Concerts

Concert Recap: Static-X's "Machines vs. Monsters" Tour in Myrtle Beach, SC (June 14, 2025)

My first concert of the summer 2025 season couldn't have been a better one

Chris Cooney

16 Jun 2025 • 9 min read

The summer 2025 concert season kicked off in emphatic fashion with Static-X's "Machines vs. Monsters" Tour touching down at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. To join in the metal festivities, the "evil disco" innovators brought along an incredibly stacked support lineup consisting of A Killer's Confession, Dope, and GWAR. As a fan with varying levels of musical familiarity with each artist, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a live show perspective for half of this bill, but I was very pleasantly surprised as both a fan and photographer.

A Killer's Confession kicked the night off, with a warm welcome from a semi-hometown crowd — with vocalist Waylon Reavis being from North Carolina, many fans in the crowd appeared to already be familiar with AKC's music, and some even admitted to making the drive from North to South Carolina just to see them. I've become a huge fan of AKC over the past couple years after seeing them for the first time in my hometown of Jacksonville, NC in late 2023, and they've only continued to get better on stage each time I see them. This show marked my 4th AKC set, and it was awesome to hear so many great cuts from their latest album 'Victim 1', as well as the new single "Hollow." The band got a big reaction from the crowd when Reavis introduced himself and played a chunk of "Qwerty," a classic from his time in Mushroomhead.

A Killer's Confession's music is loudly and proudly focused on the mantra of "save a kid, kill a pedophile," which is something I feel that most sane people would get behind, and any time the topic is mentioned during Reavis' stage banter, it's always met with rowdy applause. I'm certain that even at this show, the band made a lot of new fans from the strength of that message alone. The backing band, which included Reavis' former Mushroomhead bandmate Rick "Stitch" Thomas on keys/auxiliary instrumentation and Daniel Fox on drums, was impressively locked in from beginning to end, and there genuinely couldn't have been a better way to kick off the show.

A Killer's Confession Setlist:

Purpose
Sun
Greed
Hollow
Filth
Facts
Qwerty (Mushroomhead cover)
Kill or Be Killed

A Killer's Confession, Live in Myrtle Beach

Up next were the nu-metal contenders in Dope, which rode the momentum of A Killer's Confession and upped the energy. Getting to photograph the first few songs of theirs set was a really fun challenge with their lighting and strobe setup — having been to my fair share of metal shows with intense strobe lights, I can confidently say that Dope put every other band's strobes to shame with how fast and chaotic they were. Nonetheless, I still had a ton of fun shooting and watching their set, and it was awesome to get to photograph such a stellar lineup — Edsel Dope is a fantastic frontman, and his band is top-notch, stacked with legends like Daniel Fox on bass, Andre "Virus" Karkos on guitar, and Chrissy Warner behind the kit.

Chrissy Warner deserves a huge shoutout too, because I wouldn't have been able to shoot this show had it not been for him — the LiveNation portal is always hit-or-miss when it comes to photography requests, and when he heard that I was still waiting to hear back, he took matters into his own hands and made sure I was taken care of with a photo pass. He didn't have to do that, especially when it was on short notice and so close to the day of the show, but I greatly appreciate it and had an absolute blast watching him do his thing. I'm a huge fan of his band ALPHAMEGA and have been wanting to see him and the guys live for a few years now, so to see him on such an iconic stage with an equally legendary band was spectacular.

While I was vaguely familiar with Dope's music before this show, I learned that I actually knew more than I thought I did while watching their set. That being said, it felt like their time on stage just flew by — maybe it was the wild visuals, maybe it was the length of their songs, but something about their set felt like a blink and you'll miss it situation. Regardless, this was a very memorable first-time experience seeing them, and it definitely won't be the last.

Dope Setlist:

Blood Money
Bring It On
Bitch
Debonaire
Die MF Die
I'm Back
Sick
Burn
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) (Dead or Alive cover)

Following Dope was the legendary shock-rock group GWAR, who brought as much carnage and gore to the House of Blues stage as they possibly could. Having grown up loving shock rock, with my favorite artists including the likes of Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and Wednesday 13, it was a no-brainer that I was excited to see GWAR at this show, especially after briefly catching their set at the Welcome to Rockville festival earlier this spring.

Much like with Dope and their lighting setup, GWAR was a fun challenge to photograph because they're CONSTANTLY spraying the audience with fake blood, so much so that the stage monitors and barricade security are covered in tarps and trash bags so they don't get drenched during their set — the audience didn't have the same luxury, but it also didn't seem like they wanted to because most of the front row was happy to be wearing white shirts and bright-colored clothing. I was personally proud of the fact that I managed to thankfully not get a single drop of blood on my camera while I was in the photo pit for the first 3 songs. I wasn't able to get any decent photos of Jizmak Da Gusha behind the drum kit this time around due to the position and height of their drum riser, but fingers crossed for next time.

I didn't see all of GWAR's set at Rockville, so it was a lot of fun to see the whole show this time around at House of Blues — it was especially great to see them perform while they're celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. They pulled out all the stops with their time on the stage, from the many mutilations of public figures ranging from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to Taylor Swift, along with the grand entrance of their dinosaur mascot Gor-Gor. This was a much more fun time seeing them this time around without the Rockville heat and the perfect main appetizer for Static-X, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again sometime down the road.

GWAR Setlist:

Fuck This Place
Metal Metal Land
El Presidente
Womb With a View
The Salaminizer
Slap U Around
Immortal Corrupter
Lot Lizard
Gor-Gor
Sick of You

Ending the night was Static-X's headlining set, which couldn't have exceeded my expectations any more — I was familiar with their music at a very casual level, but nothing could've prepared me for how theatrical their live show would be. From a photography standpoint, I was so glad they played "Terminator Oscillator" while I was still in the photo pit, because some of my best photos came from that performance, complete with the stage bubbles and impeccable lighting, along with the X-Bot mascot running on stage towards the end of the song.

There were many highlights to the band's set, both musically and lyrically, from the Ministry-esque vocal effects during the opening track "I Want to Fucking Break It" to the on-screen tribute to the band's late leader Wayne Static during the performance of "Cold," and it's hard to pick a favorite moment or song in particular. Regardless, it's amazing to see the band together and celebrating the life of Wayne Static and the legacy of the music in general — Xer0 is also a phenomenal frontman and character for the band with an incredible robotic look, which made the photography experience even more fun and interesting than it already was. His voice is also very faithful to that of Wayne's while still obviously having it's own tone that sets itself apart, which was cool to hear. While there were times in which Static-X was thought to have come to an end, it's awesome to have the opportunity to still see them perform live and continue to do so at such a high level.

Long story short, as a very casual Static-X fan, I was completely blown away from the first song to the encore and I can't wait to see them again if and when the time comes. Regardless of your familiarity with the music, I highly recommend checking them out for yourself because their shows are a spectacle in every sense of the word.

Static-X Setlist: