KanYAYYYY!!!

When I saw last Thursday that Kanye West was playing Mohegan Sun Casino with Lupe Fiasco and Common in less than a week, I blindly bought a ticket. I did not care that I would have to sit in rush hour traffic and make a 2 hr drive back home on a work night. I mean what else would I be doing instead? Sitting on my computer or watching TV? No thanks. I needed to go to this. Badly.

I unfortunately arrived too late to catch Lupe's set. But luckily I sat down in my seat two seconds before Common hit the stage. I'm about to annoy some of you because I don't know a lick of his music with the exception of "Go" and his joyous Peace, Love and Gap ad that I looked forward to almost every TV commercial break during the Christmas season. But after his set, I've been inspired to check out his music.

Common's energy is contagious. It's impossible not to bob your head along as he bounces and bounds across the stage. Even though I don't know the music, his set was fun and kept my attention. And I think I really need to look up some of his lyrics, because apparently he can get kinda hot with them. "Freaky like the daughter of a pastor, said I was bait for her to master"? Hello.

During one song, he brought up a girl from the audience and serenaded her. She was obviously a total fangirl, saying all the words along with him, so that was kinda sweet. I don't know the song, but I know I wished I was her for the moment he ran his hand up her thigh. Damn Common.

What really brought the house down was his freestyle about Connecticut. You'd think it'd be hard to rhyme my home state's name with anything, but not for Common. "Predicate." Why didn't I ever think of that? Probably because I haven't tried to rap lately. Or ever. But I digress.

Because the sound wasn't so great, it really frustrated me that I couldn't make out with him- I MEAN- make out what he was saying. Like I said, I'll have to check out some of his songs later.

Next up was Kanye. The lights went down and as the Daft Punk sample began blasting out of the speakers, the girl in front of me leaned over to her friend and said "Oh it's TIME to stand up NOW." And so we did.

Kanye came running out in a wildly-colored jacket wearing his shades announcing "That that don't kill me can only make me stronger" as we all waved our hands like we just didn't care. I was so psyched for this song. I can't get it out of my head, nor do I want to. When the beat kicks in, it makes me want to bust out dance moves that would rival those of one of the greatest movie scenes in history: The House Party Dance Off. But because the people around me seemed to be a little more subdued and not likely to gather around me in a circle while I battled the older couple next to me, I kept to my low-key stationary bounce.

Kanye had a string section behind him made up of young women in long silver lame gowns, who wore Zorro-style masks. OK. He also had two backup singers (a guy and a girl) who were dancing and singing like they were having their own party in the back.

I came to two realizations at this show. First, that the jeans I was wearing were way too baggy, even by Fred Durst wannabe standards. Second, hip hop shows don't always play well in arenas. It's hard to get the same kind of vibe going that you would in a club. I wanted the whole place to erupt into a dance frenzy when Kanye came out, but they didn't. I don't know what it is that gets lost in the translation. All I know is, that I've thought the same thing at every hip hop show I've been to.

As I don't actually have any Kanye CDs, I was glad I knew the majority of the songs, not knowing maybe 3 songs. From what I remember the setlist was as follows:
-Stronger
-Diamonds of Sierra Leone
-Heard 'Em Say
-Through the Wire
-Can't Tell Me Nothing
-Workout Plan
-Jesus Walks
-Slow Jamz
-Gold Digger
-Touch The Sky
-Get 'Em High

The highlights for me were pretty much everything. Common came out for Get 'Em High which rocked the house. And like he was shot out of a cannon, Lupe came out for his part of Touch the Sky. When I saw how nuts he went on his verse alone, I was immediately sorry I didn't leave work early to see his set. I wish I could have seen him do "Daydreamin'" too. Oh well :(

Here are some super crappy shots from my new cell phone camera. I should have tried to bring my regular camera because security was very loose at this show. (Try to) enjoy:


Kanye on the Jumbotron.


My awesome view (6th row on the side).


Common on the Jumbotron.


Kanye and Common.

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.