Brendon Small’s Galaktikon Rock Wesfest 8 for Concert Debut

It had been some time in the making, but Brendon's Small's large collective, Galaktikon, now have their live debut under the belts. The 11-piece outfit rocked The Roxy in Los Angeles as the headlining act of the eighth annual Wesfest benefit, in honor of the late bass player Wes Wehmiller.

Small took the stage to cheers as many of the night's prior performers filled out the roster for Galaktikon's debut. The Dethklok guitarist, a Berklee College of Music grad himself, was more than thrilled to be performing alongside his bandmates and admitted that getting this many touring musicians together onstage for one night was quite the feat.

Flanked by Jude Gold, Mike Keneally and Rick Musallam on guitar, the performance never ceased to be heavy and rocking throughout, while bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist Walter Ino added to the musical mélange. Small joked that he enjoyed Galaktikon as it gave him a way to sit back and see how fast he could make a drummer go, and Tim Yeung adeptly handled everything thrown at him.

For their performance, Brendon Small's Galaktikon played their entire self-titled disc, with the album opener 'Triton,' the hard charging 'Beastblade,' the inspired 'Arena War of the Immortal Masters' and 'On My Way' among the highlights. Throughout the Galaktikon set, Small traded vocals with Ben Thomas and Jude Crossen, with Kira Small, Ali Handal and Ino all lending some backing assistance.

Small told the crowd that Galaktikon was a fun project to do on the side and joked that the debut album was definitely a concept record, though he was still trying to figure out what the concept was. He would add that he saw the disc as "an intergalactic divorce" story, and stated he had the idea of a Superman/Lois Lane split in mind, with Lex Luthor honing in on Lane to set a trap for the caped crusader.

The Galaktikon portion of the show also featured some major riffing from Small on the instrumental piece 'Dangertits,' which led to some screams from the crowd and the admiration of his fellow players during the set. To finish out the night, Small said farewell to his guest vocalists and led the remaining members through a pair of Dethklok favorites -- 'Thunder Horse' and 'Go Into the Water.'

The performance was the icing on the cake of an evening which saw soulful sets from Joe Travers and Friends and Danny Mo and the Exciters open up the evening. The latter performance featured the 2012 Wehmiller Scholarship Winner Jed Lingat laying down some killer bass lines.

The night also featured a moving video tribute to Wehmiller, a former performer with Duran Duran and Missing Persons and Berklee College of Music grad who died at the age of 33 after a long battle with thyroid cancer. In the end, the eighth annual benefit easily met its $25,000 goal. That money will go toward the Wes Wehmiller Endowed Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music.

Brendon Small's Galaktikon The Roxy, Los Angeles 3/3/2013 Set List:

1. 'Triton'
2. 'Prophecy of the Lazer Witch'
3. 'Beastblade'
4. 'Deathwaltz'
5. 'Truth Orb and the Kill Pool'
6. 'You Can't Run Away'
7. 'Arena War of the Immortal Masters'
8. 'Dangertits'
9. 'On My Way'
10. 'Thunder Horse'
11. 'Go Into the Water'

Watch Brendon Small's Galaktikon Perform 'Triton' at Wesfest 8