Guttermouth, You Dirty Rat, The Boy Detective
Autographed photo of Guttermouth, signed on Mark Adkin's 58th birthday at The Sanctuary (Hamtramck, MI) - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
This wasn’t a sold out show, but it should have been. It may have been in part due to the fact that the entire road in front of Hamtramck Michigan’s Sanctuary (the venue) was under construction, and we had to weave our way through a few alleys to find our usual parking spot. This was another stacked line-up, pairing Guttermouth with two local ska bands that I’ve been wanting to check out for some time. Tonight would have two themes. The first was the recent loss of local guitar player Bob Gibson (who was part of one of the bands on the bill, You Dirty Rat, along with another local favorite, St. Thomas Boys Academy). The second would be Mark Adkins’ (singer for Guttermouth) 58th birthday.
We arrived early, not just to see all three bands and deal with the parking, but I was also hoping to get Guttermouth to sign a photo that I had taken earlier in the year at Punk In The Park (Orlando). As luck would have it, Mark was at the bar when I walked in and other members were running their merch table… so I got that taken care of right away. I scored a guitar pick later in the night too, so that photo would be ready for framing and hanging after the show.
The Boy Detective from Ypsilanti Michigan was up first, and the singer was wearing a “R.I.P. Bob” home-made shirt. They dedicated a song to Bob, and mentioned his contribution to St. Thomas Boys Academy. I didn’t know Bob, but a lot of people did and it was clear that he will be missed. They play ska/punk, and have a fairly large size band (I think I counted members playing drums, bass guitar, lead guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and a vocalist?). The singer started the show in the pit, and other than a couple of short jumps onto the edge of the stage, he never got onto the stage the entire show. Other band members joined him here and there for some skanking, and at the end most of the band and half of the audience laid down in a big pile for a song. They played a 12 song set that included a Goldfinger cover and I thoroughly enjoyed every song. They have a new album out that was released in January of this year, “Art Theft”, that I plan to check out as soon as I have time.
You Dirty Rat from Detroit, Michigan, took the stage next and dedicated their set to Bob Gibson. The standout song was “Go Eat Worms” and I downloaded it from bandcamp the next day. It doesn’t look like they have put out any new music recently, but I’ve seen them advertised on quite a few shows over the past few years, so maybe there will be one forthcoming. You Dirty Rat leaned a little more towards punk versus ska as compared to The Boy Detective, but they both had great sets.
When it was time for Guttermouth to play, the entire band was on stage, but Mark was nowhere to be found. After a few callouts, he started making his way from the bar with an armful of Corona canned beers, wine, and White Claws. The Guttermouth set started with an impromptu singing of “Happy Birthday” to Mark Adkins by most of the audience. At some point the guitar player yelled out to buy Mark a shot, and at least three were brought up, two of which Mark downed (but didn’t look happy about it).
The playlist that we put together for the ride down was near perfect, as they burned through all of the hits (“Lucky The Donkey," “Destroying the World,” “1…2…3… Slam,” "Asshole,” “Hit Machine," “I’m Punk," “Baker’s Dozen," “She’s Got The Look," and many more). I’ve seen them live quite a few times now, and they still haven’t played “I Love My Truck,” I will have to ask Mark about that one next time. Mark was as animated as ever with his trademark miming of throwing excrement and picking his nose/rubbing it on the other band members. He hugged just about everyone in the front row, shook hands, and fist bumped the next two rows. He seemed genuinely glad to be back in Detroit and enjoying his birthday.
