THE MACHINE KILLER TOUR STEAMROLLS INTO THE RADIUS CHICAGO
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY JIM HELMECY
The first time I saw Static X in 2019 after Wayne’s death was also the first time I saw “Xer0” as the frontman. Now some took this as stepping on Wayne’s legacy, others and I looked at it as a rebirth of the band, a celebration of Wayne and what he brought to the industry. Fast forward 5 years, the second studio album “Project Regeneration Vol 2.” was released this January. With the Machine Killer tour running full steam since February 1st, this tour has been destroying venues along the way with a killer lineup of Lines of Loyalty, Dope, and co-headliner Sevendust. We roll into another show this week at a packed Radius Chicago. With a capacity of 2,500 to 3,800 people, this place was packed wall to wall.
Wisconsin’s Lines of Loyalty opened up the night with “Hurts to be Human”, from their 2023 album of the same name, and got the crowd going. The band played an amazing 7 song set which included “My Addiction”, and “Winless War”, and ended the set with “I’m Not the One”. Fans were very enthusiastic about the set, and were getting warmed up for the next upcoming band Dope.
Now if you have been under a rock for the past 27 years, most of you know who Dope is. If you’ve watched any of these movies, “American Psycho”, “Scream 3”, or “Fast and the Furious”, you were bound to hear one of their songs.
Opening their set with “Blood Money”, we all knew we were in for an “in your face” wild set. During their next song “Bring it On”, the crowd got into a frenzy, and a couple of smaller mosh pits started up in the middle of the packed floor. Before the next song hit, frontman Edsel Dope made it clear they were there to warm the crowd up. He wanted to see bodies moving, moshing, and crowd surfing. When the opening notes for “Bitch” dropped the crowd went insane. We got our first few crowd surfers of the night during this song, the fans were getting warmed up now. Ending off the set with “You Spin Me Round” (Dead or Alive cover), the fans gave everything they had for this one.
Sevendust hit the crowd hard with their first song “I Might Let the Devil Win”, and it was game on for this frenzied crowd. Another band with 30 years in the biz, Sevendust knows how to bring the heavy and get the crowd going. During song two, “Truth Killer”, the fans started to go hard. There was an abundance of crowd surfers and moshing during this one. I made my way to the second-level balcony to take in the number of people that were there and damn this place was full. There were a lot of things you didn’t get to see from the floor, exactly how big of a circle pit was going on at the time. Sevendust pounded the crowd with a 13-song setlist that everyone in the building was happy with, and cheering for more.
Going back to the late 90s, nu-metal was making the scene, Static X was right there to help pioneer the movement. Wayne Static put this band on the map then, and it’s carried on till now. Even with the passing of Wayne in 2014, the band still uses a bunch of his stuff on the new albums. Enter Xer0, which if you know, you know who’s under the mask.
So as the lights drop a giant pumpkin head monster strolls out of the back. Snow started to fall(yes, real snow)and the opening number “Hollow” dropped. With Xer0 perched on his podium, fans went into an uproar and exploded into excitement. During song three “Love Dump”, bubbles started to fall from the sky, and again you could feel the energy in the crowd shift into high gear. The boys from Static X played an annihilating 16-song set ending with an old classic “Push It” This tour still has a lot of dates left and if you want some killer music and a great stage show, this is your best bang for your buck. Until we meet again peeps.