Wakey! Wakey!

So if you're perpetually 15 like me and still watch One Tree Hill though seven seasons in and the writing nor acting have gotten any better you may have come to know a character named Grubbs this season. Grubbs starts out as a mind-reading bartender (I know I KNOW the writing is BRILL) who is discovered to be hiding his inner singer songwriter from all his friends. Despite the writing or genius character development Grubbs can sing. After just a few clicks through the interwebs I find out Grubbs is actually the lead singer of New York based band Wakey! Wakey! (possibly the best band name in history) who just happens to be passing through my town. I immediately text my BFF and fellow OTH watcher Vee and alert her, she needs no convincing she's in!

Fresh off my Bonnaroo/Tennessee/New Tattoo high I head to Pontiac, MI where the venue Clutch Cargo's is located. I've been to this venue once before on a night where it was just a club but tonight there is a lounge area then a dance floor then the stage. Along the walls there booths and a few tables. The place wasn't at all packed mostly just the lounge area and table were occupied and the floor left empty. Two of the booths have been taken over by merch vendors more on that later. So me and Vee hit the ladies room which was interesting and entertaining in of itself. In the ladies room there is a bathroom attendant with the normal stuff gum, perfume, lotion standard stuff. On the way into the stall I notice one of her bottles of perfume is my ALL TIME favorite that is NO longer in production! It's Escada's Rockin' Rio and if you're familiar Escada has a long line of one season fragrances. Rocking Rio was introduced in 2004 someone gave me an Escada sampler and by the time I had used the tiny sample bottle and went to buy the real thing it was no longer being sold and they had moved to another fragrance. I look for this perfume EVERYwhere I go with no luck! So upon exiting the stall I ask to buy the entire bottle from the charming attendant who is sitting on a stool penning out loud a letter to her locked up love Lavell (I shit you not). After being declined and following up with $10 bid she accepts SCORE! My night is already a success.

Back to the msuic there are two opening acts before Wakey!Wakey! the first is a singer songwriter named Susan Calloway. Susan is from the metro area and quite good with a very nice voice and even did an impressive cover of the Beyonce (or BC Jean song depending how you see it) hit "If I were a Boy". She was very engaging we had a whole dialogue about facebook she seemed new to it. Vee was thoroughly impressed and even bought one of her CD's.



Next up was a very different style act called Haper Blynn according to their myspace they are Rock / Melodramatic Popular Song who also hail from New York. They were really fun and funny reprimanding the crowd for not getting of their asses to fill the void between the stage and the lounge area. Vee and myself were at least out of our seats and dancing but didn't venture to the empty dance floor what can I say group mentality is hard to overcome. I really enjoyed these boys and they did an awesome cover of another Beyonce hit Halo (which I had been thinking after the previous cover would have been a good choice).





After a quick reset Wakey!Wakey! took the stage for an eager crowd. The common thread throughout a lot of W!W! material is love lost and heart break this coming from a very tall bearded man makes it all that much more appealing I think. The songs are very bare your soul, lay everything on the line put it out there which probably explains the crowd being 90% female. And speaking of female empowerment I think there was a preshow meeting about covers for the night because during Grubbs solo set he covered Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". I really enjoyed the show Grubbs was charming and funny. I loved that he was out numbered by girls in his band 2:3 with a girl on lead guitar, keyboard/bass and another on violin. He ended his set with the songs that could be heard on OTH and then encouraged everyone to come say hi at the merch booth.

Once they were leaving stage I kept inching closer to the stage along with another girl. We both knew what time it was although no one picked up set list to hand them to us we both just hopped up there and grabbed them! Vee not used to this activity was a bit startled and as I was explaining the procedure Grubbs walked out from backstage and we quickly accosted him for pictures he said something to Vee but took the picture anyway. As he walked away I realized he was telling her their was a line of people waiting I didn't realize that while I was stealing the setlist almost everyone in the venue had lined up and we had just jumped the line by getting him coming out of the door. WHOOPS! But I wanted my setlist signed and to buy stuff so we waited in line as the very last people until two other girls got behind us. We got to the front and took pictures




and I bought a Wakey!Wakey! Tshirt and some how I wound up telling them about the apostrophe fiasco with my middle name and laughing over that.

Once we got the goods from Wakey! we moved over to Haper Blynn where I bought a CD continued the apostrophe tales and had an interesting conversation about the bands chosen album art.


Everyone was really nice and engaging and we had as much fun talking to them all afterward as we did listening it was a great night!

If you want to check out any of the bands and I think you should you can find them at

Susan Calloway's Myspace, Facebook and Twitter

Harper Blynn's Myspace, Facebook and Twitter

Wakey! Wakey! on Myspace, Facebook and Twitter