Slipknot works MVP Arena into a frenzy
When Slipknot came onto the music scene in 1999 with horror-show masks and matching prison-style jumpsuits combined with aggressive music, the nine-piece metal band was considered violent and dangerous. I even remember a student in my ninthgrade class being sent home for wearing a Slipknot jumpsuit to school due to the faculty’s false assumption he was wearing some sort of neo-nazi garb.
Now it’s easy to see the pride of Iowa for what it really is: a sonically abrasive continuance of larger-than-life, hard-rockand-metal acts like Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica and, with its use of DJS and bass-heavy rhythms, nu-metal acts like Korn.
On Tuesday, Slipknot brought its Knotfest Roadshow tour to the MVP Arena. The nonet gave the 7,000 strong a highly entertaining show, despite shortening its typical set by three songs due to lead singer Corey Taylor suffering from some sort of malady impacting his vocal abilities.
Slipknot opened with a one-two punch of fan favorites “Disasterpiece” and “Wait and Bleed.” But it was the third song, a cacophonous “All Out Life,” that really worked the audience into a frenzy. As one of the two percussionists whaled on a steel barrel with a baseball bat and the other stood atop a kettle drum and headbanged, a DJ decked out like Vincent Price in “The Pit and the Pendulum” ran across the stage and successfully cajoled fans to jump up and sing along with Taylor’s exclamatory refrain of “We are not your kind.”
After this, Taylor addressed the audience, thanking them and then warning that he was feeling unwell. On the succeeding song “Before I Forget,” he handled the verses and used the chorus as an opportunity for crowd participation.
Taylor sounded fine for most of the night, particularly on an inspired rendition of the band’s relatively recent single “Unsainted” and a frenetic “Psychosocial.” But after a version of “Heretic Anthem” that saw the audience handle the arena-ready chorus of “If you’re 555, I’m 666,” it was clear he was fading.
He was taking breaks to sip water between verses all night, but by “Devil in I” he was actively massaging his throat. He apologized to fans for struggling and ended the main set with solid versions of “Duality” and “Spit it Out.” Slipknot closed with an OK “People = (expletive)” and “Surfacing” to send the audience home happy.
Slipknot brought quality openers to town. Ho99o9 (pronounced “Horror”) offered up a lethal, intense mix of hip-hop, punk and noise rock that went over well and would be even better to experience at a smaller venue like Empire Live.
Cypress Hill played next and delivered a headliner-quality performance in its own right. The group fired up the audience with excellent versions of “How I Could Just Kill a Man,” “I Ain’t Going Out Like That” and “Insane in the Brain.” B Real was the only MC present (Sen Dog was out due to an emergency surgical procedure) and his flow remains unique and impeccable. The West Coast hip-hop icons’ hourlong set highlighted their continued vitality and legacy as genre pioneers. Seeing them do their thing was an absolute blast.