Detroit, MI

Sabrina Carpenter in Detroit: Short n’ Sweet Tour gets big and spicy at LCA

Published

4 months ago

September 27, 2024

Sabrina Carpenter in Detroit: Short n’ Sweet Tour gets big and spicy at LCA

Sabrina Carpenter arrived Thursday at Little Caesars Arena seemingly driven by a mission: to stake a place among the leading, talking-point pop tours of 2024.

In a fun, frothy, vivacious and occasionally risqué show, the 25-year-old managed to make a solid case for it as she played to a sellout crowd in downtown Detroit on the third night of her Short n’ Sweet Tour.

“Please Please Please,” “Taste” and “Espresso” are some of the most delectably catchy tunes to come through the pop pipeline in a while, and they became cornerstones of a Thursday set list that featured all 12 numbers from “Short n’ Sweet,” the chart-topping album that lends the new tour its name. On a crisp night outside LCA that reminded us autumn is officially here, Carpenter served a 1½-hour indoor dose of sunny summertime sounds.

The signature wavy blond hair and fluttery vibrato were accompanied by ample energy from the pint-sized singer-songwriter, a 5-foot-tall star for whom “a little goes a long way,” as one video-screen inscription cheekily put it Thursday night.

She may be the year’s hottest breakout pop star, but Carpenter is no rookie: Having come through the Disney system as a teen actress a decade ago, Carpenter spent four early albums with a music career stalled in second gear.

Then came a new record deal and an A-list batch of collaborators such as Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff — and with the 2022 album “Emails I Can’t Send,” Carpenter was emphatically on to the self-proclaimed “big girl” chapter of her story. With a series of plum opening spots on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, she was primed for another step up, and “Short n’ Sweet” delivered it in a potent way this summer.

Sabrina Carpenter remembers her first concert in Michigan

Sabrina Carpenter, making her Little Caesars Arena debut on Thursday, reflected on a far less flashy visit to metro Detroit in 2016.

After previous stops at venues such as the Fillmore Detroit and Masonic Temple Theatre — along with Pontiac’s cozy Pike Room in 2016, as she recounted onstage Thursday — Carpenter was going full-scale with this latest Motor City visit.

On a main stage designed as a two-story New York penthouse apartment, Carpenter spent the first stretch of her LCA show in a pink negligée, kicking things off with the lush textures of “Taste” and “Good Graces” while undergirding “Slim Pickins” and “Lie to Girls” with vintage pop chording that revealed the old-school inspirations that fuel her latest work.

The night unfolded as a turn-of-the-’80s TV program, complete with voiceovers, videotaped mock-commercials and a pair of oversized studio cameras onstage to drive home the point. Carpenter would later emerge in a black bodysuit for a cocktail party segment (with a jazzy take on “Feather”) and sparkling gown for an elegant “Dumb & Poetic,” and the live episode would include a roll of closing credits listing tour personnel.

Her lyrics are laced with sexual references — some upfront, some implicit — but Carpenter gives it all a self-aware wink that makes it more camp than coarse. On Thursday, “Bed Chem” had her briefly writhing in a plush bedroom suite, while the exuberant dance-pop of “Juno” came with a quick flash of panties following a round of flirting with a Brighton fan named Dakota down front. She led the mostly teenage, female crowd in a call-and-response spotlighting three words: “camaraderie,” “horny” and “friendship.”

But the Short n’ Sweet show was otherwise a standard pop extravaganza that stayed between the lines, with 11 dancers, a four-piece band, a pair of backing singers and a confetti-blasted finale supplementing the action. (Then again, not every standard pop concert includes a lengthy black-and-white clip from 1966 with Leonard Cohen musing on poetry — as Thursday’s show did — so maybe something a little deeper is afoot here.)

Carpenter is proficient as a live performer and serviceable as a singer, but her real power lies in the craftsmanship of her songs. They’re astutely crafted pop tunes, more sophisticated than they might seem at first listen, nodding to previous golden eras without lapsing into retro laziness.

The menu of preshow music that kept fans occupied before the 9:05 p.m. start helped tell that tale: selections of ’70s disco-pop (ABBA, Andy Gibb), ’80s power pop (the La’s) and ’90s melodic rock (the Cardigans), foreshadowing the blend of influences that would inform Carpenter’s own set.

At one point, gathered with her dance crew on a heart-shaped B-stage, Carpenter played musical spin-the-bottle — a game to determine one cover-song performance for the evening. Having tackled ABBA in Columbus and Shania Twain in Toronto, she gave Detroit a rendition of “Kiss Me,” the 1999 alt-rock-pop hit by Sixpence None the Richer.

A soft-lit “Don’t Smile” closed the regular set before Carpenter returned, a Detroit-branded coffee mug in hand, to kick into the inevitable encore of “Espresso,” the career-defining hit with the instantly memorable hooks.

In a pop era that includes the likes of Charlie XCX, Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo, Carpenter may not be the most cutting-edge figure rocking the mainstream right now. But she’s clearly carving out a distinctive creative lane of her own — and we’ll see if Short n’ Sweet can grow into something long and lasting.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

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Detroit, MI

Detroit Lions injury update: Amik Robertson OUR for game (elbow)

Published

35 minutes ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Detroit Lions injury update: Amik Robertson OUR for game (elbow)

On just the second defensive snap of the game, Detroit Lions cornerback Amik Robertson suffered a brutal-looking elbow injury. While Robertson was making a tackle, teammate Jack Campbell came crashing in and smashed into Robertson’s arm.

Robertson had to be escorted to the locker room with trainings stabilizing his arm. Initial reports from the team called it an elbow injury and he is questionable to return.

UPDATE: Robertson has been downgraded to out. He will not return.

If Robertson is out, it’s a devastating blow for the Lions defense, which is already missing several cornerbacks. Carlton Davis (IR), Emmanuel Moseley (non-football illness), Ennis Rakestraw (IR), and Khalil Dorsey (IR) are all currently out, with only Rakestraw expected to return. The only healthy cornerbacks on the active roster against the Commanders are Terrion Arnold, Kindle Vildor, and practice squad call-up Stantley Thomas-Oliver. Vildor stepped in for Robertson on the opening drive.

We’ll provide more updates as they come in for the Lions. Let’s hope for the best for now.

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Detroit, MI

Detroit Lions have NFL’s second-longest active championship drought at 67 years

Published

8 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Detroit Lions have NFL’s second-longest active championship drought at 67 years

The Detroit Lions are trying to shed some franchise history during the 2025 NFL playoffs.

The Lions are the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the first time and host the Washington Commanders Saturday in the divisional round. With a win, the Lions could reach the NFC championship game for a second consecutive year and host the game for the first time in franchise history.

If the Lions can win two playoff games against Washington and then the winner of the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams, Detroit they would reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. They are the only NFC team to never reach the big game.

The Lions’ history has not been kind regarding championships. Detroit is one of 12 teams not to win a Super Bowl since it began in the 1966 season. The Lions are one of seven teams to win a championship before the Super Bowl era but haven’t won in the 66 seasons since their 1957 triumph.

The Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee Titans (then known as the Houston Oilers), Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills are the other teams to have a championship in history but no Super Bowl.

NFL longest active championship droughts

The Lions have the second-longest active drought, trailing the Cardinals by a decade. The Lions, who won four NFL championships, most recently finished at the top of the league in 1957 (other championship years are 1935, 1952 and 1953). Famously after the 1957 championship, the Lions traded quarterback Bobby Layne, who starred on the three championship teams, and he cursed the franchise for 50 years without another championship.

The Lions are now at 67 years, but might have gotten some recent help from actor and fan Jeff Daniels.

The Cardinals, along with the Chicago Bears, are the oldest team in NFL history founded in 1920. The Cardinals have two championships, but last won in 1947 when they were based in Chicago. Their championship drought is at 77 years. The Cardinals lost in a classic Super Bowl to the Pittsburgh Steelers to conclude the 2008 season.

The Oilers won their only two championships in the AFL in 1960-61.

The Chargers won their only championship in the AFL in 1963.

The Bills won consecutive AFL championships in 1964-65.

The Vikings won the NFL championship in 1969 but lost Super Bowl 4 to the Kansas City Chiefs in the final season before the AFL and NFL merged into one league.

Five franchises founded during the Super Bowl era — the Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans and Carolina Panthers — have never won a championship.

The four teams without a Super Bowl appearance are the Lions, Browns, Texans and Jaguars, though the Lions are the only team to play in every season of the Super Bowl era and still be left out.

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.

Stay tuned for the best Lions coverage throughout the playoffs and all year long at freep.com/sports/lions.

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Detroit, MI

Man wins Detroit Lions playoff tickets following bakery raffle:

Published

16 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Man wins Detroit Lions playoff tickets following bakery raffle:

(CBS DETROIT) – It’s a sweet way to celebrate your birthday: Free tickets to see the Detroit Lions.

“When they sent me a text message, this is a scam. I was like, ‘Don’t pick it up.’ Then they were like ‘If you don’t, we will go to the next person.’ I was like hold on,” Niko Monjarez said.

It’s a notification that almost seemed too good to be true. Niko just celebrated his birthday, and luckily, his aunt knew about Home Bakery’s raffle and was looking to score. The bakery recently went viral after creating a cake imitating the headstand celebration done by Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.

The cake is pretty popular in the Rochester community. After St.Brown visited the business, he offered up two tickets for Saturday’s game.

“I thought I’d just get the receipt and stick it in his card, I probably won’t win. The love gift is, I spent two hours in the cold waiting just for him,” Monjarez’s aunt, Cyndi Wehrli, told CBS News Detroit.

The St. Brown cake is pretty popular in the Rochester community. After St.Brown visited the business, he offered up two tickets for Saturday’s playoff game.

Customers had to buy something from the bakery to participate. That decision alone was a game-changer.

“Normally, in January, I’m laying off, I’m cutting hours, some up to 25%. I don’t have to do that. Some of my people will look for a second job; they don’t have to do that,” said bakery owner Heather Tocco.

Tocco and her team decided on the headstand cake weeks ago. It took around 200 hours to complete and stands just over 6 feet tall.

“We actually took the image of him on his head and expanded it to the height that we wanted,” she said.

Wehrli says she is in disbelief that her nephew won. As a lifelong Lions fan, she’s proud to witness the team’s progress.

“I think it’s so amazing that St. Brown did what he did and used a local entity,” she said.

Monjarez isn’t surprised his aunt had the winning receipt. He says she does a lot of good in the world. With the win, he now gets the chance to surprise another family member.

“My dad’s been a lifetime Lions fan. This is historic, and to be able to go see that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Monjarez said.

The cake display will stay up until the Super Bowl, while the Home Bakery team is planning to replace it with a Vince Lombardi display.

Terell Bailey

Originally from Chesapeake, Virginia, Terell has had a passion for broadcast journalism since childhood. Growing up, throughout his schooling he was known for doing the “morning announcements.” Fitting he became a TV journalist, right?

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