Last night the cartoon nerdgasm that is Adult Swim’s Dethklok/…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead “Calligraphy Nightmare Logos of the Damned” tour bulldozed its way into Madison, Wisconsin’s Majestic Theater for a supposedly UW student-only event. Fortunately for me, a friend of mine secured a photo pass and +1 spot for a local publication she writes for, and thus, my ownership of a car turned me into her +1. A winner is me, and thus, i found myself in the Majestic’s picturesque confines for what was certainly an explosion of heavy metal nerdery not seen since the release of Beowulf.

I’m not sure that i have much to say about the actual Dethklok performance other than to say that it’s exactly what any fan of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse could hope for: series creator Brendon Small leads a real-life metal band that performs signature ‘klok anthems like “Go Forth and Die,” “Thunderhorse” and “Mermaidur” while a video screen above the band plays synced-up videos for each song while connecting the entire set with between-song skits involving bathroom breaks and the like. The songs absolutely crushed, the band absolutely killed, the fans absolutely swayed and moshed.

But what i’m honestly more interested in writing about is the opening act, Austin, TX epic-rock vets the Trail of Dead. Like many, i eagerly bought into the hype of their 2002 release Source Tags & Codes, the album that a hyperbole-prone Pitchfork Media gave a much-debated 10.0 (note: upon recent listening, the album still holds up as well as i thought it did back then–i.e. awesome, but nowhere near a perfect album). A pair of shows attended in 1999 (supporting Superchunk) and 2002 (opening for Queens of the Stone Age) cemented my belief that TOD were a phenomenal band, bringing the energy live that was being captured on record (although i’ve unfortunately not borne witness to a trademark TOD instrument-smashing session).

However, the band stumbled with their subsequent full-lengths, 2005’s Worlds Apart and 2006’s So Divided. Upon So Divided’s release, my take was that the band’s songs, while as strong as ever, were being lost and buried among a suffocating layer of overproduction, like the fire of their live show was being smothered with a symphonic lead blanket of strings and synths. Thus, i went into last night’s show curious to see how the band’s recorded decline has affected their once-blistering live show.

To my delight, their once-blistering live show is still blistering. While the band has in recent years added two extra members (a drummer and keyboardist) to help compensate for the extra flavors on the albums, the live show is still by necessity a very live and stripped-down rock show heavy on the ROCK provided by the essentials: guitar, bass, piano, and drums. If there is any pre-recorded sequencing happening to compensate for the lack of a 38-piece orchestra, the sound guy at the Majestic had mixed it out completely, and the result proved my suspicions correct–under the bells and whistles of Worlds Apart and So Divided, there really are some fantastic songs.

Unfortunately, many of the metalheads in the audience didn’t agree, so while TOD garnered an overall decent reaction from the Madison throng, the electricity was somewhat dampened with the typically blockheaded metal convention of showing loyalty to the headliner only, in the true early-Metallica-Bay-Area-days tradition. “YOU SUCK! DETHKLOK RULES!” Now, yes, i get that part of the whole Dethklok story is that their fans are loyal to them and them only, but really, how silly is it to rip on a band that the headliners (or, in this case, the headliner’s producers and writers) invited along? “Hey Dethklok! Your taste in openers fucking sucks, but you rule!” Uh…thanks?

Still, it’s likely that the Trail of Dead folks anticipated a mixed reaction from the distinctly pro-metal crowds they were sure to encounter on this tour, and so they played on seemingly oblivious to the haters, climbing into the crowd, attacking their guitars, and playing with the ferocity (if not the destructiveness) of their early shows. If only they someday manage to clue in to the fact that overproduction is sapping that live energy from their albums and make their next one a stripped-down, raw scorcher, maybe their recorded output will once again match the magnificence that is the Trail of Dead live experience. (Anyone have an over/under on that? Cuz i’m thinking it’s not gonna happen. Ah well.)

(POSTSCRIPT: I’m sorry that all the photos look like they were shot by a cell phone. It’s because they were, since that’s all i’ve got. Expect more amazing photography in future posts from yours truly! Added value!)

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