Static-X and Sevendust and continue to crush North America on the third leg of their “Machine Killer” tour, hitting San Francisco’s The Midway on a Tuesday night that had the fans lining up down the street and around the corners in order to get those primo spots up front.
Dope dropped a compact 30-minute set that effectively warmed up the gathering crowd. And despite frontman Edsel Dope’s out loud pondering about ticket sales, the not-so-sold-out room was actually looking pretty full as the band closed with a cover of Dead or Alive’s ’80s one-hit wonder “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).”
Sevendust took the stage like the pros they are, with plenty and swagger heaped on top of a stage full of talent. San Francisco has not always been the friendliest city for this band, and it’s rare that they even play here, so you can imagine the shock on the band members faces’ when literally the whole room was singing along to each and ever song.
Vocalist Lajon Witherspoon was extra generous, tossing out dozens of Clint Lowery and John Connolly’s guitar pics to the VIP ticketholders up front and ordered the lighting director to lay hard on the smoke machine as they closed the set with “Face to Face.” Let’s just say that Sevendust left the stage reconsidering their relationship with SF.
With limited room to move on the small stage it seemed to take the crew a bit longer than expected to turn things around, but Pantera’s “Walk” blasting over the PA proved to be the perfect song to get the energy level back up as snow bubbles started to fall from the ceiling and cover the stage, the lights low when the band finally took the stage, vocalist Xer0’s red eyes cutting brightly through the gloom. When the lights finally came on, the San Francisco crowd lost their minds.
“Terminator Oscillator” proved to be the perfect head-banging singalong despite its post-Wayne Static release. With the more recent material done, the setlist moved into more familiar territory with a handful of tunes from Wisconsin Death Trip as a different bubble machine pumped out waves of smoke-filled bubbles as Tony Campos (bass) and Koichi Fukuda (guitar) gleefully head-banged along.
Whatever their original opinions may have been, the fans seem to have come to terms with a Wayne Static-less Static-X, and have fully embraced “Xer0” as the masked vocalist for the current instantiation of the band; certainly the chance to hear unreleased material live for the first time made it a bit easier—well, that and a healthy dose of their classic 1999 debut, Wisconsin Death Trip. All-in-all, a pretty good Tuesday night for all involved.
DOPE
LINES OF LOYALTY
SEVENDUST
STATIC-X
STATIC-X SETLIST
Hollow
Terminator Oscillator
Love Dump
Sweat of the Bud
Wisconsin Death Trip
Bled for Days
Black and White
Z0mbie
Get to the Gone
I Am
Cold
I’m With Stupid
Push It
SEVENDUST SETLIST
I Might Let the Devil Win
Truth Killer
Alpha
Till Death
Pieces
Hero
Denial
Black
Enemy
Splinter
Everything
Bitch
Face to Face
