Suicidal Tendencies, Crowbar and Havok played to a sold out crowd at the State Theater on March 5th, 2017, unleashing metal chaos upon what was an interestingly mixed age crowd. Which to me was as expected, they have been around for over three decades, but it was evident there was a solid following in the house for both Crowbar and Havok.
Havok opened the show and played for about a half hour playing six songs. For me the best was one of their new songs, ‘Hang ‘Em High’, dedicated to all of the politicians who take the oath to do good for the betterment of all people “…yet wipe their asses with the Constitution for their own personal gain…”, that sure got the crowd riled up and the song was pretty kick ass too with their more traditional thrash sound. I was not familiar with Havok at all going into the show and I will definitely check out more of their stuff, they had some good heavy head banging riffs.
The venue took on a darker and more sinister feel with Crowbar’s slower, heavier doomy sludge sound. They played eight songs in their forty minute set. For me, they sure sound heavier live then from what I had heard on XM radio, but I was not real familiar with a lot of their stuff before the show. They put on a good show and certainly had a substantial following with their fans showing them love, but live they were a little too doomy for me.
The legends of cross over thrash themselves were up next and shared with us fourteen songs over about seventy five uplifting minutes. Throughout their career, Suicidal Tendencies has been a huge influence for many musicians and bands across many genres, and even more so for the fans as their style, attitude and lyrics convey a positive message about personal empowerment and believing in yourself. Talking to the crowd in between songs, lead singer Mike Muir (the younger brother of Jim Muir of the legendary Dogtown skateboarding team) often segues his upbringing in skateboarding lure to the trials and tribulations we all go through in in life, leading the crowd in a chant of ‘…If you fall down, you pick yourself the fuck back up!” Each of the four times I have seen them live he has led us in that chant! I would love to see them play together with Hatebreed, another of my favorite bands that promotes such personal positivity through powerful metal. That would be an evening of some spiritual metal nirvana.
Jokingly here, somehow at shows I always seem to end up in the crowd next to the wasted guy who thinks (or may actually be, you never know) they are the lead singer of the local tribute band for whichever band is on stage. While mostly amusing (hey I know everyone enjoys shows in their own way and levels of party time), at times it can get annoying when the little personal space you and those around you have is invaded over and over by someone who is just a little too into the show. It did not take long before a testosterone and drunken fueled skirmish started between him and another person in the crowd and thankfully things got back to normal after that whole scene settled down and we all just enjoyed the show. Always interesting times at metal shows, everyone is there to have a good time but there is always that one guy…regardless to say the show kicked ass, it was a great way to end what had been a 9 day vacation for me (I literally got off an 8 night cruise that morning, drove back from Miami and then went to Suicidal). And with this potentially being one of Suicidal Tendencies last full tours, it was an old school thrash event not to be missed. \m/
Suicidal Tendencies Set list:
- You Can’t Bring Me Down
- I Shot Reagan
- Clap Like Ozzy
- Freedumb
- Trip at the Brain
- War Inside My Head
- Subliminal
- Send Me Your Money
- Possessed to Skate
- I Saw Your Mommy
- Institutionalized
- Cyco Vision
- How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
- Pledge Your Allegiance