Last week's big news for hardcore supergroup Dead Cross was that two of its members were detained by Texas authorities while on tour. Bassist Justin Pearson and guitarist Michael Crain were pictured on Instagram in handcuffs during a van inspection. "Your life can get worse. So can the world," read a cryptic caption on Pearson's personal account. They were later released from custody and resumed the tour, but, for fans, details on the incident are still foggy.
Then, last night (Monday), the band was forced to cancel its show in Los Angeles after frontman Mike Patton injured himself in a skateboarding accident. (The show was rescheduled and the tour is set to continue as planned.)
However, when Westender got on the phone with Pearson just a day before his run-in with the law, the only real hiccup the group had experienced was a flat tire on their way out of L.A.
"[The flat was] nothing, man. I'm used to way crazier shit," he said, as the band pulled into a Dallas tour stop. "Just, like, accidents. Or people robbing us, or whatever. We did see a dead person on the freeway, which was a bummer. It was an accident. There were brains and shit."
Dead Cross' self-titled debut, which unites Pearson and Crain with Faith No More vocalist Patton and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, is a wholly terrifying audio experience. Songs like "Idiopathic" and "Obedience School" radiate with nasty, nuclear thrash beats and quickly contorted punk riffs – the 30-minute blur made all the weirder by Patton's barrage of barks and often operatic, multi-part vocal harmonies.
The singer is the most recent addition to Dead Cross, having joined the act last year following the exit of original frontman Gabe Serbian. Patton tracked his complex parts after the rest of the album was long completed. The group only rehearsed together for the first time shortly before hitting the road.
"I would say that the biggest challenge is adjusting [to the live show], having Mike Crain and I sing some of the backing vocals, trying to harmonize," Pearson explains, reiterating that while both musicians have screamed their fair share of sets in previous bands like the Locust and Festival of Dead Deer, respectively, neither string players’ voice is "as versatile as Patton."
Dead Cross' political stance, meanwhile, is as viciously pointed as its arrangements. A recent video for "Seizure and Desist" lampoons U.S. President Donald Trump with a grotesque, face-melting animated scene, while "The Future Has Been Cancelled" is a call against blind patriotism ("where does the flagpole end and arrogance begin?"). "Shillelagh" is a monstrous mosh assault recalling the time Patton was beat up in Ireland by skinheads who thought he was gay, while "Idiopathic" waxes on fear-mongering from the so-called status quo.
The topics land all the more poignantly in the wake of the white nationalist march on Charlottesville, Virginia, two weekends ago, which took place just as Dead Cross hit the road. Pearson has since been making plenty of anti-fascist, anti-racist posts on Instagram and Facebook. While admitting that "it's kind of anxiety-ridden" to be touring when politically heavy events take place, it's somewhat of a familiar feeling for the musician.
"I first started playing music and touring when the first Gulf War was happening – with Bush, Sr. as president – and even the Rodney King riots in L.A.," Pearson notes, adding that he was also on the road during the 9/11 attacks. He reflects on the recent wave of hate: "When this stuff happens with Neo-Nazis – the Alt-Right or whatever you want to call it – it was sort of bizarre. It's 2017 and we're still rolling through this garbage."
Life can get worse, and so can the world, but Pearson and Dead Cross are pushing back with the rest of us.
• Dead Cross plays the Vogue Theatre this Friday, Aug. 25. Tickets $35 plus s/c, available here.
