STATIC-X And GWAR Announce 'Machines Vs Monsters' Spring 2025 North American Tour

STATIC-X's original "Wisconsin Death Trip" lineup of Tony Campos (bass),Koichi Fukuda (guitar) and Ken Jay (drums) along with current vocalist/guitarist Xer0, will bring its ultra-entertaining "evil disco" extravaganza on the road in 2025 for the "Machines Vs Monsters" tour, produced by Live Nation. The trek kicks off May 23 in Tucson, Arizona at the Rialto Theater and concludes on June 18 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at The Criterion. Special guests GWAR, DOPE and A KILLER'S CONFESSION will join STATIC-X on the tour.

Tickets for the tour will be on sale starting Friday, December 20 at 10 a.m. local time.

Tickets for all shows, including VIP packages, can be found at static-x.org.

Tickets will be available starting with a Citi presale beginning Tuesday, December 17. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, December 20 at 10 a.m. local time.

Citi is the official card of the "Machines Vs Monsters" tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday, December 17 at 12 p.m. local time until Thursday, December 19 at 10 a.m. local time through the Citi Entertainment program.

"Machines Vs Monsters" 2025 tour dates:

May 23 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre *
May 24 - Albuquerque, NM - Revel Entertainment Center
May 26 - Wichita, KS - Cotillion
May 27 - Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom
May 28 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
May 30 - Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore Minneapolis
May 31 - Davenport, IA - Capitol Theatre
Jun. 01 - Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live @ 20 Monroe
Jun. 03 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room @ Old National Centre
Jun. 04 - Ft Wayne, IN - Clyde Theatre
Jun. 05 - Wheeling, WV - Capitol Theatre
Jun. 07 - Wallingford, CT - The Dome at Toyota Oakdale Theater
Jun. 08 - Buffalo, NY - Buffalo RiverWorks
Jun. 09 - Toronto, ON - History
Jun. 10 - Montreal, QC - MTELUS
Jun. 11 - Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Jun. 14 - Myrtle Beach, SC - House Of Blues
Jun. 15 - Raleigh, NC - The Ritz
Jun. 17 - Kansas City, MO - Grinder's (Not a Live Nation date)
Jun. 18 - Oklahoma City, OK - The Criterion

* GWAR not appearing on this date

In a recent interview with Rock News Weekly, Campos spoke about STATIC-X's plans for 2025. He said: "There's some stuff in the works for North America. The only thing that's confirmed right now is Europe in the summer. And then we're hoping to get the documentary done and out by next year. We're still finishing it up… I think it's gonna be cool, man. It's gonna be a really cool look back at the history of the band and the history of [late STATIC-X frontman] Wayne [Static] and how he affected all our lives."

This past March, STATIC-X celebrated the 25th anniversary of the band's debut album, "Wisconsin Death Trip", by releasing a trailer for the upcoming documentary film "Evil Disco: The Rise, Fall, And Regeneration Of Static-X".

In a message accompanying the YouTube release of the trailer, STATIC-X members Tony Campos (bass),Ken Jay (drums),Koichi Fukuda (guitar) and Xer0 (vocals) wrote: "25 years ago today, STATIC-X unleashed 'Wisconsin Death Trip' onto the world. On this very special anniversary, we would like to share a teaser for the first ever official STATIC-X documentary film titled 'Evil Disco: The Rise, Fall, And Regeneration Of Static-X'.

"Thank you all for 25 years of amazing memories… So much more to come!"

Although the identity of STATIC-X's touring singer has not been officially revealed, strong rumors suggest that DOPE's Edsel Dope is the anonymous, somewhat ominous new frontman of STATIC-X who is wearing a mask in the likeness of late frontman Wayne Static while performing alongside Campos, Jay and Fukuda.

In a fall 2023 interview with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3, Campos addressed STATIC-X's reliance on a "masked" vocalist instead of hiring a proper replacement for Wayne, saying: "It's been really cool, man, how people have embraced that idea of having the character up there being the representative of Wayne's vibe and spirit without us being, like, 'Hey, here's STATIC-X with their new singer.' That's not what we wanted to do. So, we were just, like, 'How do we represent Wayne in a cool way?' And I think this is a really cool way to do it."

He continued: "I keep coming back to the IRON MAIDEN analogy — not only was Wayne our Bruce Dickinson [IRON MAIDEN singer], but he was also our Eddie [IRON MAIDEN mascot]. He was the mascot for the band. So how do you represent that? And I think the Xer0 character does a good job at it."

When Hall noted that it must be "a pretty powerful experience" for him to be looking over and seeing Xer0 channeling the spirit of Wayne during STATIC-X's live shows, Tony said: "When we first started and I'm up there headbanging doing my thing, out of my peripheral vision, I see that figure with the hair and I'm playing the songs again, it's just like 20 years ago; it was just that vibe again. And having Koichi and, and Kenny up there, it was really cool, man. And especially those first couple of weeks, we'd be done with the show and we'd be back in the dressing room, and we'd all be, like, 'Fuck, Wayne should be here.' But we definitely feel this vibe and presence."

Static died after mixing Xanax and other powerful prescription drugs with alcohol, according to the coroner's report. The 48-year-old, whose real name was Wayne Richard Wells, was found dead in his Landers, California home on November 1, 2014.

Static founded STATIC-X in 1994 and achieved commercial success with "Wisconsin Death Trip", which included the rock radio hit "Push It".

The group issued five more studio albums before disbanding permanently in June 2013. Static had been pursuing a solo career at the time of his death.

Dope recently told Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio that the reason Xer0's identity has not been officially revealed is that he wants to make sure that STATIC-X is "properly represented, because I would never be interested in looking at a photo of STATIC-X or reading a liner note that mentions me as being the singer of STATIC-X. Edsel Dope has no interest in being the singer of STATIC-X," he clarified. "There's one living, breathing singer of STATIC-X, and that's Wayne Static. And then there's a character, an entity, for lack of better words, that was created in order to allow STATIC-X to have a future and to continue and be the legacy act that they are and tour and perform, and we gave that character a name that is respective to STATIC-X and fits the branding of what STATIC-X is, and that's what the importance is. It's the importance of recognizing the character as opposed to recognizing the person behind the character."

Back in October 2019, a photo was posted online clearly showing that Dope and Xer0 shared the same neck tattoo. However, Edsel later posted a lengthy statement on his band's Facebook page attempting to quash the rumors, implying Xer0's distinctive body ink was in fact a Photoshop job. Dope even provided a photograph of himself supposedly observing a STATIC-X performance sidestage to prove he and Xer0 were not the same person.

STATIC-X's "Project Regeneration Vol. 1" LP came out in July 2020. The first of two volumes, it featured 12 brand new tracks, containing many of the final vocal performances and musical compositions of Wayne Static, along with the original "Wisconsin Death Trip" lineup of Campos, Jay and Fukuda. A follow-up album, "Project Regeneration: Vol. 2", arrived on January 26, 2024. A collection of 14 brand-new songs, the LP was produced by Xer0 and mixed/mastered by longtime collaborator Ulrich Wild.

Photo credit: Jeremy Saffer