It was over toward Eric’s hometown for the Valentiger boys on this chilly Saturday night.  A lot of things were still up in the air after the bill was rebuilt upon the canceling of OFFICE (the band), but these brave gentlemen made the trip to play one hell of an eclectic gig.  Though you might think otherwise, the Lager House is not a brewery.  It’s your standard, slightly dirty Detroit bar in the Corktown region but with some personality.  Which leads to the opening set of Trowt, who was kind enough to jump at the bill at the last minute.  His only mistake of the night was publicly admitting that baseball sucks – and maybe playing the piano over house music.  No one seemed to mind.  Valentiger then took the stage to play a perfectly short set under 45 minutes.  Once again, “Man On Fire” really grabbed the crowd about halfway through and it was all eyes and ears after that.  “Hard To Let Me Down” seemed very energetic and flawless and it may have had something to do with Kehoe deciding to share a microphone with Shirey during the opening chorus.  The bar was getting quite busy by the time Valentiger ended their set with “Lament,” leaving the crowd wanting more.  But the boys talked to just about everyone and also fielded a lot of questions about Grand Rapids’ Art Prize.  Next, Karalavara, a sort of punk-a-billy Misfits, played their second set of the night having opened for Butthole Surfers earlier.  They were pretty tight as a band and some damned nice guys as well.  Now, as I sat with Valentiger, who was having a great conversation with the owner of the joint, I noticed something very strange was going on in the live room.  There was some sort of electronic band starting up with a “hot girl” singing strange Gothic things over Halloween-ish noises and drums.  All this was happening in a packed room while the other half of the bar really had no idea at all.  Rider encountered one creature wetting his hair in the bathroom sink and then whipping it backward all over the place.  An ex-member of OFFICE came into the bar during our set claiming he had heard “some authentic 60s music.”  The drummer from Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels was there and the owner of the bar genuinely enjoyed our set.  All in all, many different things coexisted perfectly on this night.  Rider was laughed at when he mentioned mid-set that the three of us were golfing the next morning.  Little did they know that we golfed for free at Reddeman Farms twelve hours later.  Kehoe’s grandpa built the course.