Sherburt 2/5/24 Sherburt 2/5/24

The Slaughter The Martour with Machine Head and More @ St Andrew’s Hall in Detroit

Machine Head brought the Slaughter the Martour to Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit Saturday night. Packed to the gills alongside friends in Fear Factory, Sweden’s Orbit Culture, and my favorite on the lineup Gates to Hell. As a precaution, I brought two King Palm Slims and tried to stay as covert as possible. At the moment I am experimenting with inadvertantly overhearing aging music fans and their casual opinions about Detroit. Before we get to the negative, let’s get to the positive. This show was sold out. The bands all ripped. I didn’t have a single boring moment at all, no matter where I was in the venue. Staff is mostly welcome to me except for the other newer middle-aged dudes who just haven’t figured me out yet. They’ll get there.

The most thrilling part of all of this is that it’s the first new article on the newly launched site. After years of using branded sites, I peeked into the production world with the most non-press work last year. This led me to today where I am just going for it full bar all on me and not behind a brand or company idea. With that being said, I Like Their Old Stuff will live on with Anniversary Features on the site and Time Is A Circle Pit will be the Podcast presented by Sherburt. Fun times.

The Slaughter the Martour

There were a few cool moments about getting this to photograph this gig. For starters, I loved seeing Gates to Hell play to a new crowd. That band is one of my favorites coming from Louisville’s bustling intertwining hardcore and metal scene alongside the likes of Knocked Loose, Inclination, World Of Pleasure, Belushi Speed Ball, and a ton of others.

Getting to see Orbit Culture and their Swedish Melodic Death Metal onslaught kept my brain in functioning ADHD mode. I blame the double bass that was on a level only to be rivaled by Tomas Haake himself. Not a set to be missed.

The best part of the night wasn’t getting Fear Factory for the 2nd time in a year but getting Machine Head for the first time. Machine Head co-headlined my first show at Harpo’s with Coal Chamber. The openers for that show were Amen and Slipknot. 1999. 25 years later Robb Flynn is spitting on me at Saint Andrew’s Hall. It’s really hard not to think about how much has changed since that show in 99, typing on a computer like this was unheard of outside of Doogie Howser and the original blog sites like Angelfire or Homestead. I was barely 16 years old when I first saw them and now I’m staring at a bottle of Baby Aspirin.

I will say this. Over the last decade, I have gone to 100s of shows. This was a perfectly booked tour. I loved every minute of the show and had a blast working it with a bunch of pretty rad Detroit photographers and some newcomers. Dodging tour managers with cell phones and VIPs invading the photo pit was hilarious to me. I am so inundated with DIY shows and the things that happen there, I forgot a little bit, of just how ridiculous metal as a whole is. I prefer my punk and hardcore shows for sure but metal is always a very close third for me.

If you’re anywhere in the path of this tour, check it out and get tickets. It was worth all the trouble and welp, I kept hearing folks talk about this being their first time at this venue.
A venue that just celebrated 116 years since opening…
WITH THAT BEING SAID I HAVE TO SAY THIS…

METRO DETROIT, STOP BEING AFRAID OF DETROIT. IT IS 2024. IT IS NOT ROBOCOP TIME ANYMORE. YES, SOME AREAS AREN’T THAT GREAT BUT YOU’RE NOT GOING THERE ANYWAY. ALL THE VENUES YOU WILL GO TO, ARE DOWNTOWN. IT’S OKAY. STOP STAYING AT HOME AND WATCHING THE SAME NETFLIX RERUNS. LIVE A LITTLE. GO TO SHOWS.

The Slaughter The Martour with Machine Head and More @ St Andrew’s Hall in Detroit

The Slaughter the Martour

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