Murder Junkies, Busby Death Chair, SuperDevil and EKG.
The Murder Junkies at Lager House in Corktown (Detroit) - All Photos by Paul Holstein.
This was a packed weekend. Not only were there three shows going on at the same time on Friday night (Middle Out/Jasons/Queers at The Sanctuary, Edison Hollow at Smalls, and EKG/Superdevil/Busby Death Chair/Murder Junkies at Lager House), but it was also Woodward Dream Cruise weekend. We stayed off of Woodward, where they were having the Dream Cruise and also legal drag racing, but were still passing classic cars on the highway heading to the action. It'd been 32 years since I saw The Murder Junkies play live in Detroit, and it looked like their new singer was holding his own, so we headed to Lager House in Corktown.
EKG at Lager House in Corktown (Detroit) - All Photos by Paul Holstein.
Even as far from the Woodward Dream Cruise as we were, parking was filling up, and we drove around a bit before paying $20 for a spot directly across from the show.First stop was beer and food at Nemo's, one of many great places for pub food in Corktown. Then it was off to the show, with doors opening a little later than usual, at 8:00. The last time I was at Lager House (when it was called P.J.'s Lager House), it was to see Reagan Youth (before the last remaining original member, Paul Cripple, passed away). It was a little nicer than I remembered, with a large open courtyard and dedicated merch area. I offered to buy my buddy Johnny Bourbon a Hamms, and he said to make it 2, as he would be double-fisted drinking for the first couple of bands.I was more than a little surprised when the bartender gave me the total, only $4 ($2 each). It's been a while since I've seen those kinds of prices.
EKG was up first, self-described as Detroit's most offensive band. It's hard to argue that, but they can't hold a candle to The Murder Junkies. They raged through their usual set of punk songs, a few times jumping into the crowd to get a mosh pit going. As expected, by the end of the set, both guitar players were stripping down, with singer Richard Hanus getting buck naked. SuperDevil was up next, a band I hadn't seen before.One familiar face in the band was Dr. Haj of Bill Kozy's Rising Force, who was likely just filling in.He was in a dress, paying homage to Tony Romeo (The Trash Brats), who had recently passed away and was a huge presence in the Detroit underground scene for most of my lifetime.
Dr. Haj made a quick change back into jeans and a Hookers T-shirt and then was also filling in for Busby Death Chair. As mentioned above, Edison Hollow (who shares members with Busby Death Chair) was playing at Smalls Bar at the same time.I'd seen them recently on a ticket with Against The Grain, Amino Acids, and U.S. Bastards, and they were just as great the second time around. This time we got their old bass player, who wrote their song "1312," doing guest vocals on that one.
And finally, The Murder Junkies, with original members Merle Allin (bass and brother of the deceased G.G. Allin) and Dino (drums). They sounded great and focused mostly on new material (Merle was running the merch booth and said that they had a new CD but were currently out of them). The highlight of the evening came as the encore, when they played the classic "Kill The Police."
