Fireworks at a Bad Beat Show
Jimmy “Edge” Lawson of Bad Beat - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
The Bad Beat/Fireworks show was a matinee on a Sunday afternoon, billed as "On the floor, lights on. Let’s fucking go." It was a 45-minute drive each way for a show that would likely only last 15 minutes (I would be going for Bad Beat primarily), so I didn't want to be late. I'm from Detroit, and 2024 has been a great year for the Detroit Lions, so it worked out perfectly that the Detroit Lions game against the Chicago Bears was at 1:00. There was just enough time to watch the game, eat dinner, and then make it out to Edgemen Printing for Bad Beat. The score ended up Lions 34 to Bears 17, with the Lions winning their 13th game this season and setting a franchise record. I grabbed a Bad Beat shirt from the merch booth on the way in.
I wore my Lions hat to the show, given that I know the band are fans. That turned out to be a good call, with a sizeable part of the audience in Lions gear as well. Bad Beat guitarist Mike Moynihan (who was previously the vocalist for Strange Magic) had on a #26 Jahmyr Gibbs jersey, and there was a custom Detroit Lions "Bad Beat" jersey being used as their backdrop. The shows at Edgemen move right along, and they ripped into a 10-song set that barely stopped to take a breath. At one point the crowd wasn't quite active enough, and singer Jimmy "Edge" Lawson ("Edge" from his business and the location of the show, Edgemen Printing) kicked a guy in the stomach and then body slammed him to get things moving. I've noticed that he does this at every show, and I talked to the guy after (who was right in front of me). Apparently they are friends, and that move was all in fun.
Fireworks
I'd never heard of Fireworks (who are from Detroit), so I looked into them in advance of the show. They have been around for close to 20 years, having recently toured with New Found Gory and then followed that with their own headlining tour of the U.S. Maybe most impressively to me, they played every date of the Vans Warped Tour in 2012 (a tour that is coming back in 2025). There is a good chance that I may have seen them at some point in the past couple of decades, but I didn't recall.
I was surprised that there were so many people for a Bad Beat show, but in retrospect, a lot of them must have been there for Fireworks. The crowd (and I mean all of them) knew the words to every song and were screaming along. It was a rare time where I felt like I was the only one that didn't know the words (and also may have been the oldest person at the show). I'm glad that I stayed, as I thoroughly enjoyed both bands, and the entire show lasted barely more than an hour.
