The Grammy Award-winning bluegrass guitarist turned into a hair-tossing, metalcore shredder with the band Flesh and Blood Robot during the buzzed-about March show. It was our top story of the year.
Metal Master: Shredder Billy Strings proved he’s not just a bluegrass phenom. (Photo/Anna Sink)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ionia County-bred bluegrass superstar Billy Strings is closing out 2024 with three straight, jam-packed shows at the 10,000-capacity UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. But in March, the acoustic guitar hero strapped on an electric guitar to shred with some pals in a Michigan ‘extreme hardcore’ band at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, a 420-capacity venue. The ‘surprise’ appearance created quite the buzz and our coverage was the most-read story of 2024. Revisit it below.
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Call it Billy Strings bedlam.
The Ionia County native and globally acclaimed bluegrass guitar hero joined his Michigan pals in the extreme hardcore band Flesh and Blood Robot for a rambunctious, loud, metal assault in a sort-of-surprise, St. Patrick’s Day appearance at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids.
The same virtuoso musician who sold out the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena for an unprecedented five-hour spectacle in October 2023 ignited a delirious, jam-packed crowd in the 420-capacity downtown nightclub.
Instead of flat-picking an acoustic guitar, Billy Strings, aka William Apostol, lit up the cozy venue with thunderous riffs and searing, eye-popping solos on electric guitar while the sold-out throng crowd-surfed and fist-pumped to the set by the Lansing-area band staging a reunion show for its diehard fans — part of a seven-band night of rafter-rattling metalcore sets.
Sold-Out Crowd: The scene on Sunday night at the Pyramid Scheme. (Photo/Local Spins)
“I think most of Ionia is here tonight. it’s been awesome to have you here,” said Chris Fox, lead singer for Flesh and Blood Robot, playing its first show in 18 years. “It’s been an absolute pleasure. This has been a huge blast from the past.”
Fox also hailed a grinning Apostol, noting that band members first knew Billy Strings when he was much younger and “when he wasn’t such a f—ing monster.”
The Grammy Award-winning guitarist who played in the metalcore band To Once Darkened Skies as a teenager growing up in the tiny town of Muir, proved during Sunday’s show that he hasn’t lost any of his metal-mayhem energy. He uncorked plenty of hair-tossing, head-swiveling and jumping on stage while showing off his shredding skills.
After the 45-minute-or-so set, an ebullient Billy Strings met and hugged old friends in the parking lot, took selfies with fans and let Local Spins know he had a fabulous time cranking up amps with the hardcore outfit that took the stage just ahead of the headliner, Ohio’s From a Second Story Window.
Appropriately Tattooed: Billy Strings (Photo/Local Spins)
“Last night was a complete celebration. It was so great to reunite with some of my best friends I haven’t seen in years,” he later wrote on Facebook, calling members of Flesh and Blood Robot his first “big brothers” in a band that he admired. “So many homies from GR, Ionia, Muir and Lyons were in the house. It was a straight-up heavy metal reunion and a flashback to the mid 2000s.”
He added: “The energy in the room was fast and thick. Sweaty and poignant.”
The rumor and buzz about Billy Strings’ possible appearance at the show started a couple months ago, fueled recently by a brief Instagram video of a practice session with Flesh and Blood Robot.
And early Sunday, Billy Strings — who now resides in Nashville — posted photos of himself with the band, noting he’d be playing with Flesh and Blood Robot that night.
Not so surprisingly, the show drew a bevy of bluegrass fans curious about their hero along with uber-enthused metalheads.
It was an unprecedented melding of bluegrass-loving hippies with crowd-surfing headbangers, proving that music is a great uniter no matter what the genre or venue or circumstance.
Other bands performing on the Sunday bill were Heartsick, Dust Biters, Strangers, See You Next Tuesday and Grand Rapids’ Nights Like These which noted during its set: “Everybody knows what’s going on here tonight. It’s fantastic.”
Read more about Billy Strings online at Local Spins here.
PHOTO GALLERY: Flesh and Blood Robot with Billy Strings at The Pyramid Scheme
Photos by Anna Sink and John Sinkevics
Copyright 2024, Spins on Music LLC
