Dan Tatarian, owner of Showtime Clothing, has outfitted bands of Detroit amongst others for more than 20 years. Now, he wants to share his style and honor the many patrons with a free rock bash, stocked with eats and booze.
“A lot of my customers are out of work right now or have been laid-off so we’re doing it for them for free,” says Tatarian.
There’ll be kabobs, coffee, a cash bar, customer giveaways and more than 10 different bands covering a mix of music at the anniversary/rock stimulus party starting at 8 p.m., Friday at Hastings Street Ballroom.
Wow, celebrating 20 years in the D, what keeps your store alive?
The community. Others come and go, but we haven’t which gives a feeling of satisfaction.
Where’d you get the name from?
Showtime is something to put in people’s mind. I thought it up on a whim.
How would you describe Showtime’s style of clothing?
Eclectic. We have Motor City, rock, prom dresses, racy things, accessories; anything for an alternative lifestyle we fit that.
And you even outfit rock bands, too? What do they look to you for at Showtime?
The bands in the show shop here and will be wearing the clothes.
For us, it’s creating the community and shows together. They look for wild shirts, studded and ribbed things, blue velvet suits, David Bowie looks; there are all kinds and we complete the look.
Who’s your favorite band to work with?
The people who love to be taken care of. They may not like it at first, but then I tell them to shut the F*** up and try it on and they do and they end up liking it.
Any unusual requests?
One guy put on a pair of chaps and just that. I told him to take them off and he didn’t even end up buying them because he was broke. He loved the place, but he told me he was broke and couldn’t buy anything.
Where do you find your clothes from?
I go all over the country looking for obscure things.
What draws your eye as a buyer?
A pretty girl.
Ahh, I meant clothes wise?
Oh, well you didn’t clarify that (laughing). Colors, angles, if something is sharp and if it will look really nice on. What’s nice too is our customers are from different genres so they don’t cross paths and I like that.
How’d you get started 20 years ago anyways?
I opened my first store in 1982 with 500 bucks. I was thinking with my nuts, not that I ever think clearly, anyway.
So what’s going to be at the celebration and why should we come?
Hard rock, 60’s, rock ‘n’roll and country bands, including Crud, The Contours, Jiva, Saturnine Hello, Ingray, Bixy Lutz, Ante M, Michael Turner, Robby Nine, Ely Kelly and DJ Ben Beverly.
People should come to a party because they want to.
I mean why do you go to parties? It’ll be a good time, a get away and a way to release. It’s a bunch of free bands to show our love in Detroit and there’s a lot of love here.
