^{ARTICLE AND PHOTOS: BRIAN LEE}

I attended both of the finale shows in Los Angeles at the YouTube Theater. YouTube Theater is a relatively new addition to the Hollywood Park complex which also includes SoFi Stadium. Just to the north is the Kia Forum (technically not part of Hollywood Park, just adjacent), which BABYMETAL played at in 2019 for their METAL GALAXY tour. It's one of the larger collections of venues you will find in Los Angeles and many a show has been played amongst the three, plus various sports (football at SoFi and basketball and hockey at the Forum. The LA Clippers are currently building the Intuit Dome to the south of Hollywood Park and plan to open in 2024). 

It's been a long five years since BABYMETAL graced our shores with a tour. Ohisashiburi, minna. 

BABYMETAL's center and primary vocalist is Su-metal (Suzuka Nakamoto). She is accompanied by Moametal (Moa Kikuchi) and the newest member of the group, Momometal (Momoko Okazaki), who replaced original member Yuimetal (Yui Mizuno), who departed in 2018. All three are battle-tested and hail from BABYMETAL's parent group, Sakura Gakuin. Their very first song, "Doki Doki Morning," was a proof of concept from Sakura Gakuin that spun off into an international force of nature. I've seen BABYMETAL every time they've come to America, including their first US show at The Fonda back in 2014. I left San Diego Comic-Con early that year just to see them live. I've been in the pit. I've been at the fence front and center at the Forum. I've been part of the wall. Needless to say, I am an ardent supporter, although nowadays you might be more likely to find me either in a seat or inside the photo pit.  

Initially, I was only going to attend the second show on Thursday but at the suggestion of a friend, decided to fly down last minute for Wednesday as well. I left work at midnight and by five in the morning was at the airport to catch the first flight to Los Angeles. This proved beneficial as I was able to watch the entirety of the show on Wednesday night. After our designated photo time on Thursday, the photographer corps was sadly shuttled out of the main hall so we could bag-check our gear. This happened to be during "Megitsune," which is, by far, my favorite song from the band. I did my best to headbang but it's a bit hard to do so while walking upstairs, especially if you're trying to do the windmill part towards the end of the song.

The set list was, surprisingly, not all about the group's most recent album, The Other One. Most bands will play the bulk of a tour setlist consisting of their newest album, partly to spur sales, but also so new fans who may have only listened to that album can hear songs they recognize. I was somewhat disappointed because The Other One is quite good as an album. Only somewhat, because the rest of the set was full of some of the band's best and most recognized songs.

"BABYMETAL DEATH" is the band's traditional opening song for most of their shows and has been played hundreds of times live. This was followed by the group's initial claim to fame, "Gimme Chocolate!!," which helped spread them far and wide in 2014. "PA PA YA!!," from the album METAL GALAXY and featuring Thai rapper F.HERO, was up next, and is actually quite a fun song (Matsuri da! Matsuri da!), with F.HERO rapping a passage towards the end. "Distortion," featuring melodic death metal band Arch Enemy's Alissa White-Gluz, marked the fourth song of the set. The song "BxMxC" blends blast beats and rapping, this time with Su-metal handling the latter.

Throughout the tour, the sixth song of the set has switched between "MAYA," "Mirror Mirror", and "Believing," all of which are from the most recent album. The seventh song, "Monochrome," also comes from The Other One. It slows things down and is a welcome break from the rest of the set's frenetic energy. The girls even had a bit of fun by asking the crowd to turn on all the lights on their cell phones to create a sea of stars. Su-metal herself had a cell phone and took a selfie with Momometal and Moametal. They're all smiles for the last two dates of a long tour and I wish you could have seen their faces.

"METALI!!," featuring Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, closed out the band's newer songs. This song was actually released just a couple of months ago in August. Its first live debut was at the Zepp Haneda in Tokyo on August 16, and two weeks later was played in Boston. You can describe the song as a Japanese folk festival song, but with a heavy dose of metal applied.

On an aside, I would like to mention that BABYMETAL has truly made inroads across the globe, collaborating with lots of bands from every corner. Bring Me the Horizon, Sabaton's Joakim Broden, Arch Enemy's Alissa White-Gluz, the abovementioned Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, Tak Matsumoto from B'z, Polyphia, F.HERO, Dragonforce, and the list goes on and on.  BABYMETAL, not being tied down to one particular kind of metal, is able to mesh with various other genres of metal and music seamlessly.

As mentioned, "Megitsune" came late in the set. The crowd exploded after the first riff was played as the girls began the sprint to the end of their performance.  This was paired with another classic BABYMETAL song, "Headbanger." These are both from the initial album and are two of the group's strongest songs. No live set is complete without them.  "Megitsune" kicked off a large circle pit on the floor and the only reason it paused at all was so fans would be able to respond to the cues in later songs to begin the pit anew.

The final song of the set for this tour has generally been "Road of Resistance" (featuring Dragonforce's Herman Li and Sam Totman, who will be touring the US next month, for that matter). This would be followed by a trailer video for the tour, followed by the classic "See you!" from the girls, and then it was time to leave. For Thursday, a different video was played with an anti-bullying message and the mention of the "wall of death."

For veterans, that means one thing: "Ijime, Dame, Zettai," better known as "IDZ." This was the first time (and only time) they played that song for the entire tour. So, for BABYMETAL fans, the finale show was a special one. One last burst of energy before the end.  Fans clearly had fun with multiple pits, circle pits, and crowd surfers being seen throughout the night.  One memorable surfer was dressed as a yellow banana and I had thought he was a Pikachu before being corrected by a friend.  

Well, that's one smile I can show you

Is Dethklok back?  Maybe?  jk it's YES

But of course, BABYMETAL is only half of this tour. Their co-headliner is the death metal band Dethklok, and it's been a while since Dethklok went on a proper tour. They played at both of the Adult Swim Festivals in 2019 and 2022, plus Festival Supreme in 2014. Before that? Not since 2012 for a tour. For Dethklok fans, that was an incredible wait, and it was worth it.

Dethklok is the band featured in Adult Swim's Metalocalypse animated series. Created by Brendon Small, the series spanned four seasons and ended its original network run in 2012. An animated special, Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem, aired in 2013. Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar, which was released in late August of this year, serves as the final chapter for the Dethklok saga. It is paired with Dethalbum IV, which was also released at the same time as Army of the Doomstar. For the foreseeable future, this is the last time you'll be able to see Dethklok live.

Dethklok's live band consists of Brendon Small on guitar and lead vocals, Gene Hoglan on drums, Bryan Beller and Pete Griffin on bass (depending on the date), and Nili Brosh on guitar. Small also provides the voices of in-universe band members Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, and Pickles.

The best way to describe Dethklok's set is one long music video. Brendon Small and company played onstage with videos for each song played on the big screen behind them. The performers themselves were practically invisible except as silhouettes with just a little bit of rim light. The set list ranged from the beginning (the "Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle," "Thunderhorse," "Mermaider," "Awaken") to the new ("Aortic Desecration," "SOS"), to everything in-between ("The Gears," "Bloodlines," and many others). These are the full versions of the songs that, if you have only watched the animated series, may have never seen or heard in their entirety.

Sadly for me, no "DethHarmonic." If you've looked at many of the other bands I've covered, there's a common denominator in that most of them are power metal. "DethHarmonic" musically fits right into that niche.

This was a perfect send-off for Dethklok. A sold-out tour spanning the United States, featuring so many of the band's songs. A straight hour of melodic death metal, which is my favorite kind of death metal.

One humorous part was during the second break featuring Dethklok mascot Facebones, in which Facebones says, more or less, don't get too high, so you don't annoy your fellow concertgoers. California being California, this was a cue for a multitude of expelled smoke (use your imagination) all around the floor section. This isn't the first time this has happened but it could be the last.

One of the final songs, "SOS," is lyrically a fitting end to the Dethklok saga: "Last breath / Skyward / Dark sign / Closing line / No time / To mend this life / Take this hand / This last time"

As a bit of a twist, BABYMETAL performed first on Wednesday followed by Dethklok, and on Thursday, this was reversed, with BABYMETAL closing out the tour.

Thoughts for the tour? I wish BABYMETAL had played more songs. For the bulk of the tour, it was eleven songs (minus festivals, which have an understandably reduced time slot). For both of the Los Angeles shows, the night was over by approximately 1030 PM, which, for many a metal fan, is way before their bedtime. You could have tacked on another hour of playtime split any way you'd like between the two groups and would have been fine. Dethklok played for an hour but slammed through a total of seventeen songs on each night.  I would have loved to see "Karate," "Akatsuki," and "Kagerou," or even "Metal Kingdom" and "Metalizm" from BABYMETAL's new album.

I'm pleased at the number of cities this tour went to. More than two-dozen shows meant that most people shouldn't have been too far from one. Many a Japanese tour has consisted of Los Angeles and New York, and maybe Texas, or maybe San Francisco, and nothing else. Due to the Aftershock Festival being fairly close to San Francisco it did mean I had to go down to Los Angeles for a proper show, but this just meant I was able to meet up with friends, some of which I don't get to see too often.

According to Japanese sources, (check out some cool photos from the official band photographer while you're at it; not gonna lie, I'm jealous he got to shoot the whole thing) the entire tour had 110,000 attendees.  Not bad.  YouTube Theater alone would have accounted for one-tenth of that number.  

This was my first time at YouTube Theater and I don't think it'll be my last. They have some comfortable chairs and the sightlines are pretty good. I sat in the 100s on one night and the club level on the other, and both had great views. Up in the 200s you have a commanding view of the stage from above.  The club level is right next to the bar if you're wishing to drink during the show.  It's also possible to watch the show from the bar itself. 

Coming up on November 29 at YouTube Theater is The Last Rock Stars which consists of Yoshiki, Hyde, Sugizo, and Miyavi. They last played in America earlier this year at the Palladium in Los Angeles and the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

For those of you in Europe, heads up! You're getting another chance to see BABYMETAL if you didn't see them this spring with Sabaton. The UK/Europe tour begins on November 14 in Oslo.  They'll be headlining and that should mean a longer set.  

For those of you in America, you will have the opportunity to see BABYMETAL in Las Vegas at the Sick New World festival in April 2024.  It could be a while til we see them again after that. 

If you're in Japan, they'll be performing at the end of the month.  On 10/31 they'll be at the Kobe World Memorial Hall, 11/1 at the Nippon Gaishi Hall (Nagoya), and 11/3-4 at the MAKUHARI MESSE (Tokyo).  All of these performances will be part of NEX_FEST and NEX_FEST -Extra-.  Tickets are still available for Kobe, Nagoya, and Tokyo on the 4th.  If you can't make these shows, BABYMETAL does regularly perform in Japan every year so you shouldn't have to wait long for another chance. 

Wherever you happen to be, I hope you get to see them soon.

BABYMETAL's setlist:

1. BABYMETAL DEATH
2. Gimme Chocolate!!
3. PA PA YA!! (feat. F.HERO)
4. Distortion (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
5. BxMxC
6. MAYA (10/11) / Mirror Mirror (10/12)
7. Monochrome
8. METALI!! (feat. Tom Morello) (with KAMI Band solos)
9. Megitsune
10. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
11. Road of Resistance (feat Dragonforce)
12. Ijime, Dame, Zettai (10/12 only)

Dethklok's setlist:

1. Deththeme
2. Briefcase Full of Guts
3. Birthday Dethday
4. Awaken
5. Bloodlines
6. The Gears
7. Hatredcopter
8. Dethsupport
9. Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle
10. Aortic Desecration
11. I Ejaculate Fire
12. The Duel
13. Murmaider
14. Thunderhorse
15. Fansong
16. SOS
17. Go Into the Water

The Babyklok Tour took place at:

8/30 Houston, TX - 713 Music Hall
8/31 Dallas, TX - Southside Ballroom
9/2 Orlando, FL - Orlando Amphitheater
9/3 Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy
9/5 Nashville, TN - Nashville Municipal Auditorium
9/6 Cleveland, OH - Agora Theater
9/8 Pittsburgh, PA - UPMC Events Center
9/9 Wallingford, CT - Toyota Oakdale Theater
9/10 Alton, VA - Blue Ridge Rock Festival
9/12 Philadelphia, PA - The Mann Center
9/14 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway
9/15 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
9/17 Sterling Heights, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheater
9/18 Toronto, ON (CA) - RBC Echo Beach
9/20 Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live at 20 Monroe
9/21 Chicago, IL - Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
9/23 Louisville, KY - Louder Than Life Festival
9/24 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave/Eagles Club
9/25 Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore
9/27 St Louis, MO - Saint Louis Music Park
9/28 Omaha, NE - Steelhouse Omaha
9/30 Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium
10/1 Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
10/3 Vancouver, BC (CA) - PNE Forum
10/4 Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater
10/7 Sacramento, CA - Aftershock Festival
10/8 Las Vegas, NV - Pearl Theater at Palms Casino Resort
10/10 Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theater
10/11 Los Angeles, CA - YouTube Theater
10/12 Los Angeles, CA - YouTube Theater