As the lights begin to dim, a Dethklok logo flashes on the big screen.  A sold out venue of 1600 people in attendance all chant the name of a fictitious cartoon band. It’s an absolute wonderful spectacle and glee fills the air all around us. Dethklok, Dethklok, Dethklok…and repeat. Finally the time is upon us. It’s as if money was raining to the poor. The dream has become the reality. Nathan, Skwisgaar, Toki, Murderface and Pickles will be brought to life. Dr. Frankenstein or Brenden Small, the creator of Metalocalypse is fronting the group below the screen which will be showcasing the feature. Joining him are Gene Hogan on drums which you may know from such bands as Testament, Death Angel, Death and Strapping Young Lad. Also performing are Mike Keneally on guitar and bassist Brian Beller who are known for backing up Steve Vai of all people.

For fans of Metalocalypse, we are excited to have a metal band/cartoon that has fun with us and the content. With shows like Beavis and Butthead and Aqua Teen Hunger Force gone, Metalocalypse has the market on lockdown. And they nailed it too. The majority is content. Small has put us back in that comfort place with the show and then some. Seeing a touring cartoon was an ultimate plateu of enjoyment for me. I would love to see a tour after every new season of the show. That would be fantastic. Every year fans would get a batch of new songs with every airing season and then beat our brains out waiting for the traveling show to come to town. I know I am beyond blown away by what this is. Even Gorillaz never got this far. Could we see them step up as a response to this event? Animated videos are great but Metalocalypse took it to a whole new level. Could we get a Gorillaz tv show?

As far as the stage set up goes, it complimented the animation really well. With a mix of scenes from the cartoon series and animation made for the event, I had to remind myself to look down and remember to pay the musicians the respect they deserve. Which is an interesting thing. Those guys were playing their hearts out. It was sick! The whole show in it’s entirety is what you must applaude. It’s just easy to get sidetracked from so much going on. The overload of amazing things is something I want so much more of. A DVD of the tour would get viewed on repeat forever. I might never leave the house.

My favorite song of the night would have to be Bloodrocuted. The screen was showing the animated video for the song which features the band empowered by electricity among an actual storyline. Watching this one made me feel a true buzz from the show. The crowd was alive and you could just look around and feel it. Watching the cartoon band and listening to the live one, everything was in synch. We were all alive and buzzing while the very essence of Dethklok was coming through. From Dr. Frankenstein on stage to the electricity, 1600 people were all brought to life by this idea of an amazing band.

It was great to hear Brandon Small quote Baltimore’s murder statistics too. Towards the end of the night he was taking turns talking to the crowd in different characters voices. It was great to hear “Skisgaar” tell the crowd he was suprised we were all still alive due to the high murder rate this city has. Quite frankly so am I. That show was murderous!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.