What do Goblins, Dragons, and Cartoons have in common? I have no clue, but they all came together for the “Mutilation on a Spring Night” Tour featuring Dethklok, Dragonforce, and Nekrogoblikon! The tour made a stop at San Diego’s North Park Observatory on April 22nd.
We unfortunately just missed Nekrogoblikon but made it in time for DragonForce. Before they took the stage, four red eyes emerged out from the darkness. They were slowly rising and I realized that they were two giant inflatable dragons! They looked so sick, especially next to DragonForce’s two iconic, huge, old-school arcade machines. During “Power of the Triforce”, a song inspired by Zelda, they threw a stuffed chicken around the room. The band asked for three things regarding the chicken; that it go around the entire venue, that it gets back to the stage by the end of the song, and that it stays in one piece. The whole staying in one piece thing didnt last long though, as stuffing immediately starting flying out of it. Another goal was to try and get the chicken up to the balcony. After a couple tries, it made it up there! The crowd went crazy and tried to throw it up there again. At that point though the chicken had lost to much stuffing!
Luckily the chicken did make it back to the stage by the end.
Toward the end of their set, they had some fun playing a couple covers, including “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion and “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift. Guitarist Herman Li said, “This is the only time you can circle pit to a Taylor Swift song!” They closed out with “Through Fire and The Flames” and dedicated it to anyone who has ever sucked at Guitar Hero.
If you haven’t seen/heard of the show, Dethklok is both a fictional band featured in the Adult Swim animated show Metalocalypse and a real band created to perform the band's melodic death metal music in live shows. Metalocalypse takes metal culture to the extreme with insane amounts of drug and alcohol use, morbid unhinged jokes, and plenty of blood and gore. Both bands were created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha. The music heard on the show is performed by Brendon Small, with others as needed. Brendon and drummer, Gene Hoglan, performed on all three of Dethklok’s albums. Gene Hoglan, formally in Testament, lives in San Diego, so this was a hometown show for him!
To get the full Dethklok/Metalocalypse experience, the stage remained dark throughout the show, with the occasional backlighting adding a little flair from time to time.
While the band themselves play in darkness, the giant screen behind them plays clips from Metalocalypse, and it felt like you were watching the cartoon in a movie theater. The show opened with the Tribunal, an illuminati-type group in tv show who are constantly trying to end Dethklok, gathering to talk about the return of Dethklok. After that clip, the band came out and played “Deththeme.” They went on to play 18 more hits from the show including, “Birthday Dethday”, “Awakened”, “Duncan Hills Cofffe Jingle”, “Thunderhorse”, “Fan Song”, and more.
There were a couple of interludes during the show with Concert Etiquette from Facebones! Etiquette? What that? Well, it’s a French word that means “How to not act like a stupid asshole.” The first lesson he taught us about concert hygiene and how to use deodorant. The second lesson was about drinking booze and smoking pot, but then Facebones got a little carried away with that one.
This was one of the most unique shows I’ve been to, and I’m really glad we got to see the return of Dethklok.
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