Approximately one year ago, Virgil and I plunged a newly minted Magic Sword into a mound of dirt and yanked Rivethead out of the ground in an unholy act of necromancy. Tonight, all three of us walked into Union Stage together, Virgil already half-cut, Rivethead in a Skinny Puppy hoodie, and me carrying an unreasonable amount of optimism for a Saturday night show in The Wharf.
As soon as you walked into the venue on May 2, you hit the merch booth where Magic Sword had brought everything. Several shirt designs. Flags. Pins. Stickers. A Coloring book. Signed tour posters. A $10 D20 roll for a chance at merch. And of course the Magic Swords themselves at $15 a pop — the kids will love it. Dance With The Dead held down a respectable 40% of the merch table with shirts and vinyls, but Magic Sword had clearly read the brief on touring economics.
Opening the night was Megan McDuffee, a one-woman electronic act, alto lead, KMFDM and Manson on the family tree. She opened with “Army of Me” and the room, full of nerds in NIN shirts, leaned in. Rivethead surveyed the crowd with the gentle satisfaction of a vampire surveying a blood drive. “Freak Like Me” landed second and confirmed Megan McDuffee is the real deal. By “Every You Every Me” the crowd was filling out the floor for her, which is rare for an opener at a sold out show.
“Are You Real?” later in the set was another slower song. “Leviathan” pivoted her toward a darker Röyksopp and Robyn territory that sat alongside late-2010s Perturbator very comfortably. “Stranger Things vibes,” Virgil hissed at me, eyes wide, like he had just cracked the case. Yes and no, Virgil. These musical bones are darker than that.
“Your Demise” was the highlight: a slow KMFDM-style buildup that dropped into a brutal, tightly programmed beat. The only thing missing was her own visual rig. Without one she’s working under whatever the house lights feel like doing, and the show flattens into an intimate club set. She’s basically a lounge singer giving queen-of-the-goth, which I mean as a compliment, but she deserves more stagecraft than house lights on auto-pilot. She closed with “Erase Me,” which is a Perturbator and Robyn collaboration that doesn’t exist but should, and exited with a “thank you all soooooo muuuuch” delivered with genuine warmth.
Watch the official music video for “Your Demise” by Megan McDuffee and ALEX on YouTube:
I caught up with her at the merch table later on. It’s her first tour! She’s been producing tracks for Atari and collaborating broadly. Dance With The Dead invited her on the road because the audience overlap is enormous, and the math was right tonight. She’d sold out of everything except a vinyl, which I promised to grab from her webshop. Rivethead, at my elbow: “Glad to see somebody’s still carrying the torch.” Virgil, at my other elbow, was attempting to get her to sign his sword.
Megan tore down fast and Magic Sword’s crew helped her clear, which was a small kindness that says something about the bill. The interstitial was Metallica’s “Holier Than Thou” off the Black Album, to remind everyone this is just as much a metal as a synthwave show, and the crowd skewed millennial accordingly.
And then, Magic Sword’s triumphant entrance, their habits, their laser masks, the recorded mythological exposition — “In the beginning, there was light and darkness in perfect balance…” The faithful had brought their swords. The lineup is the Red Immortal on the keys “The Keeper”, the Blue Immortal on guitar “The Seer”, and the Yellow Immortal on the drums “The Weaver.” The joy of seeing them live versus on record is having a real drummer and a real guitarist anchoring what is otherwise a fully synthetic studio project. The Weaver had arrived just before their set began in a cutoff habit and was, briefly, unmasked behind the kit. We saw his face. We will not speak of this again.
“Side Quest” opened, “One More Chance” followed, then “Rise,” a slow, heavy jam when the Seer stepped onto the monitor for The Solo. The Keeper, lord of the synths and primary guardian of the Magic Sword, began openly brandishing it. “The Way Home” turned into a swaying communion of light-up blades, icy keys, oblivion-reverbed guitar, and crushing bass. “Only Way In” was a stressful march into the lair of Evil; “Dead Serious” was more anxious, slow, dubstep-flecked dread; “The Curse” went straight four-on-the-floor industrial and would not have been out of place at Nation Nightclub in the Aughts, which made Rivethead nostalgic. “Invincible,” “Reckoning” were both Carpenter Brut territory featuring more grooves than a Ministry b-side.
“Legend of the Keeper” cued more narration from Homer (presumably) about the search for the chosen one — could they be here with us tonight? “Stand alongside us now!” “Is this the Lord of the Rings?” Virgil whispered, in genuine reverence, raising his sword aloft as though waiting to be named (he was not). They readily invite the crowd into their mythology, which is the whole trick: a thaumaturgical conceit only works if the band actually believes it, and they do.
They closed with their infamous track “In the Face of Evil,” but they did not slow-jam it like on the record. The final ritual demanded electricity, so they opened in heavy thrash measures before settling into the album tempo. More flexing from The Keeper with Magic Sword in hand before closing out their set. They exited to a roar.
Watch Magic Sword perform “In the Face of Evil” live on YouTube:
Interstitial: White Zombie and Justice. I cannot think of a more honest augur for the zombie disco that was to come. Then, more Metallica on the PA, in case anyone had forgotten what kind of show this was.
Dance With The Dead came out swinging with “Go!” Tony Kim on lead guitar and Justin Pointer on keys and rhythm, with hired-gun John Terry behind a classy Tama Starclassic in all-white shells; an oversized jazz kit with the drum heads triggered to hell and back. They do not address the crowd. Ever. Rivethead, who appreciates a band that lets the music do the talking, approved.
“Psycho Dance” had the room clapping along. The floor was at capacity. “Sledge” and “Black Clouds” landed as icy bangers, and “The Man Who Made A Monster” opened the first mosh pit. “Scar” opened a bigger one. Then a hard-cut into the intro for “The Burial” which gave everyone a second to catch their breath, and it eventually drifted into the pop-metal pocket that Beast in Black fully occupies these days.
Up next was “Neon Cross.” This is where I have to file a complaint. It’s faster than “Psycho Dance,” it has a vocal track that is jarring given the absence of microphones on stage, and it has flashes of straight-up metalcore with breakdowns and bridges to match. Pandering to children, the mosh pit grew. I hate metalcore. There is no accounting for taste, and I am clearly in the minority on this one. I do not care. Virgil, who has no shame, raced for the pit.
They redeemed it instantly with “Riot,” the loudest song of the night to that point, Justin Pointer leading “HEY” chants into the closeout. “Chaos Theory” Slow-Jammed The Dead, classic track “Into The Shadows” closed with a clap-along coda, and then “Robeast,” which is the soundtrack to a 1989 cel-shaded cyberpunk OVA that does not exist but should (it is art). The setlist is well curated. They’ve pulled from the best of the catalog and built a show that grabs you by the throat and does not let go.
Watch Dance With The Dead perform “Riot” live in an official tour video on YouTube:
“Diabolic” landed like a Kung Fury roundhouse kick and produced the night’s first crowd surfer. “A New Fear” featured Tony Kim mouthing “LET’S FUCKING GO” to the crowd. “Get Out” closed it with a full drum solo into the final chorus. They were showing off and they had earned it.
For all the synthwave on the records, on stage they read as a punk band. Maybe that’s just what Union Stage does to a bill. The oversized skull on the synth stack helped. They walked off to Enya, of all things, then what sounded like Static-X or Dope on the house PA (I have trouble disambiguating these days). I bought the Magic Sword coloring book on the way out because it’s weird and I like that.
Awaiting us outside was a waning gibbous moon. Virgil, sword still in hand, immediately began complaining about traffic in the parking garage. Rivethead lit a cigarette in clear violation of DC code and waved off the question. “Told you. As long as people keep showing up for this stuff, I don’t go anywhere.” A one-woman industrial set, a synthwave liturgy, and a synthwave-metal band with a mosh pit big enough to hurt somebody. Industrial Music is not dead.
Here are some photos of Dance With The Dead performing live at Union Stage on May 2, 2026. All pictures copyright and copyright of Gerald Henry.
Here are some photos of Magic Sword performing live at Union Stage on May 2, 2026. All pictures copyright and copyright of Gerald Henry.
Here are some photos of Megan McDuffee performing live at Union Stage on May 2, 2026. All pictures copyright and copyright of Gerald Henry.
Interesting review. Thanks, I guess.