Static-X and Sevendust Manufactured a Wild Heavy Metal Show at The Factory Sunday Night
–by Jeff Quirin
–Photos by Greg Artime/ Artimeg.com
Time travel back with me to 1999. It may seem like quite a trek, but I promise it’s not. Tony LaRussa baseball, Chris Pronger in a Bluenote, and the end of the OG Ambush. It’s also the last time Dope, Sevendust, and Static-X toured together before this year’s Machine Killer Tour. They all pulled into St. Louis (technically Chesterfield) on Sunday and delivered a show that shows they haven’t lost their touch in the time between.
I’ve been to my fair share of rock concert hosting venues across St. Louis since the late 90s, but this was my first trip to The Factory. If you were to pluck The Pageant out of the Loop, drop it down in Chesterfield, and give it a heavy dose of modern suburban steroids you’d have this place. Tons of room on the floor for everyone to find a good spot to take in the show. There are plenty of seats upstairs for folks who want to take a load off, as well. The well-placed bars (and free water) made it easy to keep your beverage full. The giant cog wheels fixed around dual LED lit dodecahedrons properly conveyed the industrial theme with all the modern venue trimmings. All in all, not a bad place to take in a show.
Getting things going was Lines of Loyalty. The trio from Kenosha, WI played seven songs in their set starting with the title track to their latest album Hurts to be Human. They really gave off an interesting energy. Reminded me a bit of early 2000’s more melodic rock bands in terms of musical style.
The lead singer had a bit of a Sonny from POD vibe going. Stage set up for openers is always a bit of a challenge because of all the acts to follow. I enjoyed theirs with the drummer set up in front with the rest of the band. His energy was infectious driving plenty of cheers from the crowd.
If you’ve heard of Dope you know they’re not the most complicated band in the metal scene. I mean that in the most sincere and positive way possible. It’s just straightforward, heavy metal nursery rhymes (as front man Edsel Dope put it at one point). If those nursery rhymes had a lot of profanity in them.
They kicked off their set with “Blood Money”, A fitting track given the large amounts of red light that permeated the stage. I found it interesting that with their video screen set up at the back of the stage they chose to not only provide slick images accompanying the songs, but some of the lyrics. Which is a great segue into the fun fact that they don’t think, in 25 years or so of playing shows, that they’ve ever had an ASL interpreter. Of course that got the ASL interpreter quite the cheer from the crowd. Especially when Edsel threw in the nursery rhyme commentary and apologized for having to sign things like “M-Fer”.
He also made comments along the lines of “I bet you all found us in high school and now you have kids”. He was right for many of us there. When they played “Debionaire” it took me back to seeing “The Fast and the Furious” the summer between my Junior and Senior years. A couple other highlights include playing “Die MF Die” which I happen to know is a playlist regular at several powerlifting gyms and playing the “stupidest song ever”, “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”.
With the crowd sufficiently juiced up it was time for Sevendust to take the stage. They played 15 songs over an hour and 15-minute set starting with many of their “newer songs” including “I Might Let the Devil Win”. While jumping through several of their more recent albums they did sprinkle in some older tracks with “Denial” and “Enemy” before wrapping up with “Bitch” and “Face to Face”. There are several cool tidbits to mention so I’ll just list them all:
Their stage set up was subtle, but complemented their performance well. Kind of a spooky-ish intro with lots of red in a gray washed first background. Had a Stranger Things vibe.
Drummer Morgan Rose had his face painted, to be what at first looked like Heath Ledger Joker, but was actually a black stripe across the middle of his face.
One of the best accompanying videos I’ve seen was with “Strong Arm Broken”. It was a claymation short of the band drinking what looked like poison and becoming zombies.
Remember those gewars and dodecahedrons I mentioned earlier. Frontman Lajon Witherspoon really wanted them turned back on during the show. He had nothing but glowing things to say about the venue and wanted to take it up a notch getting them moving again.
Guitarist Clint Lowery actually calls St. Louis home after marrying a local woman. By the looks and sound of it he had quite the crew up from Eureka to see him play.
Even though they weren’t playing the longest set of the night, Static-X was in the headliner’s slot. Which in fairness is the right call. Not just because Edsel of Dope is also fronting Static-X as “Xer0” and needed the prep and recovery time. But because the band has gotten back together in tribute to late frontman Wayne Static and being at the top of the bill is fitting for such a tribute.
Before they even started their 45 minute set you knew it was going to be a wild ride. They started their intro with “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” from the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. From there it only got weirder. A giant “Evil Disco” jack O’lantern looking robot motored around on stage till they started playing “Hollow”. From there they basically sprinted through their set with minimal breaks to fit in the maximum amount of music. Focusing on their greatest hits from 20-ish years ago.
From “Wisconsin Death Trip” to “Bled for Days”, and “Black & White” before wrapping up with “I’m With Stupid” and “Push It”. I intentionally left “Cold” out of that list because it was at that time they brought up lots of old images and videos of Wayne on the stage screen in their formal tribute.
The highlight of the Static-X performance had to be all the tricks they pulled out. Sure fog and bubble machines are cool. Have you seen them combined with a guy running around on stage with a giant hockey puck on his head with a LED smoke gun? What about that same guy running around with a shovel while the crowd throws around several 10-foot beach balls? Or the giant zombie holding a bottle toddling around for Z0mbie? The only way I can describe it is that a metal show broke out at a rave.
Be sure to check out the full gallery of photos after the setlist below.
Static-X Setlist:
Hollow
Terminator Oscillator
Love Dump
Sweat of the Bud
Wisconsin Death Trip
Fix
Bled for Days
Black and White
This Is Not
Z0mbie
Get to the Gone
I Am
Destroy All
Cold
I’m With Stupid
Push It
