New Detroit Bar DJ Night a Lot Like Old Detroit Bar DJ Night

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Busywork, the old no-cover weekly Wednesday dance night at Detroit Bar, has been replaced by Pistol, the new no-cover weekly Wednesday dance night at Detroit Bar. The similarities don't end there.

Sure, there are different resident DJs, but the general vibe remains the same--and given the success of Busywork over the last two years, maybe that's the point. I still think that Detroit Bar itself, for all of its many obvious strengths, is kind of an awkward place for a dance night: the main stage area is curtained off, and people are meant to dance right past the venue's entrance way, right in the line of fire for those stepping out for a smoke. People were dancing last night, but never more than a few at a time. But the folks that were there (more "clubby" than the usual Detroit bunch) seemed stoked, some even dancing by the couches towards the wall. (They love dancing!)

There was a lot of '90s hip hop hits, too, if you're into that. "This Is How We Do It," "Creep" (TLC, not Radiohead, natch) and "Going Back to Cali" (Notorious B.I.G., not LL Cool J), were all in the mix: hard to imagine getting psyched about hearing those tunes, and when the opening notes of Daft Punk's "Around the World" kicked in, there was sort of that feeling of "really? We're still doing this?"

We'll see where Pistol goes from here--I got there after midnight, which is late for a Wednesday, and while it wasn't packed, there was a pretty healthy crowd. It's also the first night, so it's unreasonable to judge it too harshly at this point. Busywork attracted big-name guest DJs like Steve Aoki, even back at its opening, and here's hoping Pistol grows and figures out how to distinguish itself other than playing some tracks we were sick of a decade ago. I did hear "Can I Kick It" by A Tribe Called Quest. Don't think I'm complaining about that.