Flint's Loudest Week: Back to the Bricks Meets a Machine Shop Weekend for the Ages
Some weeks you plan around. This is one of them. Starting today and running through Friday, Back to the Bricks storms downtown Flint for its main-event week — August 11 through 15 — a massive classic-car pilgrimage of chrome, food, and live music that turns Saginaw Street into a slow-rolling parade of horsepower. And just as the last engines idle down, the Machine Shop out on Dort Highway detonates the loudest three-day run of the summer. If you love this town when it's turned all the way up, do not sleep through mid-August.
Let's start on the Bricks. Back to the Bricks is the kind of event that outgrew "car show" a long time ago — it's a full downtown takeover, drawing crowds from all over for the classic cars, the food, and the live music that anchors the week. The big beats are August 14's "Cruise N' Concert" and the August 15 Main Event, both of which lean on live bands to keep the party moving. The specific artists on those stages, but the formula is proven: park the cars, plug in the amps, and let downtown do what downtown does when the weather's warm and the whole region shows up.
Now the twist that makes this week special. While the Bricks are cruising, the Machine Shop is stacking a weekend that reads like a dare.
Friday, August 14 — nu-metal survivors 40 Below Summer and Primer 55 share a bill, with support from War on the Horizon. Music at 7 p.m., $20 in advance. This is the sweaty, standing-room, ears-ringing kind of Friday the Shop was built for, and it's happening the same night the Cruise N' Concert lights up downtown. Two very different flavors of loud, a short drive apart. Pick your poison or attempt both.
Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16 — the main event within the main event. Southern-rock powerhouse Blackberry Smoke plays back-to-back nights at the Shop, with Michigan's own Myron Elkins opening both. And here's the number that tells you everything: both nights are SOLD OUT. Not one show — two consecutive nights, gone. That's a Southern-rock band from Georgia deciding Flint deserved a doubleheader, and Flint answering by buying every ticket in the building. Twice.
Why does this matter beyond a busy calendar? Because it's the whole regional story compressed into one week. Back to the Bricks is Flint at its most civic — nostalgic, family-friendly, proud of its automotive bones. The Machine Shop weekend is Flint at its most defiant — loud, close, sold-out, refusing to be a market that touring bands skip. Put them in the same five days and you get the fullest possible portrait of this place: a city that will celebrate its past on Saginaw Street at noon and then go scream itself hoarse on Dort Highway at night.
A word to the wise, since Elkins is an opener worth caring about: a Michigan artist getting the support slot on a sold-out two-night Southern-rock run in Flint is a hometown-does-good moment, and if you've got a ticket, get there early enough to catch him.
If you don't have Machine Shop tickets, don't despair — the Bricks are free to wander, the cars are endless, and the downtown music is part of the deal. But know what's happening across town while you stroll: the crown jewel of the Tri-Cities is running two sold-out nights in a row, capping a week where Flint is, start to finish, the loudest room in Michigan. Wear comfortable shoes. Bring earplugs for at least part of it. And take a little pride in a town that still knows how to throw a proper week.
Sources: Back to the Bricks; The Machine Shop; Machine Shop dates