Animated Band Dethklok Plays Real Live Metal in New York

Going into Wednesday night's show at New York's Nokia Theater, it was plausible that Dethklok — the human incarnation of the cartoon band featured on Adult Swim's Metalocalypse — could come across like a metal Josie and the Pussycats: all in good fun and a competent aping of a genre, but not quite the total package. But once the band kicked off their blistering set with the show's theme song and a mosh pit the length of the stage opened up, things suddenly became pretty damn legitimate.

Featuring Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small on guitar and vocals, Zappa family associates Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller on guitar and bass, respectively, and legendary metal drummer Gene Hoglan keeping time, the songs were given a weight that is lacking on the comparatively thin studio album. The performances of songs like "Murmaider" — a ditty about being killed by mermaids, in case it isn't clear — and "Briefcase Full of Guts" were mostly stripped of their winking humor and laid out as a full-on metal attack. The comedy was handled by monitors displaying synchronized video of the band's cartoon alter egos playing the same songs. Dethklok's lyrics and caricatures of metal's institutions may be in loving parody, but the fans slamming to "Bloodrocuted" didn't seem to care.

Set List:

"Deththeme"
"Briefcase Full of Guts"
"Birthday Dethday"
"Awaken"
"Bloodrocuted"
"Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle"
"Dethharmonic"
"Castratikon"
"Go Forth and Die"
"Hatredcopter"
"Murmaider"
"Thunderhorse"
"Go Into The Water"
"Fansong"
"Hatredy"

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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