Wednesday February 1st 2017 was a hair whipping, head banging good time at The Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan. With four bands, each delivering good ole heavy rock n roll, the crowd was in it from the start.
Letters From The Fire, out of San Francisco, CA got things kicked off. What was the first of three female fronted bands for the night, Alexa Kabazie belted out strong vocals as the rest of the band, Mike Keller and Cameron Stucky on guitars, Clayton Wages on bass and Brian Sumwalt on drums, rocked out heavy riffs. This was my first time seeing Letters From The Fire and I was impressed as the vocals were on point and the music was heavy, fast and catchy. The energy exudes from this band and never lets up, even when they slow the pace down. Very nice start to the evening.
Next up, based out of Los Angeles, CA was Stitched Up Heart, led by singer Alecia Demner, aka Mixi, picked up the pace left off by Letters From The Fire, with strong vocals and heavy music by the guys in the band, Merritt Goodwin on lead guitar, Randy Mathias on bass, James Decker on drums and Nick Bedrosian on rhythm guitar. Mixi derives her material from her personal life and you can feel those hard times and triumphs when she sings. It makes for haunting yet beautiful music that you can rock out to. The crowd was very into the music and Mixi returned that energy by crowd surfing as she sang.
Palisades went on next. Based out of New Jersey, with Louis Miceli providing lead vocals, the lone male lead vocalist of the night and musically assisted with fellow band members Xavier Adames on lead guitar, Matthew Marshall on rhythm guitar, Brandon Elgar on bass guitar and Aaron Rosa on drums. Playing a different sound unlike the first two bands, Palisades had a less heavy metal feel, but the times when they did play heavy songs, they ripped it apart, which got the crowd moshing along.
Headlining the evening was Lacey Sturm, a dynamo that captures the attention of the audience with her vocals. Lacey was a treat to see and she shared many stories throughout her life in between songs, talking about dark times in her life when she contemplated suicide and was turned around through Christianity and began to see the good in life. Lacey stressed that we are never alone, even if we feel so, we are never alone. We were all together this night in the name of rock and roll. And with bandmates, Lacey’s husband, Josh Sturm on guitar, Tom Gascon on drums and Ben Hull on bass, the music was hard and heavy as Lacey led the crowd through song after song.
It was a night full of great rock n roll, heads were banging, hair was flinging and the crowd was singing along with many of the songs the bands played. I even noticed Mixi in the photo pit snapping some pictures of Letters From The Fire and Alexa Kabazie doing the same taking pictures of Stitched UpHeart. The chemistry between the bands showed a fun atmosphere. It goes to show, even when have gone through or are going through tough times, we are never alone, and good times can be had.