Explosion of Dirty Detroit Rock at The Echo

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing one of my favorite Detroit rock bands - The Dirtbombs - (check out their various pages here, here and here) at the echo. On this Thursday night in LA, they were not victims of the Dirtbombs Curse, as they were the headliner. The band from the 248 and 313 did not disappoint - they delivered a riveting hour long set of the garage bluesy-soulful rock they've been perfecting over the years - including a handful of material from The Sermon's album "Articles of War" (The Sermon is a side project featuring many Dirtbombs members).

Mick Collins killed it as usual - fronting the quintet with his soulful, Richie Havens-ish voice. As the night progressed the vocals only seemed to improve - either Mick was getting more comfortable with the sound in the room or I was getting more intoxicated and not paying as close attention. Either way - he just kept getting better in my eyes.

Backing him up was the awesome stylings of Ko Melina, their cute, perky little asian bassist. She is a perfect example of how having a girl in a band can totally enhance your stage appeal and dynamic. She is good at her craft, but by no means is she Les Claypool. Nonetheless, she breaks it down, head bangs, plays slap and looks like she is having a good time. She gets Detroit dirty on that bass and I think I may have fallen in love with her. The other bassist, Zachary Weedon, is good himself - but, my attention was totally on Ko.

The dueling drums of Ben Blackwell and Pat Pantano also kicked ass. Beating away through most of the set - when it came time for the encore - one drummer brought his whole kit to the dance floor, played a song, only to be followed by the other drummer joining the floor frenzy. I've seen artists jump into the crowd and perform before - but this was better than average. It didn't seem choreographed, but they moved pretty seamlessly from one song to the next, despite moving their drums from the stage without stopping playing (I guess that is one of the many benefits of having two drummers). As the drummers rained down on their snares and kicked their respective bass drums, the mostly middle aged crowd swarmed around the beat duo and partied until the band called it quits....