Free Beer Voted Best Local Band in Michigan in Detroit News Poll!!

Something really weird happened this week.  It actually happened this time last year too.  We figured that it was a fluke or some sort of mistake.

Jim blamed Scott.  Scott blamed Tom.  Tom blamed Dewey.  No one blamed Kurt.  But when it happened again this year, I got to tell ya, we really were puzzled.

So, The Detroit News named Free Beer as the best local band in their 2007 Readers Poll.  If you remember last year, we were the Second Best Band in Detroit, which lead to lots of Number 2 jokes all year long. 

We all thought that was pretty cool.

But this?  This is a whole other level.  It's definitely pretty cool.  And it's pretty weird, because all year long, we've pretty much done the same things we've always done.  Played songs that we really like and that other people seem to really like and appear to like dancing to those songs.  We played a lot of really fun shows and some really cool bars. 
Beyond that, it wasn't a year of massive change for Free Beer.   In fact, I kept a journal this year and here are the only things we changed this year:
- Dewey bought him self one of those 5 string basses.  It's still a lefty, so no one else in the band can play it.
- Kurt got a new cord that connects his foot pedal to his amp.
- Scott got a fancy new keyboard that pretty much plays itself
- Tom got a new hi-hat stand and some new sticks
- Jim bought a new amp.
- The Sock Monkey got a name.

Now, I'm no genius, but those CAN'T be the defining differences between Second Best and BEST…CAN IT???

We are super appreciative of whoever filled out these best of forms with our band name on it.  We are very aware that there are a lot of bands in Detroit and we're kinda wondering if you've seen ALL of them before you sent your vote in.

Seriously, what can we expect in 2008?  Come on, you and I both know it's all downhill from here.

Tom and the Sock monkey will start their own band playing anti-war songs, but the band will break up when they can't decide what war to sing songs about.

Scott and his fancy keyboard will get a regular gig at the Holiday Inn and there won't be room on the stage for the rest of us.

Kurt will decide that it's time to buckle down at work and devote all his time to designing the ultimate wiring harness.

Jim will open up a combination unicorn research center and drive in movie complex.

Dewey plans on buying a 10 string bass and will take a year off work to have 5 more fingers added to his right hand, so he can play the thing.

So here's the deal, Free Beer is just like a lot of bands.  We like recognition.  We like to play bars.  And we like people to come see us.   If this Best Local Band in Detroit thingy can keep the gigs coming, then boy-howdy, do we like being number 1!

Thanks Detroit News and whomever filled out their ballots.