Guitars meet neon synths
Dance With The Dead blend metal guitar attack with dark-synth hooks, while
Magic Sword bring a mythic, masked, synth-driven saga to the same stage. In a co-headline set, expect DWTD to lean into riff-forward cuts like
Roboride,
Banshee, and
Waves, with live drums punching up the kick pattern. Look for Magic Sword to unleash
In the Face of Evil and other soaring themes, stacked with arpeggios that bloom into big, wordless choruses. The crowd skews mixed in the best way: retro game jackets next to black denim, a few cloaks and LED masks, and plenty of guitar fans shoulder to shoulder with synth kids. Trivia heads will note that DWTD started releasing music around 2013 from Orange County and built a strong DIY base online, while Magic Sword formalized their lore with a Dark Horse comic and color-coded personas. One quirk you may catch is DWTD closing a song on a sustained chord and sliding right into a darker key to set up the next track. Take these setlist and staging guesses as informed possibilities, not confirmed plans.
Two crews, one dark pulse
The Scene Around Dance With The Dead and Magic Sword
Neon, leather, and lore
Expect a blend of neon windbreakers, black denim, and band tees with horror fonts, plus a handful of cloaks and masked fans nodding to the
Magic Sword mythos. People trade synth plugin tips and pedal chain ideas in the bar line, and you will hear quick cheers when a deep cut intro gets recognized. Chants stay short and rhythmic, usually hitting between drops or during count-ins when the drummer raises sticks. Merch trends lean tactile: split-color vinyl, cassettes, enamel pins, and tour prints that look like VHS covers. Comic issues and art zines tend to sell fast when
Magic Sword are on the bill, while
Dance With The Dead skull designs and back patches draw the DIY jacket crowd. Overall the scene feels welcoming but focused, as if people showed up to study the builds and then dance when the kick takes over.
Merch with a collector's bent
How Dance With The Dead and Magic Sword Sound When the Lights Hit
Riffs as lead vocals
Dance With The Dead are mostly instrumental live, with sampled shouts acting like percussion, so the guitar becomes the lead voice over a steady kick-and-bass engine. Their riffs sit in chunky, mid-tempo grooves, while octave pedals and a tight gate make the guitar lock with the synth bass for a single, thick line. They sometimes nudge tempos up a few beats per minute onstage, which adds urgency without rushing the drop.
Magic Sword build tension with layered arpeggios and long pad swells, then switch to bold, singable leads that the crowd can mirror without words. A lesser-seen move is their habit of starting a tune with a softer, analog lead patch and swapping to a brighter, more biting tone mid-song to mark the final ascent. Lighting tends to follow the music first, accenting kicks and snare hits, while color shifts mirror each act's palette: DWTD in blood-red and violet, Magic Sword in their trio hues. You come away hearing arrangement choices clearly because the stage craft is there to support the pulse, not the other way around.
Arps that climb like stairs
Kindred Synth Knights for Dance With The Dead and Magic Sword Fans
If you like thunderous synths
Fans of
Carpenter Brut will find similar chainsaw-synth energy and guitar bite, with a hard-dance undercurrent.
Perturbator overlaps on the moody, cathedral-scale pads and noir tempos, trading melodies that feel built for late-night drives. If you lean into harsher textures,
Gost brings a comparable blend of machine beats and metal grit that pairs naturally with
Dance With The Dead. On the cinematic side,
GUNSHIP draws in listeners who want big choruses and 80s-styled color, which dovetails with
Magic Sword when they go anthemic. All four acts emphasize melody you can hum, but they deliver it with different shades of aggression and atmosphere. So if your playlist flips between heavy outrun and widescreen retro pop, this bill fits squarely in that lane.
Cinematic darkness, live energy
