The “Rockets and Robots Tour” consisting of headliner Powerman 5000, and up-and-comers Dope and Static-X, blasted into Des Moines Monday night at Super Toad, leaving fans with sore necks and clothes soaked in sweat.

Any time a bill includes three or more bands of similar styles, there is a risk that energy will be lost towards the end. But Monday night each band came out and performed flawless sets for excited fans, and put themselves in the forefront of today’s metal scene.

Dope took the stage first to chants of “We want Dope,” from the hundreds of fans at Super Toad. The band’s stage props of chain link fences, barbed wire and flashing blue and red police lights, synchronized perfectly with Dope’s progressive arsenal of songs.

The band ripped through songs such as “Pig Society” and “Spine for You,” and started to convince a lot of people who were just there to see Powerman that they, too, are a dominant force in metal.

Midway through the quintet’s set, chants of “Fuck the Police” signaled to the band that fans wanted to hear Dope’s metal cover of the N.W.A. classic. Lead singer Edsel Dope gladly obliged and dedicated the song to every police department across the nation. For the next four minutes the only thing that could be seen across the venue were middle fingers joining the band’s salute. Edsel even helped break the no bodysurfing rule by taking a plunge into the Des Moines crowd.

Static-X didn’t incorporate the use of an elaborate stage setup, but when you have a lead singer such as Wayne Static, who sports nine-inch hair that stands straight up and an even longer braided goatee, fans didn’t need anything else to look at.

The ultra-heavy band’s set was nothing special until they played crowd favorites such as “Wisconsin Death Trip,” “Trance in Motion” and “I’m with Stupid,” which proved to be a shot of electricity through the crowd. Static-X ended their night with the hit single “Push It.”

Besides providing the heaviest, most mosh-worthy songs of the night, Static-X also provided the best piece of humor when Wayne Static asked fans to give it up for Dope and Powerman, then waited a minute before asking fans to give it up for the Backstreet Boys, which brought a chorus of boos and other vulgar remarks.

It didn’t seem possible that the fans could be any more into the show than they already were after Dope and Static-X, but Powerman 5000 was more than up to the challenge as they took the stage and almost blew the roof off the place.

Complete with sci-fi media clips, outfits and Atari-like sound effects, the band was on point from its first song, “Supernova Goes Pop,” to the very end. Lead singer, Spider, did a great job of keeping the fans going with his monster movie behavior. Super Toad went nuts when Spider told fans that “I am proud to be playing in the hometown of Slipknot.”

Interestingly enough, it was the group’s two older songs, “Car Crash” and “Neckbone,” that really got the crowd into the show and displayed how spectacular a live band Powerman has the capability to be. With a surprise cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” and a dynamic performance of their breakthrough single, “When Worlds Collide,” the group did not let the intensity level drop at any point.