KoRn Live@the Joint/Hard Rock Hotel in Las VegasMarch 14, 200611 years into their unstoppable career, KoRn prove themselves yet again to be an undeniable force in contemporary aggro music, and the uncrowned kings of the alternative heavy live scene. Well its about freakin time someone hands them the crown they've more than earned, if you ask me. The Joint was packed with hard hittin tattooed freaks and clowns, all gettin drunk and ready to roar along w/Jonathan Davis & Crew through their now familiar anthems of the beaten down & dispossessed.
Before KoRn hit the stage, Majesty's Voice (the mic stand sculpted by famed Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger) stood gleaming proudly up front stage center, a silent sentinel to the flagship about to lead our packed house of devoted rollickers through the roiling and turbulent sea of classic songs aimed to reflect the universal angst of a disenfranchised generation.
The giant screen above stage right flashed text messages being eagerly sent in by random "cellers", messages like
jamie luvs sarah and
JONATHAN DAVIS IS A METAL GOD, while roadies readied the stage. Of course korn's oldest trick in the book is to wait and wait and wait until the crowd begins showing visible signs of unrest. Not until various people in the crowd start yelling out "KORN!" and getting agitated, will they even begin thinking about starting the show.
Eventually, after priming the crowd with more wait time, the lights dimmed down and the familiar warbling, impossibly amped-up sounds of the intro to "
It's On!" from their breakthrough album Follow The Leader could be heard cascading out of the speakers. After several minutes of this reverb looped sound, out stepped the four remaining horsemen of the apocalypse onto stage, the crowd cheered, and the guitar chords of the song proper kicked in, Jonathan leaning into Majesty's Voice w/the heartfelt hail of "
C'monnnn! It's Onnnnn!" and everyone went nutz.
I had already worked my way pretty close to the front, and that was it, I just shoved through the spinning bodies while the song built and the guitars crashed & the world erupted into KoRn KaOs about me. "
Save some for me! It's what I like !" Man they were ON alright, and from then on the show was exactly what I had prepared for, they proceeded to lay into classic track after classic track, keeping the majority of the up front center crowd shovin and moshin up a frenzy.
After It's On they played CLOWN, an immediate oldskool crowdpleaser, and after that, they indeed launched into DIVINE - - the prototypical koRn torcher -- and at this point there was no safe place to hide, the crowd went berzerk.
After pausing to catch one moment's breath after the heartstopping ending to that song ("
You think you'd beat me at my own game, you see what you got, me ripping at your BRAIN!"), Jonathan eagerly kicked into LOVE SONG, one of my favorite tracks off the new KoRn, and I knew then we were in for a kickass setlist mirroring that 2-hour show they did in their hometown of BAkersfield, just a week or so earlier.
I swear, after that, the setlist blurs for me into one kickass hit after the other, I'd wager it follows pretty closely that BAkersfield setlist, cuz I know they ended it the same way, after Did My Time and Got The Life, they did play Tearjerker, and walked off stage to resounding cheers and applause from the crowd. Obviously no one was going to budge till they returned for the encore, and sure enough they delivered Twisted Transistor, Hypocrites, Freak on a Leash, and Blind as the final four songs.
Notes on the interim: After Here To STay early on in their set, we were all treated to what I consider the highlight of the show:
Munky's guitar solo~! As any true fukker worth his salt knows perfectly well, Munky don't do guitar solos, unless in a spastic fit of elastic fury, he might toss a short one off as a joke now & again, w/that infectious grin of his, but this time, he freakin' stepped up to the plate and delivered the most heartwrenching, superheavy ass guitar solo I've had the pleasure of witnessing in many a blue moon. That was the dope ass shit, right there. Just watching his facial expressions as he earnestly poured his heart & soul into it was worth the price of admission, not to mention the searing, emotional ballast that drove the solo itself. It went on for a good 5 minutes plus, and he was all over the fretboard of that guitar, my jaw was dropped open in astonishment.
Then after he was done, and the crowd's roars dimished, the rest of them stepped up & the familiar overtures of the song DIRTY began in earnest. @this point, the sense of personal gratification was immense. Many times throughout the show I had to step out and get another glass of water. I was gettin slammed around like a ragdoll up there.
On a somewhat humorous aside, there came a moment halfway through the show when suddenly, I noticed there was some
skinny white guy w/a goatee on bass ! I looked around the stage in a panic - Where's Fieldy -?! Didn't see his big baggy ass anywhere. I did notice there were some extra musicians lined up towards the rear of the stage - a keyboardist - and another guitarist -- donning the rabbit & horse head costumes from the album cover -- and then when I looked closely at the
drummer, I see this guy with long, shaggy brown hair, and I'm like, "WTF?!" to myself as I begin wondering .. . hold on a sec, is it JUST jonathan & munky left - ? (!!)
Then I got pissed. That couldn't be Fieldy-! I really got upset to the point I walked out to ask one of the security dudes wtf was goin on, only he shrugged not havin a damn clue. Eventually I made my way as close to the front as possible, and got me a real good close look at the bass player. That skinny ass white guy w/a goatee
was FIELDY! And a closer inspection of the drummer revealed our own David Silveria, only with his hair grown out & shaggy ! Boy was that a huge relief . . . I leapt back into the sea of churning moshers with real glee. Had me scared for a sec there . . .
I don't think I even
thought about Head for even a moment during the entire show! There was certainly no discernible difference in their sound that I could detect. The other highlight of the show was during their encore, after Twisted Transistor - - the intro to
hypocrites began -- by this time most of us were deadbeat tired -- (would that they had played it far earlier in the set; but then again, it may have resulted in more unnecessary bodily damage) -- but the coolest thing about it, was how
different the intro to the live version was. Jonathan began
howling in outrage . . . long, drawn out anguished screams . . . and then he'd point the mic out at the crowd, who would return their own howl in response. This went on for a few minutes - Jonathan delivering sincere, primal screams of raw, gutteral pain - and the crowd screaming back. Then, Jon grabs his mic stand and instead of
whispering it (as the song does on the album), he articulated with plain loathing on his face, "YOUR MESSIAH WAS NEVER MINE!" staring us all down as if we're personally responsible for all the world's pain . . . after the requisite measures in the music passed, he repeated it, his face livid with feeling it: "
YOUR MESSIAH WAS NEVER MINE!". Now he's clearly relishing this moment in the spotlight, and it's perfectly obvious he means every fucking word. "
YOUR MESSIAH WAS NEVER MINE!" he drawled out in his patent whine... Everyone is steeling themselves for the explosive beginning of the song, and one more time he leans in with a sneering, sardonic, and plain disgusted belting out one last time "
YOUR MESSIAH WAS NEVER MIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!" and the song erupted into sonic chaos, fuckin KoRn was
ON! and they proceeded to blow the roof off the Joint.
I was sooooo happy to hear this mandatory tune, by the time they finished Freak On A Leash (right after
hypocrites), speaking for myself I was beat, crushed jarred smashed & battered, blissfully torn & beat & tattered, with the happiest grin on my face, and finally Jonathan steps up for the final song, introducing it as "the song that started it all", and clearly everyone knew what was next.
Fuuuuck, he didn't even have to
ask if we were Ready, but he did anyway, and we responded by instantly going haywire as the familiar refrains of
blind kicked us all collectively in the stomach.
Yeah I'll tell you what: These cats ain't here to stay so much as they're
Here To Conquer, that much was perfectly clear by the resounding finale, when Jonathan promised us all they would be back.
