There were 3 bands on the bill for the night. The first band, King 810, started right at 7. I knew two things about them going into the show. First, I knew they were from Flint, MI (hence the 810). I've never been to Flint, but I have been to East St. Louis and in my mind they are the same. Secondly, I knew that when they were first coming out, a metal blog had a picture of them performing at a festival with assault-rifle-armed body guards standing at the edge of the stage. Now these weren't present for our show in Madison, but they did play up the whole Flint thing a lot. All in all, they didn't do much for me as a band.
Now I'll be honest, I had very low expectations for Korn going into the show. I never was a big fan of Korn besides a 2 or 3 catchy songs (one of which being of course "Freak on a Leash"). My friend that joined me at the concert is a big Korn fan. He was very much looking forward to this as it had been something like 7 years since he last saw Korn. They came on just before 8. To my surprise, their set was very high energy and entertaining. I really had a good time and enjoyed most all of the songs. The biggest crowd response was for the song "Shoots & Ladders" (which I was not familiar with), but begins with a bagpipe intro by lead singer Jonathan Davis. As soon as they heard a note of bagpipe, the crowd went nuts. Korn played for just under an hour and all in all was a great opener as they were full of energy and really got the crowd rocking. Negative note, Jonathan Davis had to visit an oxygen tank after each song. I'm sure it's for a very legitimate reason, but it just kind of doesn't seem very rock-star-ish.
Honesty sidebar before I talk about Slipknot. When these nu-metal bands were big (Slipknot, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, etc.), I dabbled in Linkin Park and P.O.D.; that was my extent with the genre. In the early 2000s I was still learning my way through the vast genre of classic rock and somewhat getting into heavier bands like System of a Down. Korn and Slipknot were not on my radar at all. I kind of took the first 15 years of Slipknot's career and condensed them into the last 6 months or so. I had listened to "Spit it Out" and "Wait and Bleed" before, but not much else. When the new album was announced I started to give the rest of the music more attention. But I will say that in the last 6 months or so, I listened to A LOT of Slipknot, read A LOT of articles and blogs, and watched A LOT of documentary type footage of the band. I really wanted to know all about the band (good and bad). So even though when I was most impressionable in my early teens, I joined the 'Knot fan club much later in life.
Slipknot took the stage a little before 9:30 and I was very very excited to see this band. They started off behind the curtain while the first track off the latest album played. We were sitting on the side of the arena and our view was mostly unobstructed by the curtain, so Clown came over to encourage us to stand up (even though we were already standing). As soon as the curtain came up, they were right into the high energy show I was expecting with Sarcastrophe (second song off the new album). The show continued on with it's high energy pace playing more songs from the new album, but also showcasing classics like "Psycosocial" and "The Heretic Anthem". Corey Taylor is an incredible front man and demands attention wherever he is at on the stage. The stage shows are quite chaotic because there are 9 members of the band. As a member of the audience it's pretty crazy to whitness because you have no idea where to watch at any point in time. Not only are there 9 band members, there is also the mayhem that is happening on the floor.
One of the craziest things I've ever seen at a metal concert happened right before the last verse in "Spit It Out". As soon as the music slowed down, Corey started talking and I noticed that some people on the floor were sitting down. Mind you, this floor has been a moving mass of bodies since the show started so to see nobody moving and people sitting down was quite noticeable. Corey gave a speech about how it didn't matter if you were a fan of the band for the past 15 years of 15 days, you were here now and you were going to participate in one of their traditions. He then commanded everyone to sit down and then as soon as he hit the last line in the next verse, which said "Jump the f(udge) up!", we were to of course jump the f(udge) up. I didn't expect an entire arena (probably 10,000 people) to really be that still for the next 30 seconds or so, but sure enough, everyone did.......... and then we all JUMPED THE F(UDGE) UP and it was an incredible sight to witness.
Say what you want about the masks and the back story and the lyrics, but Slipknot are tried and true professionals and they know how to put on one hell of a show. Their stage was huge which allowed for all 9 members to go crazy and run all over the place (they all did except the drummer of course). The two percussionists (Clown and Chris Fehn) are on custom built rising drum rigs. Jim Root is all of 6'6" and is constantly head banging all of the stage. Corey channels his inner Bruce Dickenson and can belt out any lyric while running around during the length of the show. Plain and simple, these guys know how to put on a show and what a show it was. Slipknot did not disappoint for my first experience with the band.
Venue Notes:
- It's much smaller than you'd think. For it being an arena, it didn't feel all that big.
- It was a perfect circle shape which is quite unique for an arena.
- By far the worst beer system I've every seen. Basically anyone who wanted to drink had to get a wristband and be corralled into a very small area that was a makeshift beer garden and bar. They only had Budweiser and Bud Light and in 2 different sizes so it moved quickly once you got up there. But in the meantime you were crammed like sardines into this little area. I understand that it makes controlling the underage drinkers and the mess of cups, but it was not enjoyable as a patron.
- The sound seemed OK, if anything too quiet, but that's probably more to do with the bands than the venue.
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