Against The Grain, The Amino Acids, U.S. Bastards and Busby Death Chair bring down the house at Smalls Bar.
Against The Grain at Smalls Bar 06/07/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
This night could not have been any better. We were risking missing Busby Death Chair to get some quality sushi at our favorite spot (which is right on the way), but we made it to Smalls Bar in Hamtramck with time to spare. If you read some of my stories from last year, you may recall that we had to go through some tight alleys to get to The Sanctuary (which is a couple of blocks before Smalls Bar, on the same road) to get past construction for a few months. The construction has now moved down to the block that Smalls Bar is on, but the same network of alleys got us efficiently past it.
Busby Death Chair at Smalls Bar 06/07/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Smalls Bar was packed; it wasn't sold out (at least when we went in), but it seemed to be close to capacity. That's as it should be, as seeing a live set by Against The Grain is a rare treat. Add in Busby Death Chair, U.S. Bastards, and The Amino Acids, and this was a cannot-miss show. I'm normally into straight-up punk rock or hardcore, but this was more of a rock-n-roll/speed rock show. You can sometimes tell just by the T-shirts that the band members have on, and at this show members of two of the bands had on Speedealer shirts, and Rob Nowak from Against The Grain wore Turbonegro (foreshadowing a highlight to come).
This was my first time seeing Busby Death Chair, although I had seen guitarist Tyler Chernoff's other band (Edison Hollow). Edison Hollow is killer rock-n-roll, with extremely talented musicians, so I was looking forward to seeing his other band. They were intense, and although I loved every minute of it the highlight was the encore where they brought out a member of legendary local band The Fiesty Cadavers and did a cover of "Mausoleum" from their "Dying Art" 7" (a record that I bought when I was a kid, on green vinyl, and still have it!).
U.S. Bastards at Smalls Bar 06/07/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
I was expecting a more hardcore show from U.S. Bastards, but this one leaned towards speedrock/deathpunk. They brought in their own Marshall stacks and had maybe the biggest sound (and certainly the biggest stacks) that I had ever experienced at Smalls. They did a shout-out to Rob Nowak from Against the Grain before playing "Bad Deeds" and did an incredible cover of Motörhead's "Killed by Death." Kyle Davis from Against The Grain came out and joined them on vocals for the Motörhead cover. The highlight of the show, and maybe even of the entire night, however, was when they stripped down to g-strings and did a cover of Turbonegro's "Prince Of The Rodeo". You had to be there, but trust me, it was amazing (and unexpected).
The Amino Acids at Smalls Bar 06/07/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
I really didn't know what to expect from The Amino Acids, but I still feel like what I got was unexpected. We knew this was going to be interesting as soon as they came out in white masks with nylons over them and in matching black clothes. Their main prop was a cart with their logo on it that contained a sort of synthesizer that was played by a member moving his hand closer to and then away from an antenna and pushing buttons that produced various sounds. The most unique thing was probably that they had no vocalist but still pulled off a few songs (mainly due to the drummer) that sounded punk rock and got the audience moving. It also helped that the synth guy jumped out into the crowd to start a mosh pit and, at various times, fell over and played dead and jumped on someone's back for a ride through the audience. Thoroughly enjoyable set, and at the end they kicked over the drum set and left all of their instruments in shambles as they departed.
The show got a later start than expected, so Against The Grain was taking the stage at nearly 11:00pm (still early for shows 20 years ago, but more recently bands have been playing earlier). I think that only built the anticipation, and once they started, they never stopped. This was a crazy, fast, and furious set of 13 songs that included classics like "Armadillo," "Rolling Stone," and "Surrounded by Snakes" but also brand-new songs like "Gimme A Fix," "Shattered," and "Queen of the Highway." Up until this point, there really hadn't been much of a mosh pit, but with ATG on the stage, it opened up. For nearly the entire set, the mosh pit was in full force, and it was hard to stay in one place in the crowd. A great show, tons of energy, and a fitting end to a great night with a great line-up. They haven't been playing a lot of headlining shows lately, probably due to working on a new album, but if they set up another one, I'll be there for sure.
