SLIPKNOT
Cardiff International Arena
5 December 2008
Slipknot are a band that I always presumed took pride
in being outside the normal commercial sphere of the rock business,
a band that were rebellious, unruly and quite frankly in league
with the devil. Having Iowa in my CD collection I had at least
a passing acquaintance with their music and actually liked some of what
I had heard, but unfortunately not enough to shell out the necessary
£32.50 to see them live. However due to a benevolent gesture by
a Bristolian friend I find myself at the CIA awaiting the arrival of
Des Moines finest.
I had looked at reviews of previous gigs on their pan-Europe tour, to
promote their latest offering All Hope is Gone, and was
alarmed to find that every night the set list was effectively the same.
This I put down to the fact that they must have a gargantuan stage complete
with interactive video and pyrotechnics, all beautifully choreographed
to each number, that necessitated them regurgitating the same songs
night after night.
Pic snwmclovin
On entering the venue I was struck by the sheer size (and cost!) of
the merchandising stall and the variety and volume of available paraphernalia
you could purchase bearing the Slipknot logo The audience was predominantly
young and enthusiastic, although their did seem to be a fair sprinkling
of older rockers, all eagerly awaiting the immanent arrival of this
metal behemoth. When the curtains opened, whilst there was a large,
two tier stage resplendent with torches bearing the bands logo, other
than the bands equipment there was very little else. No large video
screens, no thirty foot models of Beelzebub belching fire, no dancing
girls, in truth not much of anything. I was under whelmed.
The show opened as it has done with all tour with Surfacing,
and for the first (but most certainly not the last time tonight) we
had the clown character being raised by pneumatics while banging away
frantically on oil drums. The band members prowled the stage whilst
in n the background large plumes of fire shot skyward. All-in- all an
impressive start. The set list then followed its predictable course
with The Blister Exists, Get This and Before
I Forget. The sound quality was poor (although this may have been
the venues fault) and at times I found it difficult to differentiate
the songs until they reached the chorus, however everyone was greeted
with roars of approval, and devil s horns, from the crowd.
By mid set I was getting pretty bored with the flying clown and
fire routine, and was thinking that matters would be livened up
if he strayed a bit too close to the naked flames and self combusted,
however no such luck. Given that they were promoting a new CD,
it was odd that so few numbers came from the latest release, although
they did play Dead Memories and then Psychosocial
back to back, with the latter being a cracking track whatever genre
of rock music you are into. However still no sign of anything unusual,
as for the umpteenth time the Clown headed upwards into the rafters.
Then would come the moment that would define the band/evening for me
..
Pic : 'A Funny Kid With Green Pants'
During the song Spit It Out all their fans,
or maggots as they refer to themselves, crouch on the floor
awaiting the call of lead singer Corey 8 Taylor, to jump
up and go bonkers. Now this was totally unknown to me and my Gashead
mate, who suddenly found ourselves standing in what was reminiscent
of a sea of midgets. At first this was mildly amusing, looking
around the huge expanse of the CIA to see only the odd person bewilderingly
standing out (literally). However after about ten seconds some
of the audience seemed to take exception at our non-compliance and started
throwing (thankfully empty) beer bottles at us. I presume they were
not offering us refreshments, but wanted us also to bow down in a fundamentalist
type way at the feet of the great god Slipknot. At this point I am sure
that the spirit of Sid Vicious whispered in my ear to fuck em
all!, and therefore we stood tall revelling in our new found notoriety,
as another bottle bounced off my cranium. I have always thought rocknroll
was not about obeying orders, and at my time of life its hard
to change old habits. Matters became even more complicated as a bottle
hit one of the band, which got an abrupt and terse response from the
lead singer with a threat of the band walking off, and so now members
of the genuflexion audience turned on each other. Thankfully before
civil war could break out the band gave the requisite signal, resumed
the number, and everyone jumped up and matters carried on as per normal.
The tried and tested set-list resumed with the impressive Duality
and finally Only One. The band returned for a rollicking
version of people = shit and Sic, in which not
only did the Clown make another journey into the stratosphere, but the
drum kit (complete with drummer) rose above the audience, tipped forward
and started revolving. With the last puff of flames they exited to the
cheers of the adoring and unquestioning legion of fans.
In truth I enjoyed the gig, but lets be straight about this Slipknot
are a commercial machine that sells CDs, T-shirts and concert
tickets. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but please dont
anyone tell me that their fans are anymore rebellious, anarchic or insubordinate
than those of say Westlife.
Bones
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