GBH, Slaughterhouse, The Mainliners 2025 U.S. TOur

Nov 15

***Colin Abrahall*** of ***GBH*** *at The Loving Touch in Ferndale, MI, Halloween night 2025—all photos courtesy of* *Paul Holstein*

Halloween is actually a great night for a punk rock show. There were sure to be plenty of punks in costume at the show, and everyone everywhere is generally in a mood to have fun. Luckily, trick-or-treating in my neighborhood started early, because we wanted to leave in time to catch all three bands. After stashing a few choice picks from the Halloween cauldron on the front porch in the car for the ride home, we piled in to head to the show. GBH is punk rock royalty, and The Loving Touch is one of the smaller, more intimate venues in the Detroit area. You could say we were excited. I put in a GBH CD that I had burned for the ride down, which included 30-40 of their classics along with a ton of legendary bands covering them ("Necrophilia" by The Hookers and "Sick Boy" by The Accused being two of my favorites). It was only a few minutes before the debate started about what GBH stands for (in the end, we were split between "Great Britain Hardcore" and "Grievous Bodily Harm").

***The Mainliners*** *at The Loving Touch in Ferndale, MI, Halloween night 2025—all photos courtesy of* *Paul Holstein*

I'd seen The Mainliners before, during Punk Rock Bowling 2025 at a club show (it was a stacked line-up with The Adolescents, The Stitches, The Drowns, and The Mainliners at Backstage Bar & Billiards). I was glad to see that they made it to Detroit, and honestly this show was even better. Being Halloween night, it wasn't surprising to see them all come out with Lucha Libre wrestling masks (however, it was hard to tell if that was normal or just a Halloween one-off).

Slaughterhouse at The Loving Touch in Ferndale, MI Halloween night 2025—All photos courtesy of *Paul Holstein*

I was disappointed that Meriel O'Connell wasn't singing for Slaughterhouse, as she was definitely the star when I saw them a few years back in Orlando, FL, at Punk In The Park. The new singer was good and definitely had the youth and energy that is expected of this band. The last time they were doing a killer Suicidal Tendencies cover, and they recently had a track on the "Killed By Death: A Tribute To Motörhead" compilation, but instead they chose to do a cover of Black Flag's "My War" at this show. They recently released a new single, "Sick And Tired," and the standout of the set was the title track from that. After the show I did some research and couldn't find out much, other than the new singer was "filling in" and Meriel would be back.

GBH

GBH took the stage at The Loving Touch in Ferndale, Michigan, on Halloween night, and the atmosphere became electric. It's hard to overstate how incredible it is to have a legendary band like GBH in such an intimate setting. The place was packed, and there was a sizeable mosh pit, but at a small venue (capacity 350) like The Loving Touch, it's an experience like no other. The headlines the next day would tell us that "Federal investigators say they prevented a planned terrorist attack that was set to target LGBTQ+-friendly bars and clubs in downtown Ferndale over Halloween weekend," which put us right in their sights, but we were oblivious to the potential danger. GBH opened with "Diplomatic Immunity" and played a 22-song set of classics that included "Sick Boy," "Slit Your Own Throat," "No Survivors," and back-to-back LP title tracks "City Baby Attacked By Rats" and "City Baby's Revenge." They came out for an encore that included "Time Bomb" and their track from the recently released "Killed By Death: A Tribute To Motörhead", "Bomber." An unforgettable night.