The Suicide Machines Back-To-Back Nights at Small’s Bar.
Jason Navarro of The Suicide Machines at Small’s Bar in Hamtramck, MI—all photos courtesy of Paul Holstien
One of the greatest things about living in the Detroit Metro area is The Suicide Machines. Although vocalist Jason Navarro has recently moved to an adjacent state, they still hold true to their roots and play our local bars often. For the second consecutive year, they played back-to-back nights at Smalls Bar. This time it was for an album play of "War Profiteering Is Killing Us All." As expected, tickets were sold out for both nights. It wasn't in the cards for me to catch the warm-ups (Detroit 442 and Her Head Is On Fire) either night, but I arrived for both right after the warm-up band was done and with a perfect amount of time to get in place near the stage for The Suicide Machines.
Both nights, it didn't go unnoticed by the band that many of the same fans that go to all of their shows were in the house. They spent a lot of time on a heartfelt and sincere thank you. Then they ripped into the album play, which took about 30-40 minutes and included arguably their most popular song, "Ghost on Sunset Strip." Even after taking the time to stress that they will never play the Punk In The Park festival, endorsing Small's new "Fuck Ice" T-shirts for sale at the bar (they recommended buying these even over their own merch), and pulling a girl up on stage with a sign reading "I traveled almost 8,000 miles in 4 years and I finally got this lousy song!", they were ready to play more. Both nights they continued on with 7 or 8 more other favorites from their backlog (bringing it to a 20+ song set). The first night included "Black Tar Halo," "To Play Ceaser," and "Awkward Always." The second night included "Permanent Holiday," "Your Silence," and "DDT."
There were so many fast songs, it almost felt like a hardcore show (even though they continually stressed that they are not a hardcore band). The pit was constantly going, and being all-ages, some of the younger crowd was iteratively crowdsurfing to the back and then pushing back up front to do it again. Jason mentioned having pulled his back out recently, so he stayed out of the crowd for this one, but they played with all of the anger and energy that you would expect. Another weekend to be remembered; hopefully, there are many more to come.
