November 4, 2010 6:30 PM MST
Review bij Examiner.com
Sunday night downtown Detroit played host to Halloween's most entertaining annual event: Insane Clown Posse's (ICP) Hallowicked.
This year's 17th Annual Hallowicked was once again held at the Fillmore and ended up being one of the biggest and best shows to date.
The show was packed with solid performances from start to finish and ended with a bang as ICP revealed the start of a new set of Joker's Card albums.
In fact, the only problem during the whole evening was some sound problems that affected producer/DJ Mike E. Clark's performance.
As usual, the day began with a long line of Juggalos, many dressed in elaborate costumes or painted up, that stretched out for blocks behind the Fillmore waiting to get in to the show and chanting "Family!".
Inside the Fillmore decided to go all out this year putting up a number of cool decorations including a enormous moving gargoyle.
The show began with a performance by Flint's own Dayton Family, who were recently signed to the Hatchet House subsidiary of ICP's Psychopathic Records label.
The band performed with ICP at last year's show and went over well with the Juggalo crowd who are huge fans of the similar sounding Bone Thugs N' Harmony.
The Dayton Family's harmonizing and hard core lyrics dealing with growing up in the ghetto make them a natural addition to the label.
Sunday, the band came out and performed a few of their more popular songs including "So High" and "That Ain't Yo B*tch".
They were the perfect warmup to the evening and immediately got the crowd on their feet and singing and moving along.
Throughout the evening the Axe Murder Boyz (AMB), another Hatchet House group, served as emcees for the evening tossing merch out to the crowd and keeping them entertained in between sets.
Also coming out between sets was Mike E. Clark who spent quite a bit of time spinning some of the new material from his upcoming Murder Mix Volume 2.
Anyone that knows me knows I am not a huge fan of AMB's music but I did gain a lot more respect for them after watching them keep the crowd engaged and under control when Mike E. Clark kept having trouble getting his sound and turntable up and running.
At one point, local Detroit rapper Tone Tone, who is featured on Murder Mix Volume 2, came out and performed a couple of songs for the crowd.
Eventually, Mike E. Clark's last set was cut short because of the sound problems.
Luckily, there were no problems during own Boondox and Anybody Killa's (ABK) sets.
Boondox came out with his banner behind him and proceeded to run through songs from all of his four albums including fan favorites "Seven", "Sippin'" and "Death of A Hater".
His set also included songs off his latest album South of Hell including "Cold Day In Hell" and "Toast to the Fam".
Boondox's southern rap style stands out in it's uniqueness and he has a great stage prescence.
ABK also stands out for his own unique style of rap that mixes his Native American heritage in with a mix of gangster rap and old school hip/hop.
His latest album Medicine Bag is the best release on Psychopathic Records this year and on Sunday he performed the song "Nervous" and the first single "Last Chance", which was easily the highlight of his set with the crowd singing and swaying along.
His energetic performances of "Guillotine" and "Stick and Move" also stood out.
However, it was ICP that everyone came to see and they did not disappoint pulling out a set full of many of their usual songs but mixed them up a bit and included a few new ones thrown in as well.
Naturally, they opened the show with their popular Halloween track "Dead Pumpkins".
Their set this year was a mix of spookiness featuring a rocking Exorcist figure, a full moon and a ton of pumpkins.
Set highlights included fantastic performances of "Hokus Pokus" and "Boogie Woogie Wu" and the appearance of Twiztid to perform "Homies", "Spin The Bottle" and a track that hadn't been performed in years "Whut".
Before the end of the show, the band took a moment to unveil the newest Joker's Card in a second planned series that they are calling The Mighty Death Pop!.
They closed the set with "If I Was A Serial Killer" and the appropriate "I'm Coming Home" that featured everyone on the bill coming out to bathe the crowd in Faygo.