Slipknot

support Children Of Bodom
author PP date 13/11/08 venue KB Hallen, Copenhagen, DEN

Slipknot are an institution, a franchise if you will, and their fans are a big part of that institution. I don't recall a single show other than the previous Slipknot concert that I attended where I've seen something like 80-90% of the crowd wearing the shirt of the headlining band, it's as if everyone's part of a big cult. Machine Head, who cancelled tonight because Rob Flynn was so sick he couldn't sing, sometimes have that number somewhere in the 40-50%, but even that's a far cry from Slipknot, at least here in Denmark. Now, I've never been a fan of Slipknot, I've always considered them to be rather average on record, and I think the fact that they are all wearing masks is all a big marketing trick. Nevertheless, it never seizes to surprise me how fucking amazing they are live every single time I've seen them, tonight being no exception. This is the reason why Slipknot is the only heavy band around who are able to sell out the 3000-capacity KB Hallen weeks before the actual show, something of a rarity here in small Denmark. But before we get to the spectacle that is the Slipknot show, we'll have a look at how Children Of Bodom did tonight.

Children Of Bodom

Given that Machine Head canceled tonight, Children Of Bodom were given the unique opportunity to play a slightly longer set tonight. In practice, this meant a 40-45minute set instead of the usual 30 minutes the opening band gets, which is a nice treat considering Children Of Bodom have never before played on Danish soil, a fact which the band's frontman Alexi Laiho screams at the ecstatic crowd a good couple of times during the show. And lets get one fact straight here, Children of Bodom are the proverbial band that's metal as fuck tonight. First off, the band's riffs are out of this world for the huge amount of Slipknot fans present tonight. When Laiho/Latvala combo destroy their way through songs like "Silent Night, Bodom Night", "Hellbounds On My Trail", and others, the crowd stands in awe-inspiration, throwing the devil horns towards the band at a constant, never-ending pace, just the way it should be for a band whose name is derived from an unresolved triple-homicide. The well-known bad acoustics troll of KB Hallen when it comes to metal bands raises its head again, though, and much of their awesome melody is drowned into an echoing layer of rumbling bass and Laiho's scream and growl. But this isn't a problem for large parts of the crowd who watch the band shred their way through some of their best songs, creating mosh pits, jumping up and down, and generally receiving Children Of Bodom's set much better than I had anticipated. Great job warming up the crowd, I say, and hopefully someone from Roskilde Festival was present tonight taking notes on cool bands to book for next year.

Slipknot

I don't even know where to start for Slipknot, there's just so much to talk about that I could probably have written my 10,000 word university dissertation solely on the Slipknot set tonight. First of all, the stage set up looks massively expensive, with a few ramps about, and huge depictions Slipknot's well known flamey S logo hanging from the ceiling on at least eight different places next to, behind, and above the band. Second of all, the way the band enters the stage is the perfect way to incite the crowd into a stupendous riot; the lights suddenly go off, and two seconds later the lights flash momentarily and the outlines of nine monstrous masks have appeared everywhere on the stage, and instantly, the band dives head first into "Surfacing", and the crowd morphs into a menacing sea of chaos and utter violence. Half-way through the song I've already seen a knocked out person being carried away, and another girl being lead towards the medic area by her friend while her shoulder is twisted in some sort of horrible way that I don't even want to describe here, while a few more are appearing with bruises and bloody noses only moments later.

The purest sense of rebellion and chaos I've ever experienced in a live set encompasses the whole venue. The side-drummers, who are banging on some sort of metallic beer-kegs/trash cans, are on separate platforms, the left side one suddenly falls 90 degrees, throwing the clown off towards the ground, where he grabs a baseball bat and starts frantically banging his equipment with it to the rhythm of the music. The right side replica has a 30+ inch flat-screen TV attached in front of it, with a video camera attached on top, and all of this is capable of both being elevated a few metres as well as turning 360 degrees... what we're seeing is nearly indescribable: on one hand you see one clown up in the skies banging on the drums with one hand and operating the video camera on another hand while spinning around in quick succession, and on another hand you see another clown hanging in air like a fucking monkey from the very same trash cans, this only with one hand while shouting profanities and giving the finger to the crowd. All of a sudden, it's all over, and in walks two more clowns with man-sized drums attached to them... they march back and forth pounding on those, this all while the band's coarsely yelling vocalist is causing all sorts of havoc near the front of the crowd. Needless to say, my eyes are more or less glued to the stage, and I fail to notice that one of the drummers has disappeared on stage, and is now stomping violently across the crowd, mowing me down with no respect whatsoever to my safety or whether or not I had seen him - fucking amazing showmanship.

In between all the chaos you have, I swear, the entire fucking hall singing along to "Before I Forget", "Psychosocial" and of course "People = Shit". Everyone is having the time of their lives, and the set is nowhere near its climax yet. At one point, everyone, and I mean everyone suddenly sits down, only to explode moments later into an absolutely chaotic mosh pit. As if that wasn't enough, the band plays rarities like "Spit It Out" that haven't been a part of their live repertoire in years now, to the delight of all the band's older fans. The encore passes by, and the band reappears on stage even more destructive than before, if that's even possible. And then, all of a sudden during the last song (sic), Jordison's drum set begins elevating itself until it reaches a height of about five metres, and then starts slowly rotating 360 degrees. Yeah, a cool finish, I thought, until the drumset starts turning vertically as well, so that he ends upside down, while the platform is still spinning around... and he's STILL playing! There's only so much I can describe by words, you really need to see the video instead... yeah that crazy spinning thing is the drum set, with Joey strapped onto it, vertically spinning high up in air. That's honestly the single most amazing spectacle I've seen in all of the 100+ concerts I've attended. This is the second time I've reviewed a Slipknot concert without being a fan of the band, and the second time I'm going to go out and rate it perfect - anything else would not be of justice to their show.

10

Setlist:

1. Surfacing

2. The Blister Exists

3. Get This

4. Before I Forget

5. Liberate

6. Disasterpiece

7. Dead Memories

8. Psychosocial

9. The Heretic Anthem

10. Prosthetics

11. Spit It Out

12. Duality

13. Only One

14. (515)

15. People = Shit

16. (sic)

Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.