Slipknot
Date : February 14th
2002
Venue : Glasgow SECC
Support : One
Minute SIlence / In Flames / American Head Charge
After a little while of loafing about the SECC, with still not a sign of the bootlegers, the doors were opening, and while the majority of the sold out crowd here tonight go to the main door, they fail to notice there's another door about a hundred yards up where they're also letting people in, and we all go and get in there, and are greeted by an emtpy arena. Luckily tonight, there's four bands and about 4 and a half hours for them to play, so there wasn't too long a wait for tonights openers, American Head Charge (AHC).
I hadn't heard much at all by AHC before the show, so I didn't know what to expect from them. Thankfully though, they're very good, and a great opening band for a Slipknot gig. They kick off their set with 'All Wrapped Up', which after hearing more of their stuff, isn't the best one they could've chose, but the crowd like it, and the band look to be having the time of their lifes. Vocalist, Martin, from where I was standing (up the back of the arena), seems to be a bit of a Corey Taylor rip off, because 1. He's wearing a mask AND a boiler suit, 2. His voice sounds like a carved copy of coreys, with it's dodgy singing, straight into rough voice, but eventually his mask fell off, so he wasn't too bad. Their set continues with most songs sounding fairly similair, with the exception of one, which I can't remember the name off, but it was a very mellowish song with a keyboard intro, but no one seems to care about the similarity of songs, as the crowd are going pretty wild. As far as I can remember about the show, they closed with the opening track from their latest release 'The War Of Art', which goes down a treat. So overall, a fairly decent set from them, they would've been more convincing if they had got longer on stage, but they done well with what they had.
Once again, too many bands, not enough time, so it's only about 15 minutes before the lights are down, and Swedish melodic-black-metal troop In Flames take the stage. As with AHC, I hadn't heard much by them at all before the show, and was completely unaware of what to expect from them, and although I heard the first two songs from just outside the arena (we were starving, and needed food), they sounded really good, for a so called black metal band. They opened with some very fast song, which as far as I know, got an automatic pit started. One thing I would have to point out about In Flames is that, the guitarist really does resemble Jimmy Page, in the sense that, he has long curly hair, he is playing his guitar wearing flares, and with his legs ajar, and just generally is Jimmy Page, and he, like the other guitarist, is a very good guitarist, and together they're even better, as they keep doing the good old harmonising guitar, which in my opinion is one of the greatest sounds out of a band, and they can do it good. The majority of their set is made up of similair songs, and looking at them, all that is visible is a massi waft of long hair flying in all directions, with the frontman running from either end with his shirt and tie, throwing in random jumps and outbursts for the hell of it. The pit that was now going was one of the greatest I have ever seen, as now, all the neandrathols, complete with hairy backs were now joining in, and by the end of their set, they had sure alreayd made the night worth the money, with them and AHC combined.
If only the level of fun of the night weren't too be brought down by One Minute Silence (OMS). Why these guys ever thought they were good i'll never know. From the very start to the very end of their sloppy set, the sound coming from them is as muddy as a festival field, and why the crowd seem to enjoy them a lot also, is something i'll never know. But they do have some good sides, although neither of them are anything to do with the music which they produce. 1. The bassist is the most charismatic person that i've ever seen on stage, and my guess is he makes up for the rest of the bands lack of it, and 2. They get some of the best crowds going that i've ever seen. That's about all I can say for them, as for the majority of it I was sitting outside, as none of us were fans of OMS, but when I went in for a bit the crowd was very intense. Big let down, musically anyway, but Slipknot hadn't been on yet, so they could still bring the level of good music back up.
It was a fairly long wait to get the 9+ p-a inputs all set up, and the stage set, with a huge pentogram to cover what was going on onstage, and two big light up 666's at the sides. But eventually, the lights go down, and an absoloutely huge incredibly uproar is heard for the intro, which I belive was 515 from the new cd. So after 2 minutes or so of that, the curtain goes up, and on the stage, 9, masked, and boiler suited men can be seen taking to their positions on the stage. After introducing themselves etc, and letting us know we are their 'Maggots', they literally EXPLODE into opening song from Iowa, People = Shit, which has to be one of the best openers ever. And the band play it to CD quality, only about 10 times heavier. Out of the band members, the ones that seem to stand out, are the ever charistmatic frontman Corey Taylor, whose voice seems to be a lot better live, and also, drummer Joey Jordinson, who, in my opinion cannot be beaten by ANY other drummer on the earth, because no matter how hard he plays can still keep on playing exactly the same speed and power. After that comes one of the most powerful tracks from the ever popular self titled debut, Liberate. Next comes, their latest single, which as far as I know, done very well in the charts, Left Behind, and a lot of the crowd seem to be very pleased that they played that. For the next song as well they stick to songs from Iowa, with My Plague. The set continues, mixing old with new, and several insults mixed with praises towards the crowd. The highlights of the evening were now coming along, first up, in the form of Wait And Bleed, which pretty much the whole arena could sing along to, and then Spit It Out, which is one of the best songs they played, because Corey got us all to sit down for the slow intro part, and as you could guess, yes my unfit legs did give in, and i ended up trying to pull myself up, leaning on two fat blokes, which was a laugh, but i was up before Corey yelled 'Jump the fuck up!!', so I was up for the insanity. But without doubt, the hightlight of the whole evening, is when the whole band except Joey (drummer) leave the stage, and the spotlight is on Joey, who is strapped to his racing car style seat, ready to show why he is the best drummer anyone has to offer, when he starts up with the double bass pedal, fast, heavy drumbeats, and super long fills, and doing all this whilst his drum kit is spinning round and raising from its foundations on a massive round plate like thing, and when it is at it's highest height, with Joey still hammering on the drums, it started to lean forward, until Joey himself, and his drum kit, were lying vertically, facing down the way, and still playing the big solo. The solo got what was probably the best reaction of the night, and damn right it should've as well. They continue on with a couple of old songs, namely Purity, and Eyeless, two great songs which go down incredibly well. As far as I can remember they closed the night off with The Heretic Anthem, which was a major sing along with its "If you're 555 then i'm 666" chorus, and also had the big 666's light up at the side of the stage, and there were also massive flames at the back of the stage that I could feel the heat off of from where I was, what a way to end a show. But of course, they came back, only before that we had the intro from the old cd, which dragged on somewhat longer than it does on the cd. But the band themselves then come back onto the stage, and hit us with Sic, which keeps the crowd on their feet that little bit longer, and then they finnished things off with 'our new national anthem', Surfacing, undoubtedly, no better ender could've been chosen.
Overall, one of the best shows i've ever seen, and it would've been much better had OMS not have shown up. All the other bands kicked ass, and AHC will definetley be HUGE soon, and In Flames will certainly grow somewhat, and as for Slipknot, I think they are going to become A LOT more popular than they already are without doubt, and I for one can't wait till they come back.
- Click here for a review of American Head Charge's album 'The War Of Art'