“I think, besides Detroit, that more people come out to see us here in Cincinnati than any place in the country,” Jason Navarro concluded a few songs into the Suicide Machines' show at Bogart's Friday night. “The punk scene is very good here.”

        Let's run the risk inherent in taking the lead singer of a smart-aleck punk band at his word. His statement says something, considering the band is from Detroit.

        The Suicide Machines are definitely lucky to have Cincinnati. Another near-capacity crowd came out to see a kiddie-punk band of middling talent. This has been a common occurance at Bogart's lately.

        Someone who really cares could tell you how the Suicide Machines are different from the Descendents or Blink-182 or Less Than Jake or whomever else. Music worth remembering comes from alchemy; the Suicide Machines come from the cookie-cutter kitchen of punk rock.

        Today's punk bands each use the same elements — hard-core punk, poppy punk and ska — and the bands who stumble upon a mixture barely differentiating them from the others may be lucky enough to make a name for themselves.

        For a fairly big band, the Suicide Machines' sound was rather nondescript. Their 50-minute headlining set showed them to be a tight band with a few good sing-along choruses and little else to offer, unless working some ska flavor into every fourth song is regarded as a stroke of brilliance. The best thing about the set was it clocked in at less than an hour. Fast tempo prevailed, but it didn't rock; it bounced, and it grew old quickly.

        Many songs came from last year's release, Steal This Record, although not the cover of R.E.M's “It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” that appears on the album. Instead, opening band the Riddlin Kids from Austin, Texas, performed it. This was noteworthy in that singer Clint Baker hit all the words in the wordy song and that, at 15 years old, it's a tune older than many of those who attended the show.Ù

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