Punk/Metal Supergroup Dead Cross Make Good At The El Rey

LOS ANGELES, CA- When starting my draft of this post, I decided to scour the interwebs for a definition of the term “Supergroup”. After all, this post is about Dead Cross, a band that consists of veteran drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies Fantômas), guitarist Mike Crain (Retox, Festival of Dead Deer), bassist Justin Pearson (the Locust, Head Wound City, Retox), and vocalist Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantômas). In my book, this is a hardcore punk supergroup if ever I saw one. When I perused the Wikipedia entry of the term, Dead Cross wasn’t on that list. What. The. Fuck?

Having released their self-titled debut album earlier this year, which was produced by Ross Robinson (Korn, Deftones, Sepultura), the band unleashed to the world an album that punches you in the face with an unrelenting 29 minutes of hardcore punk with flashes of heavy metal that surely would leave an uninitiated listener with heart palpitations.

Having had to cancel the original concert date the night before due to Mike having an skateboarding accident on route to the venue, fans breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced via social media that they would “redo” the gig the following night. Though the venue may not have been as packed as the night before, plenty of punk/Faith No More/Slayer/Retox/etc. loyalists came back out to the El Rey to see Patton and company shred.

After finishing the opening song of their set, “Seizure and Desist”, sporting newly sewn stitches under his chin, and various bandages covering other wounds, Mike addressed the crowd to thank them for coming out two nights in a row, joking, “This is what happens when a fifty year old tries to skate.” Then, without any regards to his freshly tended too wounds, he raged into the next song even mixing it up in the audience.

With most of their songs clocking in at less than 3 minutes long, the live concert experience of witnessing Dead Cross was pretty much a whirlwind of pounding sonics and unrelenting fury. Mike would break up the break-neck speed of the performance every so often with some whimsical chit chat, perhaps as a conscious effort to allow both the band and the audience to catch its breath before the next.

While you might have expected the audience to consist of big, burly, clad-in-black dudes, there were plenty of youthful attendees in the audience, and when I say youthful, I’m talking elementary school kids there with their parents. One lucky kid- wearing a Faith No More t-shirt- midway through the set, was lifted up on stage and given a chance to dance and sing with Mike on the appropriately selected “The Future Has Been Cancelled”. As far as I’m concerned, this little girl is proof positive that the future is going to be ok.

As if playing basically the entirety of their album weren’t enough, the band played a visceral cover of Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks Fuck Off!!!”, which received some of the loudest cheers of the evening before Mike and Dave switched places teasing the audience that Lombardo would be performing a cover of Slayer’s “Raining Blood”. See the Instagram embed below to see what happened next:

Dave Lombardo and Mike Patton switched roles during the encore of last night’s @dead_cross_official show. As Mike got behind the drum kit and Dave grabbed the mic the crowd began going berserk as the opening riffs of #Slayer’s iconic Raining Blood were echoing through the venue. But it turned out to just be a prank out from Patton and the band! Hilarious ending to an amazing night! . . . . . #MikePatton #DaveLombardo #DeadCross #rainingblood #fakeout #prank #joke #concertphotography #livephotography #musicphotography #metal #metalphotography #gigphotography #liveconcertphotography #concertpic #concertphoto #musicphoto #musicpic #canonphoto #concertphotograper #canonphotographer #musicphotograper

A post shared by Levan TK (@levan_tk) on Aug 23, 2017 at 2:58pm PDT

For those who couldn’t make it back out for the “redo” show, all I can say is that they missed out on seeing some veteran rockers do what they do best. Those that were able to make the trek back out to the El Rey were rewarded to some audio bad-assery, by a punk/metal supergroup of the highest order. Somebody needs to get on Wikipedia to fix that sh-t asap.

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