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Written by Don

It is Thursday and I am dazed and confused. Why? Because last night was a night of Rock-and-Roll mayhem in The Clem and that must mean it happened on a Wednesday night, and nothing happens in the clubs on a Wednesday night....Right? Well if you thought that and stayed home last night you missed a great event. Brothers Jim and Brian Saad, owners of Madison’s in Mt. Clemens, in cooperation with WRIF and Macomb Motorsports put on a charity event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan. They called it, appropriately, “Rock Hard Wednesday”. The night started innocently enough with Monti, my wife, saying she felt like checking out Radiocraft at this Make-A-Wish event. Since it was close by, and we could bring my son who, true to his lineage, loves live music, we jumped in the truck and headed to The Clem. We arrived to find, to my son’s great happiness, a free nacho buffet laid out. After unloading a donation of stuffed animals from my wife’s work, we talked to Jim Saad about the idea of a Wednesday event and he shared his opinion that he has been wanting to do something like this and he chose Wednesday because, as he put it, “Mt Clemens and the surrounding area will come out for an event like this, for a cause like this, any day of the week”. We grabbed a couple of drinks from Dino, the best bartender in town, and settled in for the action. We didn’t wait long. At 7:30 sharp the acoustic duo “The Allies” opened their set with an incredible cover of G&R’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorns”. With Chris on lead vocals & rhythm guitar and CMak on Lead guitar & backing vocals they meandered their way through a set of acoustic covers that ranged from an incredible performance of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” to Zeppelin. Check out the pics on www.myspace.com/detroitrockreview and if the faces look familiar it is because both Chris and Cmak are Detroit rock veterans. On a normal weekend you can catch Chris fronting the rock rampage that is Overloaded and CMak shreds the frets with both Mindcandy and Hush among other projects. Both are among the best at what they do and the acoustic format suited them well. Chris has an amazing vocal range and control and CMak is a demonstrated master of the 6 string. If you want to check them out got to www.myspace.com/thealliesacoustic.com I heard they may be returning to Madison’s next Wednesday. Well, now we were stuffed to the gills with free nacho’s and beginning to feel that rock-and-roll buzz setting in so we sat back to wait for the next band, Dismantle. We at DR2 had not heard or saw these folks before so some digging was in order. I tracked down the drummer, Eric (okay, so I turned around and there he was!). Anyway, he filled me in that recently the band had a shake-up and changed from a more metal sound to what he called “Blue-Collar Rock-and-Roll”. He can call it whatever he likes it is some plain old-fashioned kick- @$$ rock-and-roll. From the moment they jacked in and turned it up the crowd took notice. The band, with Eric on drums pounding out the beat (despite a rip in his snare), Brad pounding on the bass, Glynn showing a southern flair for the frets and Justin belting out the lyrics into his custom-made mic stand (Built from a WWI-Era Russian Rifle) showed a real blue collar grit, creating mayhem for a 13 song set that featured 11 original tunes. The best, in my opinion being the one-two punch they featured near the end of their set with the songs “Devil Wins” and the incredible “Liquor Store” that had the crowd singing along by the second verse. I would also recommend you check out their website at www.myspace.com/therealdismantle where you can find four other originals including their popular “Black Veil”. I have a feeling we will be hearing more from these guys in the future. At this point we knew the night was a success and the headliner hadn’t even played yet! During the change of bands we sat down and watched Doug Podell and Taylor the WRIF Rock Girl gave out some tix and WRIF swag. It was turning into a beautiful night on the patio at Madison’s and we were anticipating a great Radiocraft set. Now, if you read our blogs and reviews at all you have probably read about how much we at DR2 like this band. Suzie Ferro’s Pat Benetar-esque vocals and their solid song writing give this band a pretty large number of songs to choose from. You can see the set list in the pics on our myspace site but I want to mention one of the new songs they chose to include in the show last night. I especially liked “Bribe the Guards”. It has a great hook and a sticks in your head! What a way to finish the night by rockin with one of Detroit’s best! If you haven’t checked out their music yet go to www.myspace.com/radiocraft or www.radiocraftmusic.com and buy their CD or get out to a show! Well it was time to end the night, say goodbye to the good folks at Madison’s, climb into the truck and head back to the lair with rock still ringing in our ears. As we drove out onto Cass Ave. I still had the thought buzzing around my head...”there are no good shows on Wednesday night...” Well Jim you showed them you were right, you can rock on Wednesday and help a great cause in the process. Congratulations and thank you!! Until the next show..... D :) - Detroit Rock Review.com