2 years ago I got to be a part of the Tied Down festival and despite a decently debilitating elbow dislocation (notably not serious enough to stop me from moshing) I had such an unbelievable time. Last year I broached the subject of setting up an LDB table at Tied Down to Jimmy while he was in Louisville for LDBBB Fest and he welcomed us without hesitation. I think as long as I am alive and this fest is happening I will be there every year. The energy is something to feel in a city that I have been experiencing for nearly two decades. My roots in Michigan are deeper than I ever appreciate when I am not there and I constantly find new people to connect with that have been in my periphery that I feel so lucky to add them to my circle. This year we packed up all our junk and made our way north on Friday, Ashton and I were joined this year by our friend Chandler from Two Witnesses/Who Laughs Last who I happily invited to tag along because I think these trips are the best way to make better bonds of friendship and I knew Chandler would mosh which is high on my list of priorities. We stopped and got tacos at Gomez in Cinci on the way up and enjoyed a bit of one of Michael Bay’s masterful Transformer flicks on mute, all in all this detour as well as a stop at Sheetz turned our 5 1/2 hour drive into a solid 7. We arrived at our airbnb which was walking distance from the venue fairly late and talked well past a reasonable hour. Upon finding out Chandler had no affinity for Converge I attempted to rectify that by playing The Saddest Day out of my ipod touch speakers before turning on the Hellfest video of them playing the song in order to make my case the best I could. Much to the chagrin of our neighbors who beat on the wall telling us “Converge fucking sucks” and “the saddest day isn’t even that hard”. Both of which are patently untrue but I will give them the fact that 2:30am probably isn’t the time for metalcore. So we of course moved on to listening to the funniest Emmure song after a cursory google search to rediscover it. Sleep tight fellas.
The next day we made our way to the Russell Industrial Center bright and early to set up our bazaar. I was sad to be across the room from DGR but very happy to be posted next to Total Supply Records, a label I have recently come to regard very highly. We made fast friends with Ben and Harold from TSR. (only for me to end the weekend learning me and Harold were twitter friends when that was a functioning website) While on the receiving end of the onslaught of people brought by the doors opening I missed the first band and if I hadn’t asked if they were still playing I would have missed Steamroll as well. After throwing on my ankle brace in haste I sprinted to the pit a few songs into their set to hit the dancefloor with my knee braces in hand. I did not catch that they played a Side By Side cover so I am holding that L currently but I was happy to make up for watching their set at the LDB preshow sidestage by hitting the dancefloor. I retreated back to the table and made my run to scope the wares on sale while the next slew of bands played. Ante Up sounded dope while I was purchasing a Scarab shirt. I did some time at the table before attempting to just “see” how Hold My Own was going and found myself in the pit almost immediately, it was fun but I had apparently missed the more violent moments of their set which was just fine by me. Scarab was the first spinkick band I let myself actively participate in. I went into the day with a 5 band cap on bands I would clock in for and I only really exceeded that by 1 band. Scarab is the best band any of these guys have maybe ever been in and I really like a lot of their other groups. I checked out the greenroom and bounced between a few conversations before attempting to catch the end of Volcano only for them to end while I crossed the lot. I learned missed a Propaganda breakdown and that is probably for the best for my health. D Bloc had a top 3 set of the day with the most successful “move it back” call I have ever witnessed which was then followed by the crowd moshing hard for over 1 minute by my estimation which was a testament to D Bloc’s powers and the stamina of the attendees. I missed Disgrace but I saw the video of Colin Young knocking that kids lights out and I think I am good on not joining him in dreamland. The Wrong Side opening with a faithful cover of Alice In Chains “Would” is extremely brave and an excellent signifier to how many fucks anyone in that band gives. Everyone has probably seen the videos of COA with the chains and though I was whipped in the hand while moshing and lassoed around the foot (the hurt foot mind you), I will say he was seemingly reserved and mindful for a man swinging a chain around a room full of people. Wrongside also covered Heroes by Leeway which I didn’t recognize til the chorus hit and they ended with the Reagan Youth cover from the movie Airheads played just like it was in the movie really driving home that not giving a fuck thing.
I was fucking spent after TWS and had completely forgot Hope Con was up next but like a good lil soldier I reported back to the pit for what would be up to that point my favorite set of the day. I fucking love The Hope Conspiracy from the first record to the most recent one and they played an awesome mix. Sure I would have loved to see more Endnote and Cold Blue but I fucking get it. I only caught the tailend of Gridiron but I can confirm the kids were fight dancing to their hearts content. As I was retreating to the table Donny from Mindforce flagged me down and told me to mosh on stage for Mindforce, so I happily obliged though I suspect I was not the only person this request was made to but once the moshing on stage bandaid was pulled it really opened up a way more fun vibe on stage for the remainder of the fest. I didn’t make it back to the show room til the end of Fiddlehead but I did witness Pat Flynn lose his show stage diving, only to have the shoe floated back up to him and him get a very endearing hug from two kids at the end. I am sure there is a special picture of that somewhere. AN was up next and was the last band I even considered clocking in for and made several stipulations that would need to be met for me to continue to abuse my recovering ankle. They opened with “Hearts” and I watched for a solid 2 seconds before rushing downstairs to sing every word of nearly every song they played. I had a brief moment where I openly sobbed unable to really get a handle of the years I had spent imbibing this material that I never thought I would get to see in a tangible way. It was a lot for my bitch heart to handle. I spent much of Foundation’s set avoiding going inside because in my head I had my time with the band and it ended when they ended. Mostly I didn’t know how and if I would be able to resist clocking in for them and my body surely didn’t need that abuse. While talking to someone outside I did grapple with the reality that an 18 year old me would not have believed I would ever see Hope Con, The Wrongside and AN play a show together. I surmised if told that I would respond “those bands don’t even play anymore”. Well the hypothetical me would stand corrected. I did catch Anthem For Redemption (of which Andrew Vacante did an awesome job) and the last 2 Devotions. Would have loved to see Devotion I if they played it but I may not have been able to handle it. We ended the day with a Coney Island drive thru taking it back to our airbnb we shared with Apex Predator for the next 2 nights. We stayed up late talking shit in the kitchen, real HC shit. Casey from Apex busted out his indoor RC car and drifted it around a bit. I slept terrible with the thinnest pillow I have ever had.
We got there early after going to a real OS coffee shop so Ashton and Chandler could caffeinate. Chandler read us an amazing artist spotlight he found of a star seed folk artist that boasted various percentages of ethnicities while without a doubt just being a straight up white lady. Pretty cool. We got to the venue as Slice was going on but I had some business to attend to with some blueberry sweet bread while they were playing. Face The Pain was one of the top bands I was excited to see. I know people get snobby when it comes to youth crew crap but The First Step and Expired Youth were intro bands for me and without them I probably wouldn’t have gotten down with bands like Unity that mean a hell of a lot to me. So it is amazing to see a band like FTP right now hopefully giving a new crop of kids a similar introductory to youth crew (Covering No Exceptions is all a guaranteed set elevator and has triggered me starting to read the Floorpunch book finally). Going into Holy Blade I already knew they were doing their Underdog cover again and had spent the previous day spreading that info like an insurgent in the hopes that it would pop off better than it did at LDB with only a couple people knowing it. I don’t know if anyone was more excited than me to see it but more people cared this time for sure. Other than that they sounded awesome and it was great to see kids singing along. My biggest L of the weekend was missing Crush Your Soul. I was on my way to watch when I got roped into a convo outside and they ended as I turned to walk inside. Sounded great from afar though. Apex Predator got the best reaction I have seen them get so far and Casey’s DBZ shirt was pretty nice.
Combust was my maybe band of the day and opening with Street Justice pulled me into the mosh pit immediately and I had a great time. Apologies to Vacante for nearly spinkicking him in the face on stage. Bad Beat had my favorite set of the weekend. It is mindblowing to see a band that sounds like they do get that kind of reaction, regardless of the fact that they are playing at home the energy for them was so fucking cool. Regular HC is having a serious moment and Bad Beat is top of the heap. (Stage mosh for Bad Beat was sick af) I caught the tailend of Vamachara and was relieved to see kids beating the crap out of each other, following Bad Beat was a tall order. My first dives of the weekend were during the Twitchfits secret set. I was not feeling very comfy diving up that tall stage knowing if my foot lands wrong I am fucked but Hybrid Moments assuaged those concerns fairly quickly. It was very heartening to see people sing along to Misfits songs in 2025. I only caught the last 4 songs of Whispers set but I think they had the set of the weekend, Bad Beat was my favorite but Whispers fucked it up for everyone. The crowd was so packed in for them and the moshing was good. It doesn’t matter if a hundred kids are moshing for your band if they look like shit but 30-40 kids with style instantly elevates the experience watching and participating. I took my dinner break during RJC, Big Boy and Trial, I have never been an RJC head, I watched Big Boy destroy LDB 2 years ago and Trial does fucking nothing for me. Now The Mongoloids however, They were the first band I ever saw in Detroit when I was 17 years old at Refuge Skateshop I believe. I had every intention on just watching from the balcony, I had an excellent vantage for the ASL translator they had on stage which is still cracking me the fuck up, she crushed. There was also a dude running a drone during their set. It was a fucking zoo for them and I loved it. I could see perfectly til they hit the intro to The Only One which put me in a full sprint down the stairs and to the pit only to mosh for the last 3 seconds of it, had they played the whole song I would have gone into cardiac arrest from too much skanking so I guess it was merciful that they broke into It’s The Limit which also rocked. Judge was the last thing I participated in and though I think seeing them for the first time at Furnace Fest hit me harder, being able to sing along with my friends this time was one of the more special moments of the weekend and helped me get through the set despite the blistering migraine that began to take hold through my adrenaline and dopamine expulsions. Sometimes I wonder if the headache I sometimes get after a day of moshing is due to those chemicals in my brain being completely depleted but I am too lazy to look into it. I have seen photos from the last 3 bands and it looked appropriately wild for NEG, Speed and Turnstile but my body had simply had enough at that point.
If you were at Tied Down I hope you got in the mix and added value to HC whether on the dancefloor or by lending your voice to the chorus that unifies all of us. I hope you had meaningful conversations with friends. I hope you laughed. I hope you made new friends. I hope you felt something that made you feel connected to strangers. I hope you didn’t get too hurt.
I love Michigan HC.
-Tyler
“I wanna' say I love the life I live and I'm going to live the life I love” -The Temptations