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Thursday, May 23, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

When I first moved to South-
east Michigan, I was not expect-
ing to find a music scene as active 
and diverse as the one that exists 
today. I grew up in an area where 
our local music scene consisted 
of a few Sublime cover bands, so 
when I moved to Ann Arbor and 
experienced my first basement 
show, it was unlike anything I 
had ever experienced. People here 
really do care about music, and no 
event better represents this fact 
than the infamous BLED FEST.
Starting out as a small basement 
show and pool party, BLED FEST 
has blossomed into a distinct and 
special experience. Taking place 
at the Hartland Performing Arts 
Center (H-PAC), BLED FEST 
invites some of the biggest names 
in punk, rock, indie, metal and 
other genres to perform in an old 
high school gymnasium-turned-
performance-venue. And after 15 
years, the festival is finally com-
ing to a close.
The festival stands out for a 
variety of reasons, but what is 
most notable is how it still incor-
porates a do-it-yourself attitude. 
Although the festival has grown 
quite a bit over the past few years, 
moving from a basement to a per-
forming arts center, the same 
sort of independence and passion 
found in basement shows is still 
very much present today.
In an interview with The Mich-
igan Daily, Nate Dorough, presi-

dent of Fusion Shows and one of 
the chief organizers of the festi-
val, said BLED FEST is “sort of 
like a big family reunion that just 
keeps getting bigger and bigger 
every year.” Dorough attributes 
this atmosphere to the expanding 
diversity of genres present at the 
festival, stating that “back when it 
started, there was a lot of drama 
between punk fans and metal fans 
… but it seems to be a little more 
acceptable now to like rap, metal, 

indie rock and whatever else. As 
we’ve developed the things over 
the past twelve years I’ve been on 
board, there’s been a natural evo-
lution for us to continue to diver-
sify the festival and turn it into 
this esoteric mix of all different 
type(s) of music and walks of life.”
Along with having such a 
diverse lineup, the physical space 
of the festival looks drastically dif-
ferent from that of any other sum-
mer festival. Forget your shades, 
hats and sunscreen, because when 
BLED FEST arrives, school is not 
quite out for the summer yet. “It is 

in an old high school. There are no 
barricades; it’s not your tradition-
al venue where everything is far 
away, everything’s off limits and 
the bands are backstage. Every-
thing’s just sort of mixed in, no 
matter if you’re on- or off-stage,” 
Dorough described.
The festival stays true to its 
roots though, and despite hav-
ing headliners like The Wonder 
Years and Camp Cope, the festi-
val still showcases younger local 
bands on some of their smaller 
stages (one of which used to be an 
actual classroom). Bands from 
Southeast Michigan including 
Dogleg, Ness Lake, The Doozers, 
Complainer. and Mover Shaker, 
each of which already has a dedi-
cated local following, are given 
the opportunity to share the stage 
with over 60 different bands.
In 
addition 
to 
diversify-
ing genres present at the festi-
val, there’s one other aspect the 
organizers have been trying to 
improve. “A few years ago, we 
counted up the bands we had that 
year … and the show was awe-
some, but we noticed that there 
were only like four bands that had 
women in them, and like one band 
that has anyone that wasn’t white 
in it,” Dorough explained. “And we 
kind of had a ‘holy shit’ moment 
where we were like, we’ve got to 
change this.” And just by glanc-
ing through the lineup this year, 
the festival already appears to fea-
ture groups of all different gender 
identities, races and backgrounds.

BLED FEST takes a bow 

RYAN COX 
Daily Arts Writer

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

AXS

Read more at michigandaily.com

The Final BLED FEST

May 25, 2019

Hartland Performing 
Arts Center

$35/General 
admission

Fiction — science fiction in par-
ticular — is obsessed with the post-
apocalyptic world. From space 
odysseys to duels with zombies, 
readers and authors alike have a 
strange fascination with the world 
after the end of the world. But, for 
how different each iteration of these 
stories may seem, they all tend to 
follow a clear formula. Reed King’s 
“FKA USA” is no different.
The key to any good post-apoc-
alyptic story is the 
apocalypse 
itself, 
the more popular 
ones being envi-
ronmental destruc-
tion, a public health 
crisis or some ver-
sion of a space race. 
Sometimes, a writ-
er merges all three 
(though, 
granted, 
usually a problem 
in space is closely 
tied to an environ-
mental disaster). In 
“FKA USA,” King 
creates a world wrecked by human-
induced environmental disaster 
and the government’s poor man-
agement of the country. And yet, 
King is still able to draw in readers 
with the detailed history he builds 
around an oversaturated theme in 
science fiction.
Once readers know why the world 
as they know it is over, stories need 
to introduce the who. In “The Hun-
ger Games” there’s Katniss, “Ender’s 
Game” has Ender and “FKA USA” 
introduces Truckee Wallace to the 
growing number of teenagers and 
children contending with a world 
left in ruins by previous genera-
tions. Again, there are specific types 
of heroes in every post-apocalyptic 
world. Truckee is the kind of hero 
who was never meant to be a hero, 
something King highlights by insist-
ing Truckee has no redeeming qual-
ities, despite successfully surviving 
the death trap that is the western 
part of the former United States.
Occasionally, betrayal makes an 
appearance in these types of sto-
ries. And, when the main character 
is betrayed by their close friends, it 

can sting. However, Truckee and 
his friends only share surface-level 
relationships. King doesn’t establish 
a strong connection between them, 
so it wasn’t heart-wrenching when 
Truckee’s friends sold him out to the 
government. What could have been 
an agonizing moment was, instead, 
simply a surprising revelation.
But what is a science-fiction story, 
or a story in general, without a love 
story? At first, it seems like Truckee 
is going to be just another teen-
age boy, pining away for one of his 
friends, but, as the story progresses, 
the love story isn’t really a love story 
at all.
Instead, 
“FKA 
USA” 
explores 
Truckee’s sexuality 
as he grapples with 
his attraction to his 
android friend and 
loses his virginity to 
an android prosti-
tute. Each instance 
of Truckee’s failed 
intimacy 
invites 
further exploration 
of his downfalls, 
especially as he gets 
farther from his 
hometown and dis-
covers the truths about his country. 
Truckee’s story is one laden with sex 
— if he wasn’t a 15-year-old boy try-
ing to understand his relationship 
with women, I would call it misogy-
nistic. That said, I really hope Reed 
King has a better relationship with 
women than his writing would sug-
gest.
Finally, no science-fiction story 
is complete without social com-
mentary. In addition to criticism of 
how we treat the environment, King 
creates a complex world governed 
by corporations. The role of the 
president is played by a CEO, the HR 
department resembles our Congress 
and even the CIA makes an appear-
ance as the research and develop-
ment team of the company. It’s not 
a subtle comparison by any means, 
and it’s obvious that King dislikes 
the power corporations and capital-
ism have in our country. But it’s an 
effective way of forcing his readers 
to confront their understanding of 
our current system, maybe the only 

‘FKA USA’ relies 
on tropes of sci-fi

EMMA CHANG 
Senior Arts Editor

FKA USA

Reed King

Flatiron Books

June 18, 2019

BOOK REVIEW

Read more at michigandaily.com

