March 28, 2024
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Insane Clown Posse, KillJoy Club

Juggalo Weekend 2016

St. Andrew's Hall / Harpo's in Detroit, Michigan

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So you want to know what went down at Juggalo Weekend 2016, huh?  Well first off, if you didn’t make it (which is completely understandable…I mean who wants to vacation in Detroit in February?), then you missed one of the best ICP performances that I have ever witnessed.  But that’s for later in the review.  For now, let’s ease into things to let you know how we got to that point.

I already knew that Menace from TrueJuggaloFamily.com was going to make the trip there, but wasn’t sure if any other Dallas Juggalos were able to celebrate in the Faygo-soaked goodness. I tried to convince my homie 12 Gauge and his wife to come out, but they have a new baby boy to tend to, and though it was tempting, they just couldn’t make it work.  Another homie of mine, ZZ (aka ZigZag) kept procrastinating on buying the trip because he wasn’t sure he could get the time off of work.  Well, he finally confirmed that he could and bought his plane tickets at a premium.  Luckily, I had an extra set of tickets for both days that he scooped off of me.

Fast forward to the afternoon of Thursday, February 19th, and we were packed and ready to roll!  We picked up ZZ, headed to the airport, and were off to Detroit!  Our usual ride from the airport, and D-town chauffeur Rachel Paul wasn’t able to make it to the airport by the time we landed, but it was all good!  She’s steadily working on getting a new EP out that’s gonna flip wigs! So that’s by far more important!

FRIDAY:

I had been in touch with a former Psychopathic employee, Nathan Extra, leading up to the Juggalo Day trip.  He’s still in the Detroit area, and it had been years since we saw each other, so we had a ton of catching up to do.  Nathan graciously volunteered to pick us up at the airport, and we had already made plans to do dinner and see where the night took us.

All 4 of us crammed into his Ford Ranger pickup and headed to Detroit where he had picked out a spot to eat.  The place was called Union Street, and it was a bit on the pricey side.  We’re talking $15-20 sandwiches, and the spicy as fuck Dragon Eggs appetizers weren’t cheap either. Either way it was a fantastic meal and a great way to kick off the night!

Next up: FOWLING!  Now you may have seen Mike E. Clark or even Twiztid talk about this. Mike E. Clark does a Fowling night at this place in Hamtramck which I think is every Friday.  Unfortunately, it was Thursday, but we still wanted to give it a shot.  For the uninformed, Fowling is when you set up bowling pins in their normal formation but in two sets across from each other. There are 2 teams, and each member takes turns throwing a football from across the Fowling warehouse at the opponent’s pins until all 10 are knocked over.  There can be several games going on at the same time.  If another game’s team accidentally hits YOUR pins, it’s fair game.

ZZ and Nathan paired up and went against me and my wife. We played something like 9 games, and me and the wifey came out victorious overall!  Beginner’s luck?  Maybe, but I’ll take it!

Click to enlarge!

Fowling!

After Fowling, we went to Bake Lo‘s house where Rachel Paul was recording her upcoming EP that I mentioned earlier.  They were working on a track and asked me to throw in a line or two.  No, I won’t be making my rap debut.  lol.  But I think you’ll love what she came up with.  Be on the lookout for more info soon, and save you some cash to pick it up at the Gathering!

After spending a little bit of the evening there, it was time to make our way to the infamous SCRUB HOUSE!  Nathan followed Rachel all the way out to the scrubbiest neighborhood in Detroit!  We grabbed all of our bags, knocked on the door (that had a sign on it which read “Check Your Feelings At The Door, Bitch!”), and made our way inside.  We were greeted by a room full of Scrubs!

Click to enlarge!

Word of advice from the Scrubs

I introduced Amanda and Nathan to the Scrubs, and we made our way upstairs to make our living arrangements in the “Blood room.”  Nathan hung out with everyone downstairs as we tiptoed around upstairs across air mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, and luggage, among other things.  As soon as we were situated, we went back downstairs and hung out for the rest of the night.  I am a night owl so I was able to chill for quite a bit longer than Amanda.  She went upstairs to lay down on the big mattress in the room and passed out. Not long after that, our homie Josh went upstairs to crash, and unbeknownst to him, laid next to my wife on the bed thinking she was someone else.  lol.  When I got ready to crash after Mr. Extra left at around 3 AM, I went up and saw another dude lying next to my wife like WTF?  It was all fun and games until we had to kick him out of his spot. Sorry homie!

Friday morning, we woke up and both Amanda and I had text and email alerts saying that our bank card had been compromised.  Some asshole somehow got our numbers and dropped about $4,000 on the Steam gaming website.  I knew it was nobody in the house (if that’s what you were thinking) because my wallet was right by me the entire night. Plus, the charges kept happening throughout the morning until I called and canceled my card.  My hunch is that I was part of the Home Depot hack from several months back, but who knows.

Back to the weekend though…we were in need of some supplies for the house!  We went to what we thought was the closest Walmart (like 20 miles away) and grabbed all sorts of necessities.  I got a cheap air mattress and a foam mat that were on clearance for the room which ended up working out pretty well. Best $7 I spent that weekend!

While we were out, our homie ZZ got picked up by Menace of TrueJuggaloFamily.com.  He didn’t get much sleep the night before, and I don’t think he was quite cut out for the Scrub House.  lol.

When we returned a couple of hours later, we found out that Meaghan from Philly brought us some 100% authentic Philly Cheese Steaks!  My fat ass devoured the entire thing in minutes, and I was set to officially start the day!

Rachel had a tattoo appointment that she had already setup at the Shorecrest that day, so we drove there, dropped her off, and she graciously let us use the car for a few hours.

It was Amanda’s first time in Detroit, so I had talked to George of Majik Ninja Entertainment about swinging by and giving her a tour of the studio and warehouse.  We spent some time there talking to George, Mike, Bean, and of course Melvin the pup was there.  Much props to MNE for welcoming us into their offices!

After leaving MNE, we swung back by the Shorecrest to pick up Rachel.  After kickin’ it at the Scrub house for a bit, it was time to roll out to day 1 of Juggalo Weekend!  Gabe jumped in the car with us and we were off to the show!

We got through the doors at around 6 and had unfortunately missed a majority of the JCW action.  St. Andrews was PACKED though!  This was a Killjoy Club themed night, so everyone was in their freshest KJC attire!  There were some super dope and EXTREMELY limited Killjoy Club jerseys at the merch booth which sold out with the quickness!  Even though I would love to have one of them, I rocked my custom-made jersey that Will Sigler put his signature twist on!

That Jersey Though!That Jersey Though!

After the wrestling ring was torn down, it was time to start the music!  As I recall, MASTAMIND of NATAS was the first to rock the stage with Skitzo!  I’ve always been a big fan of NATAS, and Mastamind has been killing it on the solo tip for years now!  I had seen him live a time or two before, but there was a different level of energy in his performance that night.  Having Skitzo up there with him made for a more hype, entertaining set!  I don’t think Mastamind tours all that much, so if you get a chance to see him live, make sure you do it!

After Mastamind’s set, we explored St. Andrews a bit. We went downstairs to see what all was going on.  As we made our way into the main room, Detroit legend and Godfather of the Wicked Shit ESHAM was heading in the opposite direction.  I stopped him briefly and introduced myself in person for the first time.  He was grateful for the interview that we had just posted by Chad Thomas Carsten, and showed us a lot of love.  E is looking as healthy as I’ve ever seen him, so I hoped that would translate into a killer performance the next night!  A small crowd started to form around him so I gave him a dap and went into the downstairs main room.

My wife and I took pictures of random Juggalos and Juggalettes who were scattered throughout.  Oh yeah, did I mention SCRUBS?  Scrubs were everywhere in the building!  Amanda and I went back upstairs sensing the show about to start back up.  While on our way to the photo pit, we ran into Kevin Gill who was chilling by the bar.  A ninja who was drunk off of his ass had lost his watch or Fitbit or something, and kept digging through the big trash can for it.  Security kept asking him to stop and go elsewhere, but as soon as they left the area, he was back at it digging through whatever the fuck might be in a bar’s waste receptacle.  We had a good laugh about that, and chopped it up for a few minutes.  I told Mr. Gill last week that one of these days we’re gonna get to kick it for more than 5 minutes.

KG!

KG!

Back to the show! Now it was time for Lil Eazy E to bring that west coast Gangta Rap flavor to Juggalo weekend!  He knew his audience and primarily did cover tracks from his dad’s entire back catalog, including classic NWA tracks.  He and his hype man kept the show lively and I don’t think anyone there had any complaints.  Did I mention that he looks and sounds exactly like his dad?  He’s definitely worth going to see if you have a chance!  He’s currently on tour with the Violent J Charity Solo Tour, and you can keep up with him via https://www.facebook.com/LILEAZYE!

Before I forget to mention it, Rude Boy‘s son DJ Carlito was spinning tracks between sets to keep us eager Juggalos entertained!  He schooled it with his song selection, and did such a good job that he was invited out to Violent J’s solo charity tour to do the same thing!  Can’t wait to see him when they hit Phoenix!

Next up was one of my most anticipated performances of the night.  Tha Hav Knots, who consist of Anybody Killa, Big Hoodoo, and Bonez Dubb of AMB, have been releasing some flavor in the form of CD singles.  Would it translate to their live performance though?  We’re talking about 3 Juggalo powerhouses collectively joined into a single group…how could this NOT work?  Well, I’m happy to say that it 100% does!  Big Hoodoo and Anybody Killa were in their signature makeup, but a 3rd member came onto the stage pretty much confused everyone in attendance.  It was Bonez Dubb, but he had his hair all feathered out and a brand new makeup scheme.

Click to enlarge!

Bonez Dubb!

Regardless of the initial confusion, Tha Hav Knots laid out a set full of fuckin’ BANGERS! Song after song, Bonez, ABK, and Hoodoo spit fire towards the Juggalos in attendance who were eating every bit of it up!  It’s sometimes hard to gauge whether an audience is having a good time when nothing but new tracks are being performed…but there was no denying this!  I have no idea when we’ll get a full release from Tha Hav Knots, but if what we hear live is anything close to what we hear on the album, this shit is gonna be an instant classic!

Tha Hav Knotts!

Tha Hav Knots!

We were making our rounds and didn’t even realize that Lil Wyte made an appearance before it was almost too late.  I’m not sure how long his set was, and I’m a fan of his music, so it sucks that I missed most of it.  Hopefully he put it down for those who got to catch it!

It was now already time for the headliners of the night: The Killjoy Club!!  Unfortunately, Crunchy Black was still locked up while Juggalo Day was happening, and we of course lost Koopsta last year, so only DJ Paul was there from Da Mafia 6ix. Do you think that slowed them down at all?  Not even close!  I didn’t know how they were going to handle their set selection.  Would they perform “Reindeer Games” from front to back?  Or would they mix it up somehow?  We were about to find out!

Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope, Young Wicked, and DJ Paul all came out sporting white Killjoy Club jerseys with black trim.  Fresh! To be honest, I don’t remember the order of songs that they played, but they performed most of Reindeer Games in random order. I remember “Hammer Time”, “Double Clutch”, “It’s a Murder It’s a Kill”, and “Surprize!” among others.  They then surprised us all by playing some ICP classics! We’re talking about everything from “Chicken Huntin'” to closing out the show with “I’m Coming Home”!  Some guests jumped on stage with the Killjoy Club, including Lil Wyte who for whatever reason seemed a little out of place. But it didn’t matter…he was having a good time and so were the 1,000+ in attendance for night one!  Seeing the Killjoy Club do a full performance was a rare treat that may have even been once in a lifetime!  I hope you ninjas enjoyed our Periscope feed from home!

The Killjoy Club!

The KillJoy Club!

I know that much has been said about Violent J‘s rapid weight loss since last year’s Gathering.  It was evident at Hallowicked last year, and even more so at Juggalo Weekend.  He looks as live on stage as he ever has, which is a welcome change from the past few years while he was nursing a knee injury and packed on the pounds.  I know that I speak for Juggalos everywhere when I say that I’m just happy that he looks like he’s healthy again.  We need the Duke of the Wicked for years…no, decades to come!  You’re damn right I’m gonna be an old ass man watching a 70 year old Violent J uncork Faygos, playing their 2nd Joker’s card of the 4th deck…enjoying every second of it!

It was time to clear out of St. Andrews and head back to the Scrub House! If I haven’t mentioned it yet, it was unseasonably warm for Detroit in February.  To be fair, it was probably a high in the 50s, and lows in the 30s, but compared to last year’s foot of snow and blizzard-like conditions, it was a welcome change for this Texas ninja!

We got back to the Scrub House only to find out that power had been knocked out for the entire block.  If you think that the hood looked scary at night before, imagine how eerie it looked with no traffic lights and no sign of life on any street that you rolled down.  We volunteered to head out to the closest store to grab some candles.  After hitting up a Walmart only to find out that it closed at 11 PM (WHAT?!), we found the nearest open store which happened to be a CVS.  We grabbed about $10.00 in tealight candles, and then blew $40.00 more on some dumb shit. Detroit beanies, candy, all unnecessary shit. But it’s all good, we killed some time and had fun doing it!

We got back to the house after what seemed like forever, and the neighborhood was still pitch black and creepy as fuck.  Once inside though, it was nothing but love! At some point, our homie notslim1 swung by to party at the infamous Casa de Scrubs, but with no power, everyone was just in chill mode smoking and drinking by candlelight.  So he went off to find a party to crash and we stayed put.  It wasn’t long until sleep was calling, and with the house being as quiet as it was compared to the norm, we took advantage of it.

You should check out his full recap of his Juggalo Weekend adventures in the video below:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/dI-203j5dQ8[/youtube]

Quick little side story: I had purchased several sets of tickets for people from the Philly area, along with a pair for each day for Amanda and me. I handed out the ones I had purchased for the Philly Scrubs, and then of course had my pair for each day still available.  Psychopathic graciously hooked us up with press passes for each night, so I was now no longer in need of either set.  Our homie Brandon from Philly came to Detroit in true scrubby fashion without a ticket to either day, just hoping that he would be able to get some for the sold-out shows.  My wife and I hooked that ninja up!  He was grateful as could be knowing that he was going to get to see a rare Killjoy Club show that night, and the Ringmaster the following. So, that made us feel good.

ZZ!

ZZ!

Now, with the other ticket, Rachel had searched for hers in all of her bags and came to a realization…”OH SHIT! I left my tickets at home!”  Seriously?!  Well, we had an extra set, right?  So we let her know that she was taken care of.  A few hours later, ZZ called asking when he could scoop his tickets off of me.  FUUUUUUUCK!  He had decided to go at the last minute and I told him that I had a pair he could get from me.  I was just like “I’ll have them at the show for you tonight.”  Now, time to come up with a plan. Did I tell Rachel that she was getting the bone?  Did I take back the ones I had hooked Brandon up with?  Luckily, I didn’t have to resort to either tactic.  We politely hit J-Webb up to see if we could get hooked up with one more press pass (we had only requested two) for both nights. After all, Rachel DOES contribute to and maintain our LETTE’S RESPECT section, right?  Whew…crisis averted.

If ZZ’s reading this, I think this is the first that you have heard of it.  Our bad homie!  On to Saturday!

SATURDAY

To everyone’s surprise, we were able to get about 6 hours of sleep!  SCORE!  This place is like the Gathering, so if you get anything over 2-3 hours of shut-eye, consider yourself lucky!

For Saturday, Rachel had to head up to Bake Lo‘s studio again to put some finishing touches on her EP.  She was meeting Molly Gruesome and Monica Rose so they could add some flavor to it. I hit up Nathan Extra because he wanted me to swing by his crib so we could get a little nostalgic with his collection of Juggalo memorabilia.  I asked Rachel if we could take her car for the day while she was putting in work! She was of course accommodating, so we dropped her off and went to meet up with Mr. Extra.

We got to Nathan’s house and started chopping it up about some of the things that Nathan had worked on while he was at Psychopathic.  He showed me all kinds of rare flavor that he had collected over the years! We exchanged stories for a few hours! He said he wanted to show me a few things. We dug this gigantic box out of his garage that was FULL of flyers, tour badges, t-shirts, jerseys, games, etc.  Just about every piece had a story.

Time got away from us, and we decided to go grab a bite to eat at a little mom and pop diner.  Getting a double chili cheeseburger probably wasn’t the best of ideas considering we’d be jam-packed into a venue with 2,500 people a few hours later, but hey, you only live once, right?  I straight up merked that burger and the garlic parmesan fries that came with it.  They never stood a chance!  In the meantime, Rachel had been hitting us up asking if we were on our way to pick her up yet.  Like I said, time got away from us. lol.  We paid for our meals and parted ways shortly afterwards.  For those of you who have ever had any interaction with Nathan, he couldn’t be a nicer ninja.  He’s doing well though and it was awesome getting to hang out with him and his roommates (who had ridiculous action figure collections! Like WOAH!).

Rachel had since caught a ride with someone to go help with the Flint water donations that we collaboratively setup with TJF and Juggalo News.  I have to give massive props to Lisa Pena-Tillman and Chris Fabritz for heading up the organization behind it all.  Although I was never able to make it to the donation drop-off to participate, I DO know that nearly 400 cases of water were donated, and that’s going to help a lot of Flint residents through this unnecessary water crisis!  Amanda and I ended up driving to Harpo’s where Rachel already was, and it was just about time for doors to let in! Time was just fucking FLYING that day!

Amanda and I jumped out of the car, and Rachel sped off to find a parking spot at an already insanely-packed venue.  We made our way towards the back of the line and staked out our spot.  I ran into Chad Thomas Carsten and notslim1 who were kickin’ it with some homies waiting to get into the show.

Scottie D, Notslim1, Chad T. Carsten

Scottie D, Notslim1, Chad T. Carsten

Even though the line was pretty long, it moved pretty rapidly.  We had all of our camera gear, so we were asked to step to the side AFTER going through the metal detectors at Harpo’s where security went through it to make sure we weren’t terrorists or some shit.

Juggalos and Juggalettes were wearing ridiculously dope costumes, many of them Ringmaster themed!  We snapped a few shots at the entrance, and then I decided to get into the merch line.  I have one item that I get at every show that I go to: a tour shirt!  I couldn’t miss the Juggalo Day shirt if I could help it!  The line was pure chaos.  There were 3 people behind the merch booth doing the best that they could under the circumstances.  I waited it out for about a half hour while Amanda went off and took pictures of Molly Gruesome who I was unfortunately missing.  I had one other group of ninjas to go, and you’d think that waiting in line for that long, they’d know what the hell they wanted. They looked at and tried on like a dozen different hoodies and jerseys before they decided.  It’s a small gripe, but come on now! lol.

Molly Gruesome!

Molly G!

The general consensus from everyone I talked to is that Molly G killed it!  I know that she was both nervous and excited about getting to open up for the Wicked Clowns prior to this show, and when it finally came time for her to show up, she schooled it!  Again, this is 2nd hand since I was getting the bone in the merch line, but that’s all I’ve got to go on.

Next up on the bill was local hip hop group Swagtoof!  They have been making some noise in the underground for a minute now, and you probably have even seen them right here on the pages of FLH. Recently, they even summoned the services of our homie Jason Shaltz for their “Alice Cooper Lettuce” music video!

[youtube]https://youtu.be/re_TPMj6_NQ[/youtube]

Now I know Choirboy Dank‘s dreads were crazy long in the music videos and photos that I’ve seen, but seeing the group live, these things were like 3 feet long!  Those have got to add another 10 pounds to his head!  They weren’t just a look though, they were more of a prop while he and Ouija Macc paced the stage keeping the crowd hype! This was a huge show for all, as Harpo’s was packed to the gills, assumingly over capacity.  Back to Swagtoof, they had a relatively short set, but onlooking Juggalos and Juggalettes seemed to enjoy it.  If you’re not up to speed with these guys, make sure to check out their offerings at SwagToof.com!

I had seen a schedule for the night earlier and snapped a picture of it.  The show was moving like clockwork, sticking to the allotted times almost to the T.  It was time for Flint natives King 810 to get the crowd moving and rock the fuck out of the stage!  I am lucky enough to have seen them a few times, most recently being at Hallowicked.  Some men came out with machine guns to start out the set, and then it was on! David Gunn’s screaming vocals reverberated throughout the entirety of St. Andrews!  King 810 murdered the crowd with their hard-rocking antics for a good half hour, and left everybody thirsty for more!  There were mosh pits breaking out in different spots in the floor area of Harpo’s, and while you would have thought there was no room to move, pit veterans made sure that this wasn’t the case.

King 810

King 810!

In between sets while King 810’s equipment was being broken down, I caught up with Jason Shaltz who was there shooting the show.  For those who have never been to Harpo’s, there is NO photo pit. The stage is roughly 7 feet high anyways, so any shots you got would have to be taken onstage, or from afar. I am no professional photographer by any means, but it’s a duty, albeit a fun one, that I get the privilege to cover shows to make sure that you guys either get to see the flavor that you missed out on, or experience it through snapshots all over again.  My shit was coming out blurry as fuck, as I was using a new lens for the show and didn’t have it dialed in properly.  Jason helped me out and got me ready to shoot for the rest of the night.  Kudos homie!

Young Wicked was next on the bill to SLAUGHTER the stage (pun intended).  He had already split domes with his contributions to Killjoy Club at St. Andrews the night before, but tonight he was in front of at least double the audience!  Five robed men in pig masks slowly made their way onstage and provided a backdrop for YW’s entire set. You rarely saw them move.  Of course with 5 guys in crimson robes being in the background, there were some Lotus speculations echoing through the crowd, but that never came to fruition.  Nonetheless, Young Wicked did what he does best and truly showed everyone that he belonged up on stage with the best of the best!  He pulled a heavy amount of tracks from his most recent solo project: SLAUGHTER, but had some of his verses from AMB classics mixed in too.  One thing that shocked me is that between songs, he gave Faygoluvers a shout-out for our FLH Music Awards, in which voting was ending that weekend.  Did Young Wicked get the win for Underground Hip Hop Album of the Year?  You’ll find out soon enough!

Young Wicked!

Young Wicked!

We had tried to link up with Molly Gruesome for a scheduled interview a few different times that night, and between these sets, finally tracked her down. Our resident interviewer Chad Thomas Carsten spoke with Molly for about 10-15 minutes near the front doors at Harpo’s. Even up there, it was extremely loud, and I know the audio came out for shit.  Chad has been spending some time trying to transcribe that, so we’ll get it to you as soon as we can.  Since Juggalo Weekend, Molly has said that her next album, “The End”, will be her final one.  I don’t know what she’s got going on personally, but wish her the best. Hopefully things will die down and we’ll get more from her in the coming years.

Molly Gruesome and Chad T. Carsten

Molly Gruesome and Chad T. Carsten

Between Gatherings, Juggalo events, and Hed2Head tours, I’ve seen Mushroomhead more than a few times.  They have cemented their spot in the Juggalo world, and provide some of the hardest hitting mosh pits you’ll ever experience!  If you’re on the floor/pit area of a Mushroomhead set, the music just gets you pumped up to where you almost have no choice but to dance and slam your bodies into each other!  I unfortunately didn’t partake in this pit considering my wife and I both had a few thousand dollars in camera equipment on us, but just trust me when I tell you that shit got wild!  Harpo’s was the perfect setting for Mushroomhead’s visual ecstasy of a stage show. It’s a dark venue which allows them to spotlight each of the members as they tirelessly pounded away at drums, belted out vocals, or shredded on guitars.  The water drums continue to be one of my favorite parts of their sets.  The blacklight setup that I’m used to seeing on an indoor Mushroomhead set wasn’t there, and while it’s a fresh bonus, especially on the photography tip, it didn’t matter so much for their stage show.  Even though they had another fairly long set, and the headliners were still a couple of hours away, time seemed to fly by.

Mushroomhead

Mushroomhead!

One of the biggest pops of the night came from a long-awaited return of ESHAM to the 313.  Though he’s no longer a Michigan resident, he was welcomed with open arms to the thousands in attendance at Juggalo Weekend.  The bullshit beef between he and Psychopathic had been squashed, and it’s a relief that the Godfather of the Wicket Shit and the Duke of the Wicked would now be seen on the same bill!  I’m pretty sure that Esham had about an hour allotted to his set time. I won’t lie, I had seen Esham live a few times before and wasn’t impressed. His set that night COMPLETELY changed my mind!  He performed some OLD SCHOOL tracks and had suicidalists and Juggalos alike eating out of his hands!  I saw our Scrub homie and Tarot reader Maia a few times as I made my way through the crowd, and I don’t think she missed a single word singing along with E! Esham wasn’t done yet though…about halfway through the set, Esham brought out MASTAMIND to spit some wicked shit from NATAS!  Like I said, Esham schooled everybody in attendance that night, and you best believe I’ll be making it to any future shows of his!

ESHAM!

ESHAM!

Everybody performing that night seemed to follow the schedule nearly to the minute.  What was strange is that on the printed timeline of performing artists, there was about a 45 minute break between Esham and ICP.  Now if you remember back to their promo for Juggalo Weekend, they had been touting a special guest appearance for the Ringmaster show.  Would it be Capitole E during the Ringmaster set?  Maybe some other artist that we weren’t thinking of?

As you probably already know, Juggalos were shocked when Madrox and Monoxide hit the stage and tore split everyone’s wigs!  What better surprise could there have been than a set from the Demented Duo on Juggalo Day? The vibe of everyone in there was insane!  Ninjas were jumping in unison as Jamie and Paul spit their rapid-fire wickedness for about 30 minutes. They pretty much kept it old school with classics such as “Second Hand Smoke”, “Freekshow”,  “Diemuthafuckadie”, and “I’m Different”.  To say that they had a warm reception would be an understatement!  I’m not sure what it took to get Twiztid on the bill, and as a surprise no less, but much props to them and the entire Majik Ninja Entertainment crew for making it happen!

Twiztid!

TWIZTID!

Juggalos, it was now time for the Wicked Clowns to close out the night with a performance of THE RINGMASTER in its entirety!  You have no idea how hype I was for this performance! Let me let you in on a little side note. Last year, Detroit was so god damn cold that I nearly froze my nuts off after ICP‘s Juggalo Day performance. I of course was soaked from head to toe in Faygo, and it was like 19 degrees outside with a foot of snow on the ground. Fantastic show, not all that fun afterwards. lol.

I hadn’t decided whether I was just going to sit back and enjoy the view for the Ringmaster set, or make my way up to the front to get covered in all of the syrupy goodness.  Amanda had a perfect view from the rail on the 2nd tier of the venue floor, so I knew she’d be able to get some good shots from there.  I perched next to Rachel on the stairs to get a different angle with my camera. I spent a good amount of time just chilling there during the first few tracks. Violent J and Shaggy came out to “Wax Museum”, of course, and the stage clowns wasted NO time popping the top on all of those 2 liters of fizzy Faygo goodness!  It was very apparent that security was going to be lax for ICP’s set.  From “Murder Go Round” to the OG version of “Chicken Huntin'” and into “Mr. Johnson’s Head”, ninjas were climbing the 7 foot stage, dancing around behind J and Shaggy, twisting open Faygos, and then jumping right back into the sea of Juggalos below!

Mr. Johnson's Head!

Mr. Johnson’s Head!

When “Southwest Song” hit, I couldn’t control myself anymore.  I asked Rachel to hold my camera equipment so that I could make my way up to the front. I was going to make it a mission to get on stage during Faygo Armageddon!  Somehow I always find a way to do it, but I am always anxious about it through the entire set.

Right now, all that was going through my mind were the lyrics of “Get Off Me Dog” and “Who Asked You”!  At some point during the set, our big homie UG made it onstage with his ridiculously dope Ringmaster head that me made out of black and gold duct tape, and one of those foam mattress toppers.  Yes, it sounds bootleg as fuck, and it was, but it looked super dope!  Nobody booted him off for a while, and I remember him staying up there bobbing his big ass Ringmaster head along to “The Dead One”.

Click the pic to enlarge!

Click to enlarge!

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is how awesome it was to see Violent J commanding the entire stage!  There’s no more stationary Duke of the Wicked…he and Shaggy both were all over the place making sure there wasn’t a dry ninja in the house (within reach, of course)!

I had strapped the GoPro to my head and had it recording towards the last half of the show, and was already making plans with the ninjas around me to get onstage during the last track.  Security had picked up since the beginning of the show and were booting ninjas off of the stage just about as soon as they got up there. It remained that way through “My Fun House”, “For the Maggots”, “Wagon Wagon”, and “The Loons”.

Posted by Faygoluvers Heaven on Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Then, it was time for “Love Song”!  Shaggy had made an announcement that J was newly single, and invited all Juggalettes onstage for ICP’s version of a romantic track.  Juggalettes were all over the place, some flashing titties, some grinding on J, and others just dancing around having a great time.  You can see my footage from that track here:

 

Posted by Faygoluvers Heaven on Wednesday, February 24, 2016

As the last note of “Love Song” hit, Shaggy made a remark that all of these girls needed to leave the stage because one of them left them with “Bugz On My Nutz”!  Ninjas in giant bug costumes hit the stage as J and Shaggy rapped about their issues with scabies!  (Do you ever stop and think what it must be like to not be a Juggalo and read a line like that?)

One of my favorites from The Ringmaster, “House of Mirrors” was next, and that meant that the show was just a track away from wrapping up.  As the Faygo flew, we started prepping for helping each other get up on stage. I’d help the first few ninjas up, then would get boosted up myself, and then reach down and pull anyone else who wanted to get up there onto the stage.  As soon as “House of Mirrors” ended, the notes of the grand finale, “Ringmaster’s Word”, started blaring through Harpo’s.  As soon as I saw the first ninja hit the stage, I helped a few up, and then got up there myself.  The Faygo bins emptied out as soon as they were filled, and Faygo was flying everywhere!  I sprayed ninjas that I knew, did a few launches by corking the bottle on my middle finger, and had the time of my life!

 

Juggalo Day Faygo Armageddon (Ringmaster’s Word)FAYGO ARMAGEDDON!! Juggalos and Juggalettes join the Insane Clown Posse on stage during Juggalo Day 2016! “Ringmaster’s Word” finished out the show, and an unforgettable night!

Posted by Faygoluvers Heaven on Friday, February 26, 2016

The only comment that I will say that is bordering on negative is that the Faygo ran out way too quickly! I’m sure that it’s because there were Juggalos getting onstage launching them throughout the whole set, so it’s understandable.  Halfway through “Ringmaster’s Word”, ninjas were pretty much dancing around onstage, and while it was still a lot of fun, it would have been even better with an endless supply of Faygo!

It was the shit seeing Mike E. Clark up close spinning the last track, and I hope to see and hear more from him in the near future with ICP.  I also ran across Vinnie the ICP Kid up there! How dope is it that he’s still in the scene after all of these years?

The last notes of ICP’s set ended, the stage lights were brought up, and it Harpo’s looked like a disaster….just as it should have!  I met up with Amanda who snapped a couple of post-Faygo Armageddon pics of me, and then gathered our group together to make our trip outside.

Now keep in mind that this is Detroit, and it was February…not typically a good combination for walking around in wet clothes.  Juggalo Weekend hit the calendar at just the right time, because it was surprisingly mild in the D!  I was still freezing my ass off, but I couldn’t complain too much.

We made our way past the Local Clown Crew who was making Faygo hot dogs for anyone who requested them…it’s always the shit seeing them out there selflessly giving their time and food to ninjas just passing by.  Much props to those guys!

Local Clown Crew!Local Clown Crew!

Now as I said before, Rachel had parked the car, so I had no idea how far of a walk we were in for. It was around 1 AM in one of the worst areas in Detroit, but I never felt unsafe.  We made our way through one parking lot after another, probably walking nearly a mile to the car.  I wasn’t about to get in soaked, so after popping the trunk and getting a towel and dry clothes out, I had my wife shield me with a towel while I stripped down butt ass naked to change.  Everyone in the car was waiting on me, but I was going as quickly as I could!  I finally got my shit together and Amanda and I jumped into the car.  It was now time to make our final return to the Scrub house…for this trip anyways.

We got back and some ninja had brought a FULL sheet Ringmaster cake for us to munch on!  I seem to remember him saying that he brought it to the hotel that he was staying at, but for some reason, nobody wanted to partake.  Nobody was jumping in on it, so I grabbed the knife and started slicing up pieces.  I had a special request from UG for the entire head of the Ringmaster minus the ears since he had forgotten to put ears on his duct-tape incarnation of the Ringmaster head that he made.  I made it happen!

Amanda went off to bed, and I stayed up for a little while longer.  We had a super early flight that morning, so I was trying to figure out if I wanted to stay up the whole night, or catch a few hours of sleep before hitting the airport. I went upstairs and began to pack up all of my shit.  Packing is always a fucking nightmare because of the amount of equipment that I bring. I throw things into, and take stuff out of my bags all weekend. So I go back and double check to see if I miss anything while packing up.  If something’s missing, then I dig through everybody’s piles of clothes, blankets, and pillows until I find it.  I got everything packed up, and sleepiness prevailed.  I went to sleep for a few hours, and then it was off to the airport.

Rachel drove all of us, including ZZ, to the airport.  We all said our goodbyes, and hugged more than once. It’s always hard saying goodbye to Detroit, and the family that we have there, but the time away is only temporary.  Somehow we managed to find seats together on our plane, and then it was off to the other D…home sweet home.

Wrapping  Up:

I’ll spare you the minor details on the trip back.  I honestly can’t say that I have a single negative thing to report about for Juggalo Day Weekend!  I was a bit bummed about there not being a photo pit at Harpo’s, but I can’t even gripe about it.  The shows and all of the artists on the bill were so on point that I honestly sometimes forgot that I was there to cover it for you ninjas!  I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it to the first 3 Juggalo Days (hey, I’ve gotta pick my battles, right?), but I don’t foresee me missing another one at any point in the future!  They have made this into such an incredible weekend full of festivities for Juggalos old and new, and if you have ANY chance to make it, you shouldn’t think twice about it!

Make sure to check out our photo gallery from both days below:

IMG_5997JUGGALO WEEKEND PHOTO GALLERY (DAY 1 & 2)

Location:

  • St. Andrew's Hall / Harpo's
  • Michigan
  • United States

Guests:

  • Tha Hav Knotts, Young Wicked, DJ Paul, Lil Wyte, Molly Gruesome, Lil Eazy E, Mushroomhead, King 810, Esham, Mastamind, Skitzo

Record Label:

  • Psychopathic Records

Reviewer:

Review Date:

  • 02/19/2016 - 02/20/2016

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    Faygoluvers Comments

  1. SomethingWicked

    SomethingWicked

    Comment posted on Friday, March 25th, 2016 09:36 pm GMT -5 at 9:36 pm

    Great review. Wish I would of been there.

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