Static-X Wisconsin Death Trip 20th Anniversary Tour featuring Devildriver, Dope, and Wednesday 13
Losing a key member of your band is never easy to recover from. This is especially true when someone is lost as suddenly and as tragically as Wayne Static, the frontman of the band Static-X. Wayne’s contribution to everything that was Static-X cannot be understated. That being said, the remaining members of the band were determined to honor the memory of Wayne in conjunction with celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut LP, Wisconsin Death Trip. Accompanying on this memorial and anniversary tour were the band’s Devildriver, Dope and Wednesday 13.
Wednesday 13 is the persona adapted by frontman Joseph Poole while on stage and the band consists of himself as well as members of other projects including Murderdolls. Their stage presence is very sensational and theatrical and is in the vein of acts like Alice Cooper. The band is touring ahead of their album release Necrophaze which they have described as more like a “movie record.” The band put on a great show for the crowd, complete with hook hands, a devil mask, pitchfork, and even a two-faced vocalist at one point. All of this was set to very ghostly lighting to a packed house.
Dope was the next band to take the stage and there was already an almost local connection with the crowd as frontman Edsel resided in Marietta, Georgia, not too far from the venue for several years. The band has been together since 1997 and since that time has gone on to be featured in films like Scream 3 and the first The Fast and the Furious film as well as during some promotional content for WWE Wrestling on the WWF Forceable Entry audio release. All of this culminated in a excellent performance to a packed venue where the band took the crowd through their discography. And also took the time to celebrate the life of Wayne Static who, along with the other members of Static-X the band was very close with, spending a solid year together on tour.
Devildriver has existed as a band since 2002 when they began as Deathride, a group that was born from frontman Dez Fafara’s jam session with musicians he met, mostly while touring with his band at the time, Coal Chamber. Since their inception the band has gone on to have their music featured in films like Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The band is touring ahead of the release of their pending double-album Outlaws ‘til the End which Dez Fafara has stated will be the “record of our career.”
Devildriver brought something for everyone to the stage during their performance. There was a cover of the song “Sail” by AWOLNATION as well as many of Devildriver’s classics from their discography such as “Clouds Over California”. In a surprise move, for the first time ever with Devildriver, the band performed songs from Fafara’s previous band, Coal Chamber including the song “Loco”. Like many of the other acts on the tour, Devildriver shared fond memories and reverance for Wayne Static during their set.
Finally the time had come for Static-X to take the stage. Much of the speculation ConcertHopper noticed from the crowd was, who exactly was behind the mask attempting to fill the very large shoes left in the wake of Wayne for the band. While ConcertHopper knows the answer to the question (as do many others) we feel the mystery is more exciting than knowing the answer.
That being said, to say that it was a perfect performance without Wayne fronting the band would be a huge injustice to his memory. In spite of that though, it was very obvious from the onset that great care had been taken to ensure that the memory of Wayne and his contributions to the band were not forgotten, many of Wayne’s mannerisms were studied and displayed by the frontman standing in front of the microphone that were obvious to anyone who had seen the band live prior to Wayne’s passing.
In lieu of using a lot of commentary from the microphones on stage, the band used the video boards behind them on stage frequently to share photos of Wayne as well as messages of remembrance and of missing the frontman. Of course it is difficult to imagine how hard it must be to continue as a band after losing someone, Dez from Devildriver said it best and ConcertHopper would like to paraphrase his words. Dez stated that one of his favorite albums was the Black album by AC/DC. But imagine if AC/DC had just called it quits after losing their singer in a tragic fashion like Static-X had done then the world would have missed out on that album as a result. Perhaps this is setting the stage for a triumphant return of Static-X, one that we at ConcertHopper would gladly welcome.
The tour continues through the following dates and we highly encourage making a trip to check it out if it comes near you, tickets are available at Ticketmaster:
07/02 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House
07/03 – London, ON @ London Music Hall
07/04 – Ottawa, ON @ Brass Monkey
07/05 – Hampton Beach, NH @ Wally’s
07/06 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
07/07 – Reading, PA @ Reverb
07/09 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Jergel’s
07/10 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater
07/11 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Citadel
07/12 – Ft. Wayne, IN @ Piere’s
07/13 – Detroit, MI @ Harpo’s
07/14 – Lexington, KY @ Manchester Music Hall
07/16 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Intersection
07/18 – Cadott, WI @ Cadott Rockfest
07/19 – Sioux City, IA @ Anthem @ Hard Rock Casino
07/20 – Joliet, IL @ The Forge
07/21 – Belvidere, IL @ Apollo Theater
07/23 – Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater
07/26 – Los Angeles, CA @ Catch One
07/27 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
As always, please feel free to browse around ConcertHopper’s website further and to check out our articles covering a wide variety of topics. Please also check us out on social media on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Life is a beautiful thing and music only adds to that beauty, make some time to get out and celebrate beauty and life with a community of like-minded individuals at a concert soon, it’s always worth the price of admission.