by volunteers, and contrary to the prior ones described, it is pretty laid back and relaxed (like its name suggests). While it also offers arts, beats and eats (like the festival in Royal Oak), but this one has a very different personality, much more student-like. In fact is takes place around the students' dorms. I would say that one of the main differences is in the music offer: much more alternative, covering very varied styles, and the whole brings somehow the "community" feeling, you feel more part of "it". Also some of the artistic stands show a lot of personality, there are many "new and used" stands, that trade clothes, discs and other restored objects. Many T-shirts with Detroit slogans are sold, along with old Motown albums and interesting pictures from the city. But the main point for which I would recommend to visit this event is the variety of people you see. Much more extreme than in the prior events, you feel like bring in a composition of the whole world (at least the Detroit world) concentrated in a corridor. It is a great atmosphere to spend a couple of hours listening to music and drinking beer (the official drink of the fest :))

Well, this concludes the entry about our musical experiences of the last weeks (hopefully more will come). We recommend you to visit all of them, but if I had to choose, I would say the Jazz Festival: you get a great experience, wonderful artists, and a lot of love from the city.

Thanks for reading, 

Lita & Andres