Babymetal and Dethklok at the Fillmore, Minneapolis (25 Sep 2023)

Babymetal Setlist

Dethklok Setlist

Jason Richardson Setlist

Tour Dates

Opening the show was mostly instrumental guitarist Jason Richardson. The guitarist is known for his works in Born of Osiris and joined All That Remains after Oli Herbert passed away. We’ve seen both bands, but neither time had Richardson in the band, we’re always too late or too early it seems.

Richardson did not have live band, so instead the percussion or vocals (Spencer Sotelo of Periphery on “Retrograde”) were pre-recorded and played as a backing track. It does sometime come off somewhat like a guitar Karaoke, but all that can be forgiven because of the amazing guitar-playing by Richardson. I’ve seen some very good guitarists, this is one of the best guitarists out there, in terms of playing technique. He’s very fast, his fingers would fly from the top to the bottom of the guitar’s neck. It’s inhuman, what he’s doing.

He does know that he needs to get his name and music out there, as asking the audience if they’ve never heard of him, you can see that most people raised their hands. Perhaps he could use a good stagename to stand out.

Next up was co-headliner Dethklok. Like Gorillaz, Dethklok is a fictional animated band. Originally appearing on the Metalocalypse cartoon show (on Adult Swim). All the music created for Metalocalypse was created by Brendon Small, and they released his music in the debut album The Dethalbum (as Dethklok) in 2007. Now in 2023, they have a fourth album, Dethalbum IV.

If you’re wondering why it took so long for the new album (an 11 year absent since Dethalbum III in 2012), it’s because it has partially due to the copyright ownership of the Dethklok name by Adult Swim. They must have come to a mutual agreement, because Dethklok is back, and stronger than ever, based on seeing the response from the audience.

Throughout their set, you can see animation clips from Metalocalypse, and if you’re a fan of the show, none of the brutal cartoon will surprise you.

Between blocks of songs, Facebones (the animated Dethklok logo) would give fans tips about concert etiquette and concert tips. It serves as a nice break before more death metal.

Japanese band Babymetal (ベビーメタル) closed out the night. This is a wonderfully unique band that combines the cuteness of Hello Kitty, the carefully choreographed dancing of K-Pop (or rather J-Pop), and the darkness of heavy metal. It shouldn’t work, at least on paper, but when you see it for yourself, it does appeal to a certain fanbase.

The main singer is Su-metal (Suzuka Nakamoto) with two backup singers and dancers, Moametal and Momometal (she is the newest member, replacing Yuimetal). The three girls are the main attraction, and they are backed up with real live music by the Kami Band, who wore demon masks.

Since each song had a special dance, the timing has to be impeccable. That also means that each set had to be exactly the same night after night… so seeing a show in Las Vegas will be the same as Minneapolis, which is good for someone seeing the show for the first time.

For someone seeing the show for the first time, it’s all very entertaining and comes highly recommended for this 2023 Babyklok tour.

Babymetal’s The Other One is out now.