Few bands survived the nu-metal, or un-metal some would say, explosion of the mid to late nineties. The genre died a pretty quick death when “true” or “real” metal resurfaced into mainstream popularity.

One group that was lumped into the whole mess was Static-X. Unlike the aforementioned tragic deaths, they survived, staying true to their dance/electronic metal roots and maintaining a huge cult following worldwide as the 300 strong crowd at Capitol proved.

Sensational is a word not often to be thrown around willy nilly at a gig, but Sight Transcend’s frontman Ed Divine seemed to think the audience were. The crowd did respond appropriately to their technical melodic metal advances, so it was probably justified. Given the fact that it was perhaps their first international support, they checked all the boxes that a local band should; a tight performance, little talking and a short but sweetly powerful set, winning over a few new fans.

You’d think going to a Static X gig that the odd bit of widdly widdly guitar virtuoso-ism would almost be unheard of. Luckily the second support laid it on thick like smooth peanut butter should be on a crusty piece of hot toast. Chaos Divine are never oily, never dry either, they’re usually just right, and perhaps even get better with time. They were incredibly tight and it’s good to see some of the focus taken off fret-shredder Ryan Felton and put on guitarist Simon Mitchell, who clearly has the chops.

Vocalist Dave Anderton preformed as well as one could with a cold, but honestly, without prior knowledge, you wouldn’t have known. His jovial mood was most entertaining, singing happy birthday to a fan and sharing some Southpark references. Not much more needs to be said about these guys, they’re clearly drawing some deserved recognition taking out several categories at the Australian Metal Awards, and this performance only solidified them.

It was if someone had flicked a switch from Progressive Metal show to Underground Rave Party. The only difference being no glow sticks in sight, just beer and horns held high. As Static-X plunged into their classic opener Push-It, the place writhed and pulsated like a club in Ibiza. The light show matched perfectly, beams of light fanning over the crowd as Wayne Static controlled them through various sing alongs of their lengthy back catalogue.

A scantily clad woman sauntered out onto the stage and distributed some plastic cups to the boys at one point and it became apparent that it was indeed Tera Wray, Wayne’s porn star wife! A few Australian colloquialisms directed at her and she slunk off stage, allowing the lads to kick back into yet another club anthem.

Everything was pretty much perfect, bar the PA momentarily shitting itself, and Wayne’s guitar dying forcing him to man the mic axe-less. Aside from those slight technical issues, they nailed their set
as you’d want to hope so, given the low-level of musicianship required. On that note, guitarist Koichi Fukuda is clearly talented. He stood there pretty motionless for most of the set chugging away at his guitar with precision, and then in an almost Mr Miyagi style moment, ripped out some blistering kung-fu shredding, then returned to his original position without batting an eyelid, albeit a knowing nod and smile to the stunned front row punters.

Hair product failing, Wayne led his troupe through a two song encore, rounding out a solid performance, leaving the title of their recent release Cult Of Static even more poignant than ever.
Death Disco indeed.