Short North Gazette: Michael "Micky" Bletz

Back in 20008 the Short North Gazette covered the death of "hard rockin’ rock and roller Michael “Micky” Bletz" of The Burners. Here is part of that:

He was one of those guys who was the most memorable characters in your life,” Barnes said. “He was one of the most generous people you’re ever going to meet, one of the most loyal people you’re ever going to meet. I feel like in my life I’ve had a few relationships like that, and Michael was one of them.” 

Between his Jackie Cupid and Baffoos days, Bletz played for other bands, including The Gangsters and The Burners, local stars in the mid-1980s. 

“He was a great rock and roll performer,” remembers Dan Dougan, former owner of Stache’s (later Little Brother’s), where The Burners played. “He was a real slick dresser, too. Really natty. He really knew how to style.” 

The Burners gave a Fourth of July performance in 1986 in the Park of Roses that turned a community get-together into an event to remember. 

“Way back in the day, that band rocked,” said Bryan Wolfe, an acquaintance of Bletz’s. “When they backed Bo Diddley at what I thought would be a neighborhood picnic, there was a show going on there that was way out of proportion from what you’d expect at a holiday picnic. The music was coming hard and fast. It was a great show.”
Passion was Bletz’s musical trademark. 

“He was able to feel a song, not just play the song, but feel the meaning of the song and understand what the song was trying to say and stir in a person,” Scranton said. “And he could put his signature on that. He could make a song that you’ve heard all your life and make it sound familiar, but make it sound different.”

The Lantern: Stache’s to play its last tune

In 1997, legendary bar Stache's was shuttered and Dan Dougan would spend the next ten years operating Little Brother's in the Short North. Here's a piece the The Lantern did on the closing:

The current and final owner of Stache’s, Dan Dougan, paces behind the bar answering a slew of phone calls about an upcoming show. Behind him hang pictures, clippings, letters and notes. The memories fill the wall, camouflaging the row of liquor bottles. Considering the bar’s history, which dates back to around 1970, there are many memories that Dougan will be able to hold onto once the bar closes its door for good on March 31, 1997. The bar was first called Stache’s and Little Brother’s after the two owners. One of the owners, Stache, had a mustache, while the other, Little Brother, was shorter than his mustachioed partner, Dougan said. Dougan began frequenting the 200 capacity bar in the early 1980s. By this time Stache’s was owned by Shelly and Mike Young, Dougan said. In 1988 Dougan made the leap from patron to owner.

Columbus Alive 2017: Little Brother’s, big shoes

In 2017, ten years after the closing of Little Brother's, the Columbus Alive looked back with an oral history of the venue, talking with Dan Dougan and a variety of other Columbus music folks.

Ten years after the last notes rang out at Little Brother’s, Dougan’s rock clubs are still revered as much as they are missed in the city’s music scene. For years, local rockers and concertgoers have been on the search for “the new Little Brother’s,” a mantle most recently bestowed on Ace of Cups, whose owner, Marcy Mays, is intimately familiar with Stache’s and Little Brother’s from her time in Scrawl.