Static-X came back to Kansas City on August 9th at the always awesome Beaumont Club in the Westport district. I arrived during the middle of Prong’s set and relaxed a bit with some friends before the evil disco show began. After earning respect from a random stranger for having a good death metal growl outside, I prepared my camera and waltzed up front. After they pumped the crowd with some dance music, it was time to headbang with Wayne and the gang. The band walked out and immediately began playing and old school hit: Wisconsin Death Trip. The band never sounded so good. I don’t know who was working the sound that night but it was absolutely loud AND clear. Static-X’s setlist was full of favorite’s, old school songs and newer anthems, fast and heavy songs and nice and slow grooves such as “Just In Case”. Wayne’s voice still sounds so incredible after all of these years and shows, you would think with such a unique voice/scream that he would injure his throat by now but he still sounds so strong and healthy. Great screamer, underrated singer, terrific rhythm guitarist, Wayne still rocks the stage hard like it’s 1999 again.

Wayne Static is the only surviving member of the band. No longer is the beast Tony Campos pumping the low end into the crowd. Instead we have the multi talented Brent Asley handling bass duties for this tour. On lead guitar, no longer is Koichi Fukuda on the axe, we now have someone named “Ashes” who I can not find any info on. On drums Mr. Nick Oshiro has been replaced with Sean Davidson, whom I also cannot find any previous work or bands he has performed with. Even with these new guys replacing basically the entire band, they still perform and kill it on stage. I know Static-X plays incredibly easy songs, but even then you can still mess up. Sean, Ashes and Brent were awesome. Brent’s backup screams weren’t as deep as Campos’ were but his high pitch screams were really good.

Also joining the stage to feed shots to  the guys was Wayne’s wife, Tera Wray. If she wasn’t getting them drunk, she was dancing and having a one person rave on stage; going along perfectly with the groove of the evil disco. She is basically a Go-Go Dancer, prop comic and bartender all in one. When she got on stage wearing nothing but hot pants and tape over her nipples, I looked around and the guys in the crowd were drooling and fumbling over themselves. It was hilarious.

The lighting was good, I liked how it was constantly lit up yet there was strobe lights and multi colored beams all over the place. Very rare did the lights go completely out, this usually happened after a song when the band needed a 15 second break. There was a constant spot light on Wayne throughout most of their set, highlighting that he is the boss and you better headbang and jump around when he tells you to. While the entire band was doing a great job on stage, Wayne seemed to have a different approach to rocking out: Having as much fun as possible. The crowd took notice to that and grew increasingly crazier after every song.

Their set was incredible, they played so many old songs off of Wisconsin Death Trip and Machine that I felt like I was in high school again. 50% of their set was from those 2 albums, then they played two songs from “Start A War”, one song from “Cult of Static”, two songs from “Cannibal” and two songs from “Shadow Zone”. They also played “Assassins of Youth from Wayne Static’s solo album from last year, “Pighammer”. The crowd sang along, moshed, jumped, crowd surfed, threw horns/fists and just went crazy.

The band, the crowd and everyone involved had a great time. I could just feel it in the air. No fights broke out, everyone was in a good mood when the show was over and I as a reviewer, and a fan, was very satisfied with the show. Static-X did a great job and they still love doing what they do and creating a great party atmosphere. They ended their set incredibly strong with nothing but classics and I couldn’t be happier with their song choices for the night. If they are coming to your town I highly recommend seeing them!

Setlist:

Wisconsin Death Trip

Black and White

Bled For Days

The Only

Cold

Dirthouse

Assassins of Youth

Destroyer

Stingwray

Just In Case

Destroy All

Cannibal

This Is Not

Push It

I’m With Stupid

Love Dump

Bien Venidos

Get To The Gone

Headbanging/Review & Photography by Thomas Mergel for Headbang or GTFO