Heavy Metal Gets Animated at Pauley Ballroom

The disco ball, high-end acoustics and hardwood floors were all that kept Pauley Ballroom from becoming a suburban metal venue when Austin, Texas-based … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Dethklok took the stage Friday night. Trail of Dead have toured with metal bands before, but Dethklok aren’t simply a band; they are the focus of Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” animated show “Metalocalypse,” which contrasts the rocking of the “world’s most brutal band” with their excessive yet bizarrely mundane lives. “Adult Swim” threw in another twist by using the tour to advertise the release of “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,” also featuring Dethklok. In one fell swoop, “Adult Swim” cross-promoted metal, art rock, video games and their own cartoons. Combined with Verizon’s “text your ‘most brutal pic’” contest, there is no wonder why this concert was free.

When Trail of Dead took the stage, 1,000 people had squeezed into Pauley from a line snaking all the way past Wheeler Hall. Trail of Dead broke into the pounding “The Rest Will Follow,” (2005’s Worlds Apart) amid crude shouts for Dethklok to come to the stage. The driving beat of two drummers supplied a pace you wouldn’t expect from the band, but when frontman Conrad Keely descended into the anthem’s lyrics, there was a bit of a drop-off. For all the acoustics Pauley offers, Keely’s vocals were muffled. Ten minutes into the set, Keely surveyed the lackluster response of a clearly Dethklok-devoted audience and quietly asked, “Not very enthusiastic, huh?” The band then turned their backs on the audience and focused instead of jamming with each other.

The energy level then rose and the sound synched. Lead guitarist Kevin Allen and Keely proceeded to tear into their instruments, plucking chords like they were pulling lawn mower starters. Keely pulled too hard at one point and broke the neck of his guitar, but the band kept pounding out as he tossed the spent shredder. In the middle of it all, the audience was reduced to swaying back and forth, watching Trail of Dead jam, like children watching recess from detention. The band left the stage with some boos and calls for Dethklok, but they had succeeded in playing a good set regardless of the ill-fit audience.

Dethklok then took the stage to a resounding roar. In an effort to preserve the image of their cartoon counterparts, Dethklok performed Gorillaz-style with accompanying animation. Brendon Small, the real-life lead singer, performed in low red light, shifting attention to the animated music videos playing behind the band. “Deththeme” appropriately opened the set in true cartoon fashion, doubling as the show’s theme song. Former Frank Zappa guitarist Mike Keneally pounded out chords that sent fans flying into a black-clad mosh hole directly in front of the stage. Dethklok showcased their brand of death metal with excellent guitar riffs as they tore through their new disc The Dethalbum. Unfortunately, there was a disconnect between the cartoon and the live band, the latter of which was simply more entertaining. Short skits punctuated the set and skewered fans who took the band seriously with labels like “mutant” and “moron.” When Dethklok came on for an encore, the producers had thankfully run out of video. So the band played their final song with the lights on, capping the night with a performance that exceeded everything else.

Maybe they should have cut the video completely and let the real Dethklok out of the cage, since few fans got the gag anyway: Between sets, the winner of the Guitar Hero contest came onstage to display his faux rock star skills. With a score of 163,000, he should have shredded, but he mangled Tenacious D’s “The Metal.” More chants for Dethklok followed, and the “guitarist” made a fitting choice by playing a song from another comedy band billed as the greatest in the world. I’m not sure those chanting got the joke.