One-Man Band

“You know it’s gonna be a long night when you hear this chord,” Fred Armisen declared from the stage of Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig on Monday night. With a single, embellished strum on his Ciari electric guitar, the crowd burst into laughter. “That’s an E minor,” he said. “That’s too serious of a chord.” The former Saturday Night Live star and actor of “Portlandia” fame brought his “Comedy For Musicians But Everyone is Welcome” variety show to the downtown venue Oct. 9, performing music and comedy for a sold-out crowd and reflecting on rocking out in Ann Arbor in the 1990s with his Chicago punk rock band Trenchmouth. Read the story.

Sounds Of The City

The Blind Pig concert venue, which has stood on First Street in downtown Ann Arbor for decades, seen on Dec. 20, 2019, across from the Ann Arbor City Club Apartments high-rise built in recent years. With thousands more people living downtown these days, Ann Arbor officials are considering a new “Historic Entertainment Sound District” ordinance. Read the story.

Ben Folds In Ann Arbor

Ben Folds, one of my all-time favorite songwriters, rolled through Ann Arbor on Monday night to promote his new memoir, "A Dream About Lightning Bugs." The Literati Bookstore organized the event, which took place at the Blind Pig, featuring a conversation about the book with WDET's Ann Delisi, followed by a couple songs performed solo on piano and a book signing.

Watch his performance of "Rockin' The Suburbs.”

Heart Full Of Heptagons

Sawdust Man

Before tonight, the last time I saw Ben Kweller take the stage was in the summer of 2002 at a hole-in-the-wall venue called The Shelter in Detroit (you know, the same place where Eminem battle raps in the movie "Eight Mile"). Back then he was just a skinny barely-21-year-old from Texas, garbed in a Maria Sabina T-shirt and riding high on the initial success of his first album, "Sha Sha." I remember meeting him and his girlfriend Liz after the show and offering to help them load the band's gear as I chatted away with the guys from My Morning Jacket. That all seems like a lifetime ago, so it was a trip to finally see Ben again eight years later at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. He's 29 now, and I found out he ended up marrying that beautiful girlfriend of his and they have two little boys. Ben still rocks a mic like a vandal; I was beyond impressed with his new material and his showmanship. In fact, I'm calling it right now: I think he's got a spot in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame someday. But it's gonna take a lot of time before he can cross that finish line.

Glassjaw Boxer

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers are on tour right now with Sara Watkins, a surprisingly delightful, up-and-coming singer-songwriter and fiddler. They stopped through the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor Thursday night. I just had to weasel my way up front at one point to try to get a couple of shots. I shot photos during one song and took a quick glance down at my camera before the snarky girl behind me said, "Yeah, you can look at those back at your seat." No love for the photographer. Good show, though.