New York’s Hanzel und Gretyl are a thoroughly ridiculous band in music, lyric (their latest big hit? “Fukken Uber Death Party”), and imagery. Luckily, they know it, and they don’t take themselves seriously at all. As a result, a show that would just be utterly laughable is, well, still laughable, but also big fun.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

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Punk leftovers-cum-merchandising powerhouse the Misfits have announced a fall tour, stopping at Jaxx Sunday, Oct. 25. It’s not quite Halloween, but close enough.

The Jersey-bred musclemen/metal punks emerged in 1977, developed a crude catalog of ’50s B-movie themes banged out and recorded with even less tact,  and, technically, disbanded by 1983 (when head howler Glenn Danzig left the group). But since 1996, a Frankenstein-ian composite of aging shredders and hangers-on have been keeping the monster alive. Founded by the incomparable Danzig and Jerry Only, Marky Ramone and Black Flag’s Dez Cadena were once part of the deciduous line-up.

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Last Friday night, Jaxx may have been the best place to find the highest concentration of absurdly talented musicians in the D.C. area. Florida legends Atheist, featuring a brand-new guitarist who made his debut at Maryland Deathfest, headlined a show full of technical metal bands and enough fast riffage, blast beats and time changes to make any metal nerd happy. Atheist was great, and visibly looser and more confident than their somewhat tentative show at MDF back in May. Their setlist drew from numerous albums in the band’s discography, and other than an unfortunately-timed sound issue that marred “Mother Man” (from the classic Unquestionable Presence), the band was tight and seemingly flawless.

More words and images after the jump; an excessive number of photos can be found at the full gallery.

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Sweden’s The Haunted made me a new fan on Wednesday night at Jaxx. I had long planned on going to this show despite having no familiarity with this band. A few months ago, the lineup included three other metal bands of which I am a big fan: Nachtmystium, Kylesa and Intronaut. Incredibly, all three of these bands had to drop off the tour for various reasons. I can’t imagine how this made the guys in The Haunted feel; judging from the sparse turnout at Jaxx, all this attrition must have put a huge dent in ticket sales.

That said, the 50 or so fans who were there made up for their small numbers with their passion. If you never thought death metal could inspire sing-alongs, you haven’t been to Jaxx lately, where it’s not uncommon for charismatic frontmen like The Haunted’s Peter Dolving to lean into the crowd and have any number of fans screaming the words into the mic with him. Smiles all around onstage: these guys were having a good time, and it showed.

Photos after the jump and here in this gallery.

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Abigail Williams—named after one of the first accusers in the Salem Witch Trials made infamous by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible—play a weird kind of black metal with American metalcore tendencies. Their recorded sound is bolstered by epic clean piano lines and majestic orchestrations; unfortunately, both times I have seen them live, their keyboardist was nowhere in sight and they relied on samples for her parts. Nevertheless, this past Wednesday they put on a great show to a thin but enthusiastic crowd at Jaxx. With just one recently released full-length album and an older EP to their name, their headlining set was short, but still satisfying. I’d really like to see them with a live keyboardist though.

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As promised, from the show last Sunday evening. These three sure put on a visually appealing show, and here’s the evidence. Some samples below.

Amorphis (melodic folk metal from Finland):

Samael (industrial/electronic metal from Switzerland):

Virgin Black (goth/doom/classical metal from Australia):

The Green Evening Requiem (opening; black-ish metal from Philly):

And you’ve seen the ones of Dark Dissolve, the first opening band.

A frequent knock on Jaxx, the metal-oriented club out in Springfield, is that it never seems to book shows with fewer than five bands. If there’s a big headliner in town, Jaxx will invariably stick four local bands onto the bill to warm things up. It’s a great gesture for local musicians, but the concertgoer interested in an efficient in-and-out experience is likely to be frustrated.

Sometimes, though, there are pleasant surprises. Last night, a diverse lineup of metal bands—Amorphis from Finland, Samael from Switzerland, and Virgin Black from Australia—hit Jaxx, and sure enough, there were a couple openers. For one of them, D.C.’s Dark Dissolve, it was their first public performance ever, which is pretty neat. Also pretty neat is that they had a harp onstage. Also pretty neat is that they put on a good show. No one would have guessed they’d never played live in public before until the singer said so towards the end of their set. (Three of the members did play together in The Groaning.)

Dark Dissolve played a melodic, straightforward brand of gothic rock—I only caught three songs or so of their set (but then they were the first group on the bill so that may have been most of it), but I enjoyed what I heard; their violinist stood out a bit as the one who seemed to hold the songs together and give them a unique twist. My only complaint was that I couldn’t really hear the harp—something tells me the sound guys at Jaxx might not be used to working a harp into the mix. Looking forward to hearing what these folks come up with in time.

I’ll be posting a few photos from all five bands that played last night soon.

In my show preview I said these two bands were musically way over the top. Turns out, they’re visually way over the top too: Sigh featured an extremely energetic frontwoman on sax and vocals, and while she naturally drew the bulk of attention (her choice of wardrobe was likely a factor here), bandleader Mirai Kawashima, pictured above, was one of the more animated keyboardists I’ve ever seen. Before them, Unexpect left the entire stage in front of the drum riser wide open—pedals, mic stands, etc all shoved to the side—to give them room to dance, headbang, and generally jump around spastically with massive amounts of hair flying everywhere.

Musically, Sigh were fun, although much more guitar-oriented than they are on record—though that might have just been because the keyboard and sax were mixed way too low. Unexpect’s live show seems to be getting better all the time, which makes sense since they never seem to stop touring. The two opening bands were both pretty solid. All in all a good night for a metalhead; shame the club wasn’t anywhere near packed (it was actually the emptiest I’ve ever seen Jaxx, which usually seems to get good attendance).

Tons more photos are here at Flickr, but here are some highlights from Sigh:

And a few from Unexpect:

If you’re in the mood for some absurd circus metal, tonight’s your night to head out to the ‘burbs. Two of the most ridiculously over-the-top experimental metal acts you’ll ever hear are headlining a night at Jaxx in Springfield. Japan’s Sigh and Quebec’s Unexpect (pictured) play the kind of symphonic metal that you can’t help but laugh at, at least at first, because it’s just so bombastic and (some might say) pretentious.

But criticizing either of these groups for being too bombastic is kind of like criticizing Britney Spears for being too pop. It might be a meaningful statement of opinion, but as any kind of objective description or evaluation it just misses the point. These bands revel in their shamelessness and take bombast to the level of art form. If there was ever anything deserving of the slightly horrifying label “prog metal,” these guys are it.

If that sounds awful, consider this: I’ve seen Unexpect play Jaxx twice already this year, and each time I saw them I came away a bigger fan. After spending enough time with their records to actually figure out what’s going on in their insanely twisty compositions, a certain naive charm emerges. You have to admire bands like these who are completely unafraid to throw it all out on the table at once – hitting the listener with obvious jazz, rock, metal and classical influences one after the other.

Additionally, Sigh are kind of a historically significant band, as the only non-Scandinavian group that was signed by the infamous and short-lived Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous) to his infamous and short-lived Deathlike Silence Productions label. If that’s not black metal cred, nothing is.