By way of a 30-city tour, Mudvayne is celebrating the release of their 2000 debut album, L.D. 50. The tour began with support from Vended and Static-X in Dubuque, Iowa, on September 11th and will conclude on October 26, 2025, in Uncasville, Connecticut. Their 8th stop on the excursion brought them to The Steelhouse in Omaha, Nebraska.
Vended (with the emphasis on the DED part) got the night started with a short but electric set. Vended are from Des Moines, Iowa, and already have a large following in the Midwest as well as a rapidly growing national audience. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when two of the band members are sons of members of Slipknot. Lead vocalist Griffin Taylor is the son of Corey Taylor, and percussionist Simon Crahan is the son of Shawn “Clown” Crahan.
I do want to make one thing perfectly clear. In no way is Vended riding on the coattails of Slipknot or their relationship with the members. Vended is their own entity with their own style and sound. You may call their sound nü-metal, but that would not come close to accurately describing them. Griffin Parker Taylor is not a one-trick guttural pony. His vocal range can melodically cover a wide area of highs and lows.
Simon Crahan on drums, Cole Espeland on guitar, and Jeremiah Pugh make up the rest of the band. A guest guitarist took the place of Connor Grodzicki, who left the band for personal reasons. The band is young, but performs with a maturity that’s normally only seen in bands that have been together for decades. They released their self-titled debut album about a year ago, and since then, they have not looked back or slowed down. They may be related to some rock icons, but Vended is hell bent on carving out their own large piece of the metal world.
Static-X took the stage next. Actually, before the band came out, we were introduced to Disco Witch. A menacing monster-sized puppet with a disco ball head that mimicked a jack-o-lantern. After a few passes, the witch exited, and the band took over. After Tony Campos, Koichi Fukuda, and Ken Day made their way on stage, Xer0 hit the center stage and immediately engaged the audience. For those of you who are not familiar with the history of Static-X, Xer0 (Edsel Dope) is the lead singer, and a mask is worn by Dope that resembles Wayne Static‘s, but in robotic form.
It is how the memory of Wayne, who passed away in 2014, is honored. During the performance, other puppets would make appearances, including X-Bot and Franken Wayne, which is another tribute to Wayne Static. The Evil Disco show began with ”Bled For Days” and ended with “Push It”. In between were twelve industrial face-melting metal songs. Everyone has some sort of production value, including bubble and smoke machines. There was plenty of crowd surfing and a raucous but respectful mosh pit. For the hour or so that Static-X was on stage, the venue became party central. Every eye was fixated on the stage, especially on Xer0‘s laser red eyes.
Campos and Fukuda would swap stage positions regularly, thereby allowing everyone to see them. What was possibly the moment of the evening occurred when videos and photos of the aforementioned original frontman Wayne Static were displayed across video screens. The crowd was understandably, emotionally touched. Static-X’s performance was much more than a musical one. It was theatrical and full of crowd engagements, which ensured that the band did their job in readying the packed house for what was to come.
As soon as Mudvayne stepped on stage and hit the first bone-rattling notes of “Dig,” the crowd erupted. The iconic band brought everything they had to The Steelhouse for their L.D. 50th Anniversary Tour. After “Dig”, lead vocalist Chad Gray told us that Greg Tribbett (guitarist) was not with the band as his wife had recently passed away due to cancer. He said he was there for Greg and asked what he could do for him, and Greg told him to put on great shows for the fans. Chad continued and told us that he honestly felt like he wanted to be there for him, but that a bigger part of him wanted to be with his fans and metal family.
The setlist was full of songs from the L.D. 50 album, along with an array of other bangers from their extensive catalog, each of which had the audience screaming, headbanging and crowd surfing. Chad takes charge of a stage like no one else. His intensity is unparalleled, but it’s his voice that really grabs your attention. His guttural shrieks and howls are fist-to-face perfection. His aggressive style during “World So Cold” along with his calmness during “Determined” showed his true range as a singer.
Each band member had moments to showcase their own abilities as musicians. Ryan Martinie’s booming bass hit you like a shot into your solar plexus, while Matthew McDonough‘s skill as a percussionist was a clinic in strength and groove. There was, however, a moment when the band left the stage and Chad was alone with the approximately 3,000 in attendance. He talked for a few minutes about anger and resentment, and that we need to let all that out sometimes. He asked the throng to just scream and let it out…and they did. “Doesn’t that feel better?” he said. The band returned to a deafening cheer. The band finished up with “Not Falling” and then closed with “Happy”.
The L.D.50 stop in Omaha was a combo of aggression, technique, and sensitivity. Certainly, a show that will forever be in the minds of all who attended.
