11-29-05 KORN!

LOCATION:



Hammerstein Ballroom, NY NY (a block from MSG)
Lower balcony, second row (front row was for stupidass Clear Channel people)



BANDS:
KORN.


PRICE: $37 a ticket (before Ticketbastard charges)


DETAILS OF EVENT:

CONCESSIONS: No idea. Parking however was so expensive I don't even want to talk about it. Shannon knows how much it cost me. But I can't bear the thought of anyone else knowing my dirty shameful secrets. Like how badly I was financially raped because I was too lazy and frustrated with NYC traffic at rush hour to go to another lot (:(

VIEW: Awesome. Could see the whole stage, backstage hos, and the entire floor.

PRE-SHOW VIBE: Well. It was laid back where I was sitting. The floor was getting riled up because they taped this show for MTV2 (to air Sat. night at 9:30) and the camera guys were going around filming kids freaking out before the show. The floor liked chanting "F**K your seats" to us, but I just blankly stared at them and continued filling out my employee review form for work. I noticed that they played the Foo Fighters again before their show. Only now they played all of Disc 1 of In Your Honor. Foos have graduated from one song to being worthy of playing a whole album pre-show. Interesting. I swear to God these two bands have Best Friends Forever necklaces with eachother. But I digress.

ATTENDANCE: Pretty sure it was sold out.

AUDIENCE: A kid walked by wearing a "Shut up you f**king f**k" t-shirt. That pretty much sums it up.

WARDROBE: Jonathan- all black, hair is longer than ever, Fieldy-hair was long and straight (no braids!) wearing some kind of basketball jersey/jeans outfit, Munky- hair is super long now and was wearing some military kinda jacket ensemble, David-topless, muscled out... and I think maybe Tobin's been giving him hairstyling tips. Maybe at Claus Fest last year. Who knows.

STAGE SET: Hanging screens that displayed different things at different times- lyrics to the songs, or their faces, or graphics from the new album cover. Also a giant Lite-Brite-ish backdrop. And of course Jonathan had his mic stand (pictured above).


ARI RATING (ADRENALINE RUSH INDEX - 1-10):
Frame of reference:
1= I sat in my chair motionless and felt no emotional connection
10=I walked out bruised and high off nothing but the energy of the show

10. Even from the balcony Jonathan's energy is contagious.


SETLIST:
Totally not in order:
Here to Stay (OK they opened with this)
Falling Away From Me
Somebody Someone
ADIDAS
Blind
Freak on a Leash
Got the Life
Shoots and Ladders/One
Brick in the Wall
Twist
Did My Time
Y'all Want A Single
Twisted Transistor
Liar, Come Undone, Hypocrite (all new)
Some random slow-ish song I actually don't know. It sounded like he was saying "Dirty little boy"??


HIGHLIGHTS:
Whenever the pit would go crazy. During one of the last songs (Blind? or Shoots and Ladders?) the entire floor was a pit. I love that. I love it from the balcony though. Last year I was on the floor and really wasn't that keen on doing that again. They sounded great- you don't even really miss Head to be honest. This was their first U.S. show without him. Jonathan acknowledged his absence and had the crowd applaud him and simply said "He had to go do his thing, and we're going to keep doing ours." Also a highlight- I can't help it- the damn bagpipes get me everytime. Then when they go into "One" by Metallica... *sigh* I <3>LOWLIGHTS:
The balconies (there are 3) weren't as into it as I'd like them to be. I like to rock out. God help any of you out there that attend a show with me. I do not sit still. I don't embarassingly freak out, but enough that I stood out amongst these stiffs. And I had Clear Channel people in front of me (it's a CC venue) who seemed more concerned with how much beer they could drink than the actual show. F you Clear Channel. Love, Howard. By the way, for two seconds I thought I saw High Pitch Eric. But it wasn't him. Also a side note, not really a lowlight: I find it impossible not to think of Robin when I hear "Y'All Want a Single."


DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS SHOW? (YES/NO - EXPLAIN):
I'd say yes. Unless you're a nu-metal snob. Then move along...nothing to see here.


*BONUS QUESTION: Why didn't you try to meet them after? WTF?
Well. To begin with, I'm sick with a cold and when I got outside it was windy and rainy as hell (hydroplaned on the way home a couple times). Second, the parking lot that I will never park at again said that they close a half hour after the show is over. Third- they're doing an instore, and with all these days off from work I have left, I may just channel my inner 15 yr old and go try to meet them that way.


OK that's all for now!

03-26-06 Blind is best played by surprise.

BANDS:

Korn
Mudvayne
Ten Years

LOCATION:
Mohegan Sun Arena, Sidestage, Row S

PRICE:
$45 (including Ticketbastard charges)


DETAILS:

CONCESSIONS:
The shirt I was interested in:

was $45 which was about what I paid for the ticket. Thus my interest flew out the window. Other shirts were in the $30 range.

VIEW:
Could see everything when the couple in front of me got the hell out of my way. Seriously. They were two drunkies who would yell in each other's ear, thus creating massive head block in front of me. So I'd move further down my row to see better since the guys next to me left. But then they'd shift positions so they'd be standing in front of me again. I was very close to giving them $1 to get out of my way and go get a room. I hated them.

PRE-SHOW VIBE:
I wasn't there before the show. I arrived during Mudvayne. But I didn't know it was Mudvayne. I thought they were 10 Years until they said "Give a round of applause to the Mudvayne crew". Then after a half second wondering why we should, I realized that the Skynyrd looking guy was the weirdo redfaced guy from that first video they put out awhile ago and that this in fact was Mudvayne. Which actually made me happy because I didn't care about 10 Years at all. The only music played during the break that I remember was Queens of the Stone Age songs, which due to their Dave Grohl connection, just furthers my theory that Foo Fighters and Korn are secret best friends. In between Mudvayne and Korn I read my Tucker Max book so I don't even know what was going on most of the time.

ATTENDANCE:
Sold out. Us Southern New Englanders sure do love our Nu-Metal.

AUDIENCE:
Mostly in their early 20s. There were a couple of hos that walked through the crowd and drew a lot of attention right before Korn went onstage. I guess because their boobs and asses were hanging out as they waved and blew kisses to guys. I don't know if I'm supposed to know who they are, or if they were just drunk dime-a-dozen Korn hos. I'll go with the latter.

WARDROBE:
Fieldy had a Raiders jersey on while his long Jesus hair flowed, David was topless for my viewing pleasure still sporting his Tobin hair, Munky wore some kinda Asian-influenced military wear, and Jonathan wore a black tank top and changed from his Adidas pants, to a black kilt, and at one point wore that long black robe dress thingy.

STAGE SET:
Screen that showed computer animated graphics mimicking the style of their album cover. If you go to Korn.com you can get a sense of the art direction. Sorta like F'd Up Alice In Wonderland. Like AIW wasn't f'd up enough already. Also worth noting is that they now have a backup band: A second drummer, a keyboardist, a guitarist, and another dude who plays random percussion/sound effects (like a giant metal sheet wtf). And the guys in the backup band all wear freaky animal masks the whole time. Um... ok.


ARI RATING (ADRENALINE RUSH INDEX - 1-10):
Frame of reference:
1= I sat in my chair motionless and felt no emotional connection
10=I walked out bruised and high off nothing but the energy of the show

I give it an 8 1/2. Points deducted for the medley.


SETLIST:
(not in order)
It's On (opened with this)
Falling Away From Me
Somebody Someone
Freak on a Leash
Got the Life
Shoots and Ladders (went into a medley including ADIDAS, Thoughtless and Make Me Bad)
Twist
Twisted Transistor
Coming Undone
Counting On Me
Here to Stay
the new songs I don't know
Blind (last song)


HIGHLIGHTS:
My view and seeing them in a small arena, Jonathan and Fieldy going sick headbanging together during one song, the enthusiasm of the crowd (they even showed up for Mudvayne for crying out loud). Also "It's On" was a pleasant surprise.


LOWLIGHTS:
I was already kinda bummed because they did like 4 or 5 new songs I don't know since I really am not into the latest CD. So you can understand my joy when Jonathan came out with the bagpipes and the band went into Shoots and Ladders. The last few times I saw them play this song, they would go right into "Darkness...imprisoning me...all that I see...absolute horror" and finish out the song with "One" which would cause the crowd to go insane. But instead they go into an f'ing MEDLEY. Spread the word please: medleys are totally unacceptable if I am in the attending audience. One song I didn't know, then they threw in Make Me Bad, Thoughtless and A.D.I.D.A.S. WTF. As many times as I've seen them (I've lost count. 8? 9? I don't know.) I still look forward to A.D.I.D.A.S.!! For their last song they did "Blind." But Jonathan announced it in advance ("We have one last song. You know what it is. This is "Blind"). Doing that somehow took away from the excitement I would normally feel hearing David's intro in complete darkness, either as the opening song or the encore. I don't know how to explain my frustration. "Anti-climactic" I guess? As I put it to Shannon "Blind is best played by surprise."


DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS SHOW? (YES/NO - EXPLAIN):
Yes if you're a real Korn freak. If you're go looking to hear the older stuff, then no.