The guitars are loud. The fans are jumping. And the man with the spiky sky-high hairdo is screaming his lungs out. Which seems . . . appropriate. That's when singer Wayne Static pauses to declare: "I know you love that disco music!"
That may sound like a joke, but Static is serious. High-octane disco beats are one part of the Static-X formula, which has taken the band's punk-metal blend to MTV and pop radio, turning its year-old debut album, "Wisconsin Death Trip," into a surprise hit.
It has also meant that the band's expected demographic of males ages 18 to 24 has grown much broader. While most of the fans at a recent Palace concert fit that mold, the members of Static-X are regularly approached by older fans. At one record-store appearance, a 9-year-old boy had the band autograph a CD for his mother.
"I think they're responding to the disco beats. My mom is about 60 years old and she loves our music because she can bounce around to it," says Static. "That's what a lot of people identify with."
Backstage after the Palace show, the quartet is winding down just as headliner Powerman 5000's thunderous, sci-fi hard-rock begins shaking the dressing room walls. The night before, Static-X had suffered some technical difficulties, with recorded effects failing for much of the set, robbing the band of the electronic textures that provide a recognizable edge.
But tonight everything worked. "Last night was right at the bottom," says Static, 32, fresh from a quick shower, his jet-black hair still standing tall. "It felt good to be able to redeem ourselves tonight."
Metal fans are an intense, demanding audience. But Static is already talking about plans for the next album, which will include a song that samples mariachi music. He expects fans to come along.
"As long as we don't stray too far in one giant leap," he says. "We can't come out and do an ambient album for our second record. So the next record will still be heavy, it will still be dark, with crunching guitars and screaming. It's just going to have more electronic stuff here and there."
The band's success with mainstream audiences is part of a trend that has seen the similarly heavy likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit and System of a Down enjoy radio hits. With "Push It," Static-X has even won some airplay on modern-rock station KROQ-FM (106.7).
