SlipKnot Freakin’ Ruled

A show within a show! You know why they stand out? Have you, the younger generations of musicians, forgotten your rock and roll history lessons already? Rule # 1, Write killer music. Rule # 2. Put on a killer show! Just don’t stand there and stare at your feet. How far did that get Grunge rock? Where were the theatrics in Grunge, no where … So it was less than a decade before it collapsed from uninspiration. Metal is still kicking ass some 29 years later. Do the math kiddos…

And now for the review … Following in the footsteps of theatrical bands like KISS and Alice Cooper just to get the ball rolling these nine guys from Des Moines Iowa get it. Not only did they kick my musical ass for 90 minutes but the sound and light show theatrics were awesome too!

There were three bands that night, backing up here some. First up was “Trivium”. Hailing from Orlando, Florida and been kicking it around for since 2000. I got to catch them a few years ago at the OzzFest in Indy. They worked the crowd over and got them excited like a good warm up band is supposed to do. Matt Heafy (the singer/guitarist) did an excellent job!! The guitar work these guys do is also top notch. I enjoyed the band and want to see more of them on the road so go out and buy their albums and support these guys. I give their part of the show 4 devil horns out of 5.

The second band to play before Slipknot, in my opinion, should have been the first band to play. I went to some Slipknot message boards and a lot of people felt the same way I do … CoHeed and Cambria. Sorry I have never heard of them before the show. I did go to YouTube after the show and watched some of their videos to give them a fair shake. They reminded me of a heavier Rush type progressive rock band. The videos were ok and the music was ok but those guys in concert sucked horribly. They didn’t interact with the audience. They just played to themselves. They also had huge banners that read “God will not save you”. Not sure what that was about but I’m sure some people were offended by those banners. They played a short set. I think it ran about 30 minutes and that was enough for me. The young guy beside me told me he thought they sucked too. I give them 1 devil’s horn out of 5 for their part of the show.

We (my son-in-law Zack and me) had to wait 45 minutes in between the second band and Slipknot playing but it was well worth the wait. They had a huge red curtain covering the stage and when the lights came on and lit the curtain up it was show time!! They wore masks and call their fans maggots. How freaking cool is that? It’s pretty cool. I recognized some of the songs from the radio and some of the others I am not so familiar with but that doesn’t matter. Like I said earlier, I get it. It’s a rock show!!! High energy! They played “Before I Forget”, “Dead Memories”, “People = Shit”, and so much more. One thing they did do which I thought was really cool was that some of the members would come out into the crowd. I haven’t seen anyone do that since AC/DC many moons ago. Chris Fehn walked out in to the crowd and found a kid head banging all by himself. Chris just stood there while the kid kept it up. The kid at first didn’t realize his hero was standing beside him. When he looked up he was in shock, Chris shook his hand and that kid will never forget that night when out of the blue a Rock star took time to stop and shake his hand. That, my friends, is rock and roll at the street level.

Slipknot kicked ass for about 90 minutes. We stood up during the entire show. Well, so did everyone else too. There weren’t any mosh pits to speak of but sometimes that happens, but there were a  few crowd surfers. Slipknot is a great band to carry the torch for theatrical shows and great music. I believe music is in good hands with these guys. I give Slipknot and their part of the show 5 out of 5 scorching guitars!!

chuck gee