When I heard of this event, it really piqued my curiosity. I'd never heard of the Destroy Compound, and judging by the address I knew it had to be some kind of D.I.Y. venue. I love finding out about these places and hearing their stories. This place isn't easy to find. If you take Trumbull north out of Woodbridge, pass under the railroad tracks, before you get to the New Center area, Trumbull turns into Lincoln street going north, and you have to...oh fuck it. I'll just link to google maps.
I was able to talk to the owner Chip for a minute and get some of the story. In regards to the former use of the building, "They used to repair automotive and industrial water pumps; vehicle water pumps. This side of the building they did diesel truck transmissions. When I bought this place this was nothing but diesel automotive parts". When he first moved in, he attached a shower massager to a sink, and using that while standing over a sewer drain allowed the residents to have something resembling a shower.
I was already quite inebriated by the time I showed up, due to . I wasn't the alpha drunk or anything, but not quite myself either. After overhearing someone tell a friend some of the troubles they had been experiencing in their personal life, I inserted myself into the conversation and gave the guy some advice based on my professional knowledge. My apologies to Gavin, whenever he might be. While the info I gave you was legit, I assure you I'm normally much better at minding my own business.
Without any prior experience in noise music, I'm not really sure how to best relate the music of the night. There's often not a discernible melody, and I often lost where the beat was supposed to be, if it was supposed to be there at all. Others in the crowd seemed to respond to crescendos that to me seemed very subtle. I had enough liquid courage to ask some complete strangers how to explain it.
First was a young woman named Olivia, who was very patient with me. She described noise music as, "Experimental, improvisational music. They're improvising in between structured songs. The tonality is heavily rhythmic, like...pulsing bass undertones. Perhaps the melody can be rather abrasive at times.". As to whether the average person would understand the music or the concepts behind noise , "Maybe the concept. I think anyone could sort of get into the sound of it, if they could get beyond the initial discomfort. Anyone who would be open to listening to someone experimental could get past the initial perplexity of the concept and could get into it. It's hard for me to judge too because I've heard them play a lot. It's hard for me at this stage to look at it from the foreign mindset, for me it sounds very familiar. I've heard much harsher. For me they're kind of melodic."
Outside before leaving I spotted Randy from Deastro. I just knew this guy could give me some more insight. As to how he would describe noise music, "It's all about breaking down constructs and shit like that. It's all about breaking down barriers and breaking all the rules. This place has broken all the rules and there needs to be some sonic representation of like, how that works, you know. I feel like that's kind of what it represents. It's cool, because Detroit's got one of the most amazing noise scenes on the planet. It's complete in its own thing. It just exists on its own. Amazing."[...]"I used to live with a couple different noise dudes, and it's a cool scene, it's really tight knit. People in it are really good people, it's the kind of music friendship that I experienced as a young kid going to christian ska and punk shows, that kind of brotherhood. Real D.I.Y. Everyone's doing it because they love it, not because they're trying to get in on the scene." For something that's sort of underground like this, it's hard for people to find out about it, but Randy tried his best to explain it. "It's always in different spots. It's all over the place. You can check out my blog, at www.visionincrisis.com for all the gigs that you crave. Noise gigs, hip hop gigs. There's no witch house in Detroit, but all kinds of gigs." I had to look up what witch house is.
I heard a rumor that the Destroy Compound will be hosting another show in a few months. I hope to have an update for you by then.