About this weekend's Doomtree Blowout...

***UPDATE: We just got word that Mayor R.T. Rybak is going to declare it Doomtree Day in Minneapolis on Friday, which hopefully means Sims' parking tickets will also be taken care of. The mayor is expected to show up at Friday's show with the official "Whereas..." proclamation. He may want to think twice about trying to crowdsurf at this one, though, as he's prone to do at First Ave. Doomtree fans are a little rowdier than those Suburbs and Trampled by Turtles crowds.

It's absurd that a three-night stand at First Avenue could be seen as "scaling back," but in the case of Doomtree's Blowout VIII concerts that statement is technically true. Last year the Hopkins-reared hip-hop collective pulled off a seven-night run between the main room and the Entry, and the response was so crazed that the venue and fans were pining for a repeat.

"That just seemed like it would be too much of the same thing two years in a row," said Doomtree producer/beatmaker/engine-driver Lazerbeak, who believes his crew "will up the game in a different way" by adding one extra night to the main room (Sunday's 7 p.m. all-ages show, which is not yet sold-out, preceded by Friday's and Saturday's very sold-out 9 p.m. 18-and-up gigs). They have a few other additions to their playbook, including the first-ever Doomtree pairing with a live backing band. Members of Dessa's touring group and P.O.S.' Marijuana Deathsquads are set to join the crew at some point in all three shows.

Originally, the Blowout concerts were a way for Doomtree members to come together after working on their individual projects. This time, however, they spent most of the first half of 2012 together, touring everywhere from Europe to Lollapalooza behind their group album, "No Kings," released last December. Their adventures abroad and connections at home are featured in the documentary "Team the Best Team," released on DVD in time for this year's Blowout. "It's probably the best starting point for anybody who doesn't know anything about Doomtree," Lazerbeak said.

There still is a reunion aspect to this year's Blowout, since four of the five rappers — Dessa, Mike Mictlan, Sims and Cecil Otter — have been hard at work on new solo albums. The fifth MC, P.O.S., also just dropped his latest, "We Don't Even Live Here," alongside the stunning news he's due for a kidney transplant next month. With dialysis keeping him strong in the meantime, P.O.S. might even have handled another weeklong marathon. Maybe next year.