Don’t even start me on Detroit. Mention D-town to this reviewer and he’ll probably start foaming at the mouth about everyone from The Stooges and MC5 through to The Dirtbombs, Sights and Soledad Brothers. However amazing NYC and LA are (and they are, let’s not be silly), when it comes to pure, unadulterated rock’n’roll attitude, Detroit takes some beating.
As with any such metropolis, though, if you cut one its’ veins, you find it bleeding yet more fresh, unbelievable rock’n’roll and often these lesser-celebrated bands are the ones you’ve been waiting for all your life. Since first discovering THE MUGGS last year, your reviewer has backtracked furiously to discover other fantastic Detroit bands such as The Hard Lessons and Paybacks, who also feature The Muggs’ singer/ guitarist Danny Methric.
The Muggs, though, are worthy of your attention regardless of their local pedigree. They are a supremely powerful blues-rock trio with virtuosity and skill to burn for one thing, but they are also an example to us all in terms of survival through adversity. The mini-documentary accompanying this excellent live set explains that The Muggs were all set to break through on a wider scale in 2001 when their bassist Tony De Nardo suffered a haemorrhagic stroke, leaving him partially paralysed. Through great strength of character and his support network, Tony made a fantastic recovery and even refused to succumb to the continued paralysis in his right arm, learning the Fender Rhodes keyboard bass, thus introducing the funky and fluid rhythmic edge that is one of the Muggs’ sonic trademarks these days.
Tony’s courage is inspirational and understandably he still gets emotional when talking about the support he received from his bandmates at one stage in the documentary. Elsewhere, though, the band’s naturally irrepressible humour often pokes through to the surface and we discover that – by day – drummer Matt Rost is surely the coolest funeral director in rock and that Danny Methric ( also a barman at the local Cadieux café) intends to “haunt the place in death as I have done in life.” Hur Hur.
Intriguing stuff, but ultimately it’s the tremendous 45-minute slot The Muggs (AKA “the world’s ugliest band”) treat us too at Detroit’s famous Magic Stick that will convert you instantly to their cause. Filmed at no expense to the band by the independent (and excellent) Can You Hear Me TV team, it’s a well-shot, but no frills affair, with some black and white intercutting the intimate colour and no-FX live atmosphere.
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Opener “White Boy Blues” kicks like a malignant mule and gives you a good idea of the thundering rock’n’roll you’ll be witnessing over the next three-quarters of an hour. It’s barely over before they slam into their cover of Muddy Waters’ “You’re Gonna Need My Help”: played with the sleazy strength of prime time Led Zep, unashamed guitar solos and all. Both are blistering performances, but possibly usurped by “Should’ve Learned My Lesson” where Danny calls up the spirit of Duane Allman as he displays some notable bottleneck guitar skills.
Musically, The Muggs are supremely tight and inventive. Methric is a good frontman with his rugged, John Lennon-style looks and ability to holler a wild blues with the best of them. De Nardo’s Rhodes bass gives them an inherently supple edge and Rost is both a phenomenal drummer and possessor of the sartorial ability to make a frilly black shirt look good in such a setting. No mean feat.
The rest of the set is thrillingly filler-free. They pull all the stops out for the lengthy and complex-sounding “Doc Mode” - which is poised nicely between the group’s penchant for rocking out and taking a starsail a la “Third Stone From The Sun” – before revelling in the flashy Deep Purple-style methodology of “If You Please” and taking us home with “Get It On”: a no-holes barred, dying-of-the-light rocker that appears to bear no relation to T-Rex save for its’ title.
But really, what’s NOT to like here for any rock’n’roll fan worth their salt? “Live At The Magic Stick” gives us access to a great, unpretentious band doing what they do best and loving it, or as Danny puts it: “we got the best rock’n’roll scene here and we want the rest of the world to know about it.”
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
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