Mushroomhead at the Annex: Concert Review for Dane101

Mosh pits? Check. Masks? Check. Industrial metal mayhem? Double check. Last night Mushroomhead rolled into the Annex and pumped out their unique blend of skull shaking industrial metal.

The night was set to be kicked off by a local band, Malice in Wonderland, but they were unable to show up due to their drummer’s family crisis. So it fell upon the band Marazene to get the night started off on the right foot; and they delivered. Marazene uses the familiar electronic metal sound of Marilyn Manson, but kicks it up more than a few notches. This four man group out of Chicago shredded the stage with heavy rifts, intense vocals and enough bass to blow out your ear drums(mission accomplished). Marazene’s bloody throated vocals in songs like Antithesis and Self Worth definitely won over some fans in the mosh pit, myself included. Since they were the first band to play, they regrettably had the shortest set as I would have liked to hear a lot more from them. Next to take the stage was the metalcore band out of Minneapolis, Black Flood Diesel. Despite a few nice breakdowns and a relatively talented bassist, the band left something to be desired. They rocked their hearts out on stage, but it wasn’t enough. The crowd was just not liking what they had to offer, and much of the audience looked bored. Black Flood Diesel just didn’t sound or look comfortable on stage and their performance suffered for it.  

After working through the doldrums of Black Flood Diesel, the Norwegian band Psyclon 9 brought the crowd back to life. When they first took the stage, body paint and random piercings included, many snickers were heard in the audience. Never having heard or seen this strange band before I was not sure what to expect; boy was I in for a treat. These goth rockers from a crossed the puddle tore it up despite having two replacement band members. Their musical and vocal style was very reminiscent of another European band, Cradle of Filth. The difference between Psyclon and Cradle, was Psyclon’s heavy use of keyboards and wicked bass. Unfortunately though at this point many members of the crowd had grown impatient waiting for Mushroomhead and really did not give Psyclon 9 a fair shake of the dice. For me they were the unexpected highlight of the night, and a band that I would love to see again when they are at full strength.

But now it was time for the main event: Mushroomhead. As the lights dimmed, smoke started pouring out onto the stage. Soon after the whole stage was filled with smoke, eight lights appeared in the smog as the members took their places. I braced myself for the coming audio carnage when suddenly the lights flooded the stage and they broke into Damage Done, one of their better songs off the latest album, Savior Sorrow. The opening song set the tone for the rest of the concert as the majority of their songs were off of this last record. I managed to get a great spot right up front next to the stage. For those of you that have not had the privilege of seeing Mushroomhead live, they have four floor toms that have a layer of water on top that shoots a spray up into the air every time they are hit. The water drums added a very intense element to the show because of the strobe lights hitting the water droplets from behind. At one point during the set, there were some technical difficulties that were frustrating to deal with, but they worked through it and recovered nicely. All in all Mushroomhead had a great stage presence and an adrenaline filed performance. It was also easy to tell that new co-frontman, Waylon, was getting comfortable preforming and interacting with the crowd. Although he did admit that his voice was a little hoarse, it was barely noticeable and his vocals didn’t seem to suffer from it. They delivered a high octane show that is something that should be experienced by all Mushroomhead fans. After Mushroomhead finished their set and the crowd started to clear out I got a chance to catch up with the lead singer from Psyclon 9. Even though I had never heard of them before he said that they had been around for seven years mainly doing smaller shows. He mentioned that the band was still excited to be on such a big national tour, but they were definitely down after two band members were hospitalized at the previous show due to irresponsible fans. Even so he had nothing but good things to say about the rest of the bands and was looking forward to the rest of the show. I also chatted briefly with Waylon from Mushroomhead who said that even though they had only been on tour for three days he really liked the band lineup and was looking forward to getting to know them better.