Static-X – Myth – Maplewood MN – December 4th 2019

Wayne Static passed five years ago.  As a tribute to him, the band decided to get back together and celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their debut album, “Wisconsin Death Trip”. The album is a huge statement of the era of nu-metal. I think it is the best metal album that came out around that time.  In 1999, they seemed to open for nearly every band that we saw.  The album was everywhere.  The tour came to The Myth in Maplewood, Minnesota on December 4, 2020 and we arrived to a sold out venue.  People were pumped for this show.

There was a total five of bands.  The first up was Raven Black. I only got to see the last song while getting into the venue, as the show began at 6pm with the doors opening not much earlier than that. They have a really cool horror themed band. Click the link below for their web page.

https://www.ravensrejects.com/

Wednesday 13 was next. They had a good stage presence. For photos,  they were not the best because of the reverse stage light, but it made the band look cool for someone simply watching the show.  He came out in a voodoo styled outfit for the first song. The hat and mask had two pieces, so he could easily remove them while singing, making for a unique effect. During the set, he changed costumes consistently.  The costumes consisted of a devil with a pitchfork, a slasher costume, and more of the like.  They were extremely well received by the crowd, singing and cheering throughout.

Dope was next to hit the stage. They had a short seven song set list, most likely due to the fact that Edsel had to play two lead roles that evening.  They rocked the small set with extreme energy,  they jumped all over the place and playing the hits “Debonaire” being an obvious hit with the crowd.  That song never gets old and is exceptionally fun live.  Edsel told some great stories of back in the day when Dope, Deftones, Static-X, Sevendust, Sliknot all toured together.  He said those times are the reason they are all doing this in celebration for Wayne Static. He stated right before the last song “We are gonna play the stupidest song ever,” and they broke into “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” from Dead or Alive.

Mushroomhead seems to pop up all the time. This is their third show in the Twin Cities this year. They are always touring. They have had lots of changes over the year and have current members and touring members. Unless you keep track of this it is hard to follow. But it does not matter because they rip the joint up every time. They had all the signature moves with devil masks, water in the drums, smoke and an overall craziness. The crowd had a huge mosh pit going on during most of the performance and loved every minute of it. Their last album was in 2014, so hopefully they are working on some new music.

Then it was time for the main act of the evening, Static X.  Since these guys have been inactive for such a long time, everyone was hyped up for the show. What I mostly heard over the crowd was “I have been waiting since high school for this!” As the lights went out and they broke into “Bled For Days”, I knew it was going to be a fun evening. The crowd went nuts, jumping, more moshing, and singing every lyric to every song. I love when it’s controlled madness like that. Since the band has not been around since 2009, I was wondering how it would be with Zer0. We all know it’s Edsel Dope from Dope with a Wayne death mask on. I was not too sure about it at the beginning, but he explained while playing with Dope and why they were doing it. It is a tribute for the times that they all were touring in the late nineties together. He did an awesome job of covering for Wayne. Now we all would prefer Wayne there, but since he can’t, we get them as they are now. They played ten songs off “Wisconsin Death Trip” and a few more from the other albums. The band was perfect. It sounded just like 1999 again. The crowd and the mosh pit was absolutely insane throughout the set.  About half way through, a tribute to Wayne was played, which got the crowd cheering the loudest of the evening. The show was fantastic overall and as it wound down, it had me thinking, will they tour more, and if they do, will they make new music? Time will tell.