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+++ Suicide Machines +++ |
Headliner:
After paying damn $10 for parking, I had a great time trying to convince the bouncer outside of Clutch Cargos that I had a backstage pass and free tickets. Apparently he couldn’t find my name on the list. So I had to convince someone else to go check it again, and he found my name and I got let in. The size of the crowd was only around 300 since Clutch Cargos is such a small place, and it consisted of mostly your typical goth, punk, ska, and emo fans.
The show opened with the punk band Half the Battle , and well personally I thought they sucked. See I appreciate some punk, but this stuff was what I like to call Michigan Junk Punk (MJP), since Michigan seems to produce a lot of shitty punk bands. It seemed like all they had going for them is that they could scream and play loud. Plus, their instrument volumes weren’t balanced well, which highlighted their inability to make good music. At least their name made sense, since its half the battle just trying not to kill yourself when you listen to them. But the next band, ForDireLifeSake , was better. It could be described as a lighter sounding Slayer with a punk twist. I thought this band was pretty good overall, and it made up for having to listen to Half the Battle. The third band up was River City Rebels. They were a decent 7 piece punk/ska band, and I liked a few of their songs. However, overall, they could almost also be put in the MJP category.
So up to that point the concert wasn’t very good in my opinion. However, The Suicide Machines were up next, and I like a couple of their songs, so hope hadn’t died yet. They ended up playing a pretty good show, and did play a couple songs that I thought were good. So, they saved the show for me. If it wasn’t for them, this concert review would have been rated R due to obscene language. Unfortunately, they didn’t play my favorite Suicide Machines song, “The Vans Song”, but hey I’ll get over it. So overall the concert was all right in my opinion, but not one of my favorite concerts. Sam Derks gives it a 3 out of 10. I’m not as much of an asshole as Sam, so I give it a 5.5 out of 10.
I did like the setup of Clutch Cargos. I think it’s a cool little place to have concerts, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more concerts there. Almost everything was all in the same room. You could buy drinks/food/band merchandise all while you were right there watching the concert. They also had a second story that anyone could go up on and watch the concert with a bird’s eye view from. They had a bar backstage right behind the band where you could get alcohol and almost be on stage with the band as they play. Most importantly though, it was small enough so wherever you stood you had a good view of the stage.
After the show, Suicide Machine Jay invited anyone who wanted to to come talk to the band and chill with them after the show. Jay also walked out and talked with fans and took pictures with whoever wanted them. I thought it was cool that he treated everyone like they were no less important as him, and didn’t mind mingling with the “little people”. After he was done doing that, I interviewed him. You can read that interview in the “latest interviews” section of The Media Fix.
Suicide Machines
Also featured: Half the Band,
ForDireLifeSake,
River City Rebels
Date:
12-20-03
Venue:
Clutch Cargo in Detroit, MI
Rating:
2.75 out of 5 stars
Reviewer:
DJ Booker
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