Deicide Fri., 8:00 p.m. November 16 @ Firebird - $15/$18 By Daniel Hill The most blasphemous band in all of death metal returns to St. Louis (finally) after a fifteen year absence, prepared to convert the stage of the Firebird into a sacrificial altar most unholy. The Dark One smiles as his faithful minions pervert the cross and speak in foul incantations, summoning evil forces to swallow mankind. Or something like that. Rest assured, at the very least Glenn Benton (you remember, that guy with the upside-down cross branded into his head from all those "Music is destroying America's youth" documentaries in the '90s) will say some unkind things about the Christian God. At most he might throw some bleeding dead animal parts at you. Smoke Crack and Worship Satan: Okay fine, that's a slogan from an Impaled Nazarene shirt, not Deicide, but the sentiment still applies.
The dB's Sat., 8:00 p.m. November 17 @ Blueberry Hill - $15 By Roy Kasten When the dB's first appeared in 1978, the American ideal of power pop was just coming into focus, and the psychedelic Southern jangle of R.E.M. was largely unknown. Formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by Chris Stamey, Will Rigby and Gene Holder, and then with Peter Holsapple (who went on to play with R.E.M.), the band's first album, Stands for deciBels, came on like a quirkier, artsier version of Big Star, with sweet harmonies, sun-blinded guitar hooks and a smart-but-playful temperament.
Supersuckers Sat., 9:00 p.m. November 17 w/ Fat Tramp Food Stamp @ The Firebird - $15 By Roy Kasten What the Supersuckers lack in subtlety and originality it makes up for in testosterone and comedic timing. Only its biker-wannabe following took the "Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World" marketing seriously, but the band's highly head-bang-able and equally unlikely cult hits for Sub Pop -- "Creepy Jackalope Eye," "On the Couch," "Pretty Fucked Up" (as in "she used to be pretty, but now she's...you know what") -- still rock harder and come off less dated than most of the band's grunge-era peers. With the years, the group has added more and more country to its leather-and-shades attitude, and absurd as it sounds, the fusion of metal and twang sticks. What to Expect: Slacker anthems and glock-rock posturing, all cranked to eleven and as irresistible as they are stoopid.
Dethklok Sun., 6:30 p.m. November 18 w/ All That Remains, Machine Head, The Black Dahlia Murder @ The Pageant - $36 By D.X. Ferris Dethklok: Mordhaus -- the secret base of operations for the Scandinavian-American band. Dethklok represents the twelfth-largest economy on earth in the Adult Swim Metalocalypse cartoon. Metal all-stars recorded the fake group's real debut album, 2007's The Dethalbum, which is the top-selling death-metal disc of all time -- and deservedly so.
