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See who turned out to see Dethklok, Mastodon and other metal...
Wednesday night’s concert at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines was an odd merger of worlds.
Much of the crowd was adorned in black Pantera, Slipknot and other concert T-shirts you might expect at a metal show. But mixed into that sea of black cotton were a lot of skinny jeans and Girl Talk and Aqua Teen Hunger Force shirts.
The uniting factor for the disparate crowd was the co-headlining bill of Mastodon and Dethklok. The former has emerged in the last few years as one of the most exciting and ambitious acts on the metal scene while earning serious kudos from Rolling Stone and indie hipster-leaning Pitchfork Media. The latter got its start as a fictional band on the Adult Swim series "Metalocalypse," before creator and musician Brendon Small took the show on the road with a real band.
Mastodon’s set featured a performance of the band’s latest album, "Crack the Skye," in its entirety. Full-album concerts can be a mixed bag, but in this case it really showcased the strength of Mastodon’s concept album, which delves into out-of-body experiences, Rasputin and wormholes. Instrumentally the band was perfect, but unfortunately while Brent Hinds’ vocals came through strong, Troy Sanders occasionally seemed to get lost in the mix.
Dethklok’s set was like an episode of "Metalocalypse" come to life. Smalls and his band (Gene Hoglan, Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller) were prominently featured, but most eyes were on the animated music videos accompanying each song. The videos and songs are played amazingly straight, with songs like "Bloodlines," "Murmaider" and "Dethsupport" standing out as impressive compositions despite their comedic origins. Animated comedy shorts served as segues between songs, and toward the end Smalls did live comedy improv with character voices, which included Swedish guitarist Swisgaar Skwigelf saying the band was "glad to be in Utah, what grows potatoes."
High on Fire and Converge opened the night. High on Fire’s set was short but tight, while Converge proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Jacob Bannon’s voice seemed slightly tired, with his intended growl sounding more like a barking seal. As a whole Converge came off like half a punk band merged with half a metal band, with neither side meshing well with the other.
As fun and talented as Dethklok is live, it is a little hard to get past the fact that at its core it’s a novelty band that won the closing spot over Mastodon. It’s slightly reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees in the 1960s, or if Black Sabbath was to open for Spinal Tap. But in the end it’s a small thing to get hung up on, since Mastodon did play a longer set, and both bands proved to be incredibly entertaining in concert.
What other people are saying...
unicron from Waukee - October 18, 2009 at 4:10 PM
I must agree with everything Joe stated in this article. High on Fire was great, they need to clean up a bit but they have huge potential. As for C...
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