Two months ago, a couple of shows popped up on my radar out of nowhere. Dethklok. BABYMETAL. Dragonforce. Nekrogoblikon. That's a lot of names, and they were all coming to San Francisco in some sort of unholy collision. This would be a new extension of the Babyklok tour that I finished last fall. I went to both of the finale shows at Los Angeles' YouTube Theater, and now we're back for more.

Dethklok had already planned to wind their way across America accompanied by DragonForce and Nekrogoblikon. BABYMETAL announced that they would be at the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas. There was a distinct gap in the schedule and these two new Babyklok shows would fit that void with San Francisco's The Masonic as the venue. Previously, San Francisco was notably absent from the tour stops and I had just assumed it was another case of us being skipped in lieu of Los Angeles.

Today's article is brought to you by an airplane and a hotel in Tokyo. On Friday morning after the second of the Babyklok concerts, I had to zip away to the airport and go back to Japan. Didn't I just come back from Japan? Correct. And here we are, because I have Ado to see. I actually did a lot of photo editing on the plane as I had to send off photos, eventually finishing up and getting them on their way after regaining my internet connection in Tokyo's Haneda Airport after clearing immigrations.

I'll be doing more feelings than cold hard facts today, as I already did that on the previous show's coverage. A little different than my usual concert reports.  Check out the previous concert report for a more in-depth article.

The sound seemed better than it was at YouTube Theater last year. This might be for various reasons, but if I had to guess, it's because the Masonic was designed as an old-school theater with a focus on acoustics as opposed to a modern performance venue. Built in the 50s, it is used primarily as a concert venue but also serves as the annual meeting location of the California Freemasons.

There was a bit of flip-flopping in the schedule. Much like the Los Angeles shows, BABYMETAL closed on one night, and Dethklok the other. The openers switched too, with DragonForce leading on the first night, and Nekrogoblikon the second.

Night one was sold out and it felt like it. The place was packed. Night two still had a lot of people but there was noticeably more room to move (and the merch line was a lot less intimidating). On the first night, it went up the stairs and midway into the second floor. On night two, it only went halfway up the stairs. BABYMETAL had brought out a few new designs. They only had the two Masonic show dates and the Sick New World date on the back. This might be all we see of them in America for 2024 as they have a lot of European festival dates lined up.

Let me go over the newcomers to the Babyklok tour:

DragonForce is a band all about speed. Formed in Britain by Herman Li and Sam Totman back in 1999, they have a penchant for going as fast as possible. They've even described themselves as "video game music," and if you've never heard it, that descriptor matches perfectly. Li and Totman's turbo playing gets to the point where it sounds like bleeps and boops, much like what you would find from 8-bit video games. They really play into the "video game" aesthetic with arcade machine cabinet risers. Rounding out the band is bassist Alicia Vigil, drummer Gee Anzalione, and vocalist Marc Hudson. Vigil is the newest to the band and replaced longtime bassist Frederic Leclercq after his departure to thrash metal band Kreator.

DragonForce actually has a total of four guitarists on stage with Li, Totman, and Vigil being joined by Billy Wilkins.  Wilkins has traveled with DragonForce around the world as a touring member through Europe and America.  He first caught their eye by covering some of their songs with his own brand of shredding.  

Due to the length of DragonForce's songs, they were only able to put up five for the set. They led off with "Fury of the Storm" from their second album, Sonic Firestorm, and "Cry Thunder" from The Power Within. For the band's third song they played the Legend of Zelda-based "Power of the Triforce" and had an inflatable chicken that bounced its way around the crowd. The fourth song, "Doomsday Party," is a fun little song that blends their music with a bit of 80s electronica flare. Both of these songs are from their newest album, 2024's Warp Speed Warriors.  I'll have to catch them on a proper tour where they can have a full set.  Half an hour barely scratches DragonForce's surface.

Their most known song is by far 2005's "Through the Fire and the Flames," and they closed with that. This is basically the song that put DragonForce on the map and in everyone's minds. It's kind of hard to believe that it's almost twenty years old at this point.

And did they play fast?  Yes, they played damn fast.  DragonForce is guaranteed to put on a show that makes you wonder why their fingers don't catch on fire.  Li and Totman have perfected their craft.

For night two we had Nekrogoblikon, who first formed in 2006. As the name might suggest, there's a big goblin theme going on, and we even have an onstage goblin in the form of John Goblikon. Strangely enough, the goblin handles the clean vocals. You would think otherwise, given that he's a goblin and all.

I never thought I'd see a goblin running on stage humping things (he air-humped a drum kit at one point and the back of a security guard's head at another), but here we are. He also apparently eats his poop as part of theatrics and tells you about it. Tonight it "tasted like the streets of San Francisco," which makes sense, because we've got a lot of poop out there. It's bad enough that you have to walk around looking both forward and down so you don't step in something.

Much of the set list came from their newer albums, 2022's The Fundamental Slimes and Humours and 2018's Welcome to Bonkers which count "Bones," "This is It," and "Darkness" amongst their tracks. The band did include older songs like "No One Survives" and "Powercore." "Dressed as Goblins" has a definite link to Metalocalypse as its music video was directed by Brendon Small himself.

Seeing Nekrogoblikon was actually a lot of fun, all things considered.

Dethklok played first on night one. Their setlist was more or less the same as on the previous leg of the Babyklok tour, with the exception being the addition of "Mutilation on a Saturday Night" and "Castratikron." "The Gears" is still one of my favorite Dethklok songs and I always love seeing it. Still absent is "Dethharmonic."

One of my friends, who is quite a pit fiend, came across a little disappointed by last year's crowd in Los Angeles. He wanted a pit, and it was found lacking. I'm glad to report that San Francisco made up for that and then some. The San Francisco Bay Area is, after all, one of the homes of thrash metal, with Metallica, Testament, Death Angel, and Exodus, among many others, springing up during that time period.

The pit was largely contained to the rear of the lowest floor in the venue and people were really getting into it. For safety purposes of those who don't want to take part, one should probably be on the raised tiers (where they also have convenient seating and drink service) or on the balcony. Even when you're not in the pit itself, you're still squashed against the sides as the pit needs room to exist, which I'm sure many a Babymetal fan learned the hard way if they have never been to a show with a proper pit before. Shout out to the Masonic for also allowing crowdsurfers. Not all venues are okay with that. No stage diving though.

Brendon Small provides many of the voices for Dethklok and towards the end of the set he had a bit of back and forth using those voices. Something that Nathan Explosion said that really resonated with me was, "We both tip the same pizza into the same ranch dressing." You know what? He's right.

"Those fuckers who came for Babymetal must be really confused right now."

At the end of every Dethklok set, they play John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which the crowd sang along to with great aplomb. I'll be honest, I haven't been to West Virginia in a good 20 plus years, but it's still fun to participate, and almost everyone seems like they know it.

BABYMETAL closed out night one. Like Dethklok, the set was also more or less the same as the previous leg with a few songs shuffled here and there. The leading three were "BABYMETAL DEATH," "Distortion," and "PA PA YA!!"  "BABYMETAL DEATH" is the traditional live opening song for the band ever since their beginning. Pitch black, with a strong focus on red, makes for challenging shooting but a good live show.

I don't remember "MAYA" going so hard the last time I saw BABYMETAL, but I'm all for it. The long electronica lead-in was a nice touch.

Much the same with Dethklok, the pit went hard. I even saw a big guy get absolutely trucked in one of the circle pits after he unwisely stopped moving. Even if you're tired, get to safety. Don't just stop in the middle. He was helped up (such is pit etiquette), but I'm sure it wasn't the most welcome thing to have happen.

The latter part of the set is "the throw back section." "Megitsune" is the song that got me into BABYMETAL so I'm glad it's still a part of their sets. "Gimme Chocolate," which is what a lot of others learned about BABYMETAL from, was naturally also part of the set. "Headbanger" is all about a young female student who goes and headbangs at rock and metal shows, and as someone who grew up doing just that, I can relate to it. Japan's abundant music venues, cheap youth tickets, and expansive train network means that even young teens can make their way to shows. I had to either take BART or get dropped off by my parents, haha.

One thing that a lot of people were hoping for was a live performance of BABYMETAL and DragonForce for the song "Road of Resistance." The two groups collaborated on it many years ago and it's become a mainstay song of their sets. It's also one of the ones where you can definitely count on a pit. The long introduction lends itself well to a wall of death, and San Francisco was happy to oblige. The wall was a little small due to the tiered nature of the venue not lending itself well to a larger one, but we make do.

Sadly, no Herman Li or the rest of DragonForce. I feel this was a missed opportunity because you had both DragonForce and BABYMETAL in the same venue on the same night, and as the last song, it would have really capped things off for an amazing finish.

BABYMETAL has one more show on this trip and will perform at the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas. They then return home to Japan for FOX_FEST at Saitama Super Arena towards the end of May, which also happens to be during FanimeCon, so I will not be attending. They've got numerous festival appearances already queued up like ROCK AM RING, Greenfield Festival, Download Festival, Nova Rock Festival, Graspop, Pinkpop, Rock in Roma, HELLFEST, and Resurrection Fest, all in Europe. They'll also be making an appearance at SUMMER SONIC BANGKOK 2024. There are a couple of headline shows like at Netherlands' AFAS Live, Poland's Warsaw, and France's Zenith.  Fingers crossed we might see them back in America for the latter portion of the year but they might also take some time to get back in the lab and create new music.  Their latest album, "The Other One," was released in 2023 and they spent much of that year in support of it.  

Dethklok continues their Mutilation on a Spring Night tour with DragonForce and Nekrogoblikon. They'll be stopping by Washington, Montana, Idaho, and finally Oregon, so you still have a few more days to see them. The tour itself wraps up on May 3 in Portland.