City: Clinton Township, MI
Distance travelled: 663 miles
Total distance: 9,505 miles
Theatre: Macomb Center

We were lucky to be playing to sold out shows again in Clinton Township and Flint.  I didn’t venture to far from the hotel in either city other than a trip to Detroit, more of that later.  It was cold and rainy!  Upon our arrival in Clinton Township we feasted on fried food at the very classy Tilted Kilt nearby.  If you are not sure what that is, just imagine Hooters…but in kilts!

We were made to feel very welcome at the theatre.  The audiences were wonderful and we had the pleasure to experience the hospitality a lady that everybody calls ‘Mom’.

Mom camped out in the green room room for the entirety of our stay at the theatre and made sure that each of us were being fed an watered.  In fact you could not get through the door without being offered snacks and candy.  Some of our guys had been in the show when it came through Clinton Township a couple of years before and they were all very happy to see her there.  She is one of the wonderful characters that you occasionally encounter in theatre.  It doesn’t matter on which side of the pond you are, every now and again you will come across somebody who has been around for ever and is known to everyone; a wardrobe assistant, a stage door man, a fly man, they could be anywhere.  They are the kind of people you can sit down with and listen to their stories for what seems like a couple of minutes and before you know it, an hour has gone by.

Mom was one of those people.  She didn’t stand any nonsense but had such a warm heart and is famous throughout the touring world in America.  Anyone who has been through Clinton Township knows her.  It is encounters like this that fuel my love for the theatre and the people that inhabit that world.  A world full of tradition, superstition and respect. I count myself lucky to have worked with some people who have been around forever and seen it all.  I think it is the duty of people like me and my contemporaries to keep these traditions alive.

During our time Macomb Centre our tour manager, Jack, and I took a trip to Detroit to do some urban exploring.  Last year when we were in Detroit, Jack stuck up a friendship Bob who runs an incredible website called Detroit-ish.com.  I highly recommend you go and take a look at it.  Bob is seasoned urban explorer and was kind enough to show us some the spots he has discovered in Detroit.

It was an incredible day but also kind of heart breaking.  The abandoned homes, schools, churches and hospitals we saw and explored stand as monuments to the epic fall from grace that Detroit has experiences in the last few decades.  However, there is hope, Bob told us the city is changing. Money is coming back in.  The abandoned skyscrapers downtown are now all but filled and occupied and there is investment from the city in infrastructure and housing but there is still a long way to go.  To see the images I shot and to hear more about our day take a look at the post about our adventure. Abandoned Detroit

We travelled from Clinton Township to Flint after our last show.