LIGHTNING, MUD AND BLOOD
WITH A WILD PAST, SLIPKNOT PREPARES TO MAKE A NEW MEMORY IN PITTSBURGH
It’s possible that some artists would have attempted an acoustic set using a backup generator.
That was a no- go for Slipknot.
It was July 2016, the last time the Iowa metal band was in Pittsburgh, that a power outage knocked out the show before they could go at KeyBank Pavilion. On Friday, Slipknot makes a long- awaited return supporting a new album, “We Are Not Your Kind,” on a hard- hitting Knotfest Roadshow bill with Volbeat, Gojira and Behemoth.
Here are five things to know:
• Year 20: Slipknot began in 1995 when three members of the Des Moines metal scene — Paul Gray, Shawn “Clown” Crahan and Joey Jordison — conceived the band during Jordison’s late- night shifts at a gas station. They took their name from one of their song titles and released the indie demo “Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.” on Halloween 1996 with singer Anders Colsefini, who was replaced by Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor the following year.
Slipknot flew under the radar until the fourth year of Ozzfest, headlined by Black Sabbath in the summer of 1999. It was a killer lineup with Rob Zombie, Slayer, Primus and the Deftones, but a lot of the buzz was about the psychos on the second stage out in the parking lot.
Touring without roadies, the band set up their own equipment, then returned as Slipknot in numbered black boiler suits and fright masks. With machine- gun guitars, kettle drums, heavy electronics and nine ghouls jumping around, the crowd didn’t know what hit them. They played a sold- out Star Lake ( 25,248) on June 12, 17 days before their self- titled debut album came out.
They returned to headline Metropol and the Station Square Amphitheater in 2000 and Jordison told the PG: “When you think about it, just getting signed to a record deal and then having a tour like Ozzfest be your first tour, that was, like, a milestone. I’ll remember that when I’m 80. I won’t remember my [ expletive] wife’s name. I won’t remember any of my [ expletive] kids. I’ll be drooling all over myself. But I’ll remember that first tour.”
• Mud and blood: For years, mudthrowing was a popular pastime for the lawn people at Star Lake. It hit a new level during the Slipknot set at Ozzfest on July 28, 2001, the day management had the bright idea to serve beer in plastic fish bowls. Packed with mud and sod, they became perfect projectiles to lob at the people in the pavilion, who promptly tossed them back. It was no doubt a great day for beer sales.
There was also bloodshed during the mud melee. A Hanover Township police lieutenant told the PG, “You get 25,000 to 30,000 kids there, 90% percent of them are going to be drunk and there are going to be problems.” There’s beer at every show. It seemed more like 90% were drunk on Slipknot.
• Slipknot owes us one: Slipknot’s Prepare For Hell Tour was a different kind of hell at the pavilion on July 30, 2016. Fans got Of Mice & Men and a few songs from Marilyn Manson before a thunderstorm rolled through and knocked out power around 7: 45 p. m. After a 90- minute delay, the rest of the concert was canceled, making it the first time in the venue’s history that a headliner wasn’t able to go on. Of all bands, it had to be Slipknot. It didn’t go down well with some Slipknot fans, perhaps some of the same ones who were throwing those fishbowls. They began throwing other stuff, like fences they ripped out of the ground. Slipknot singer Corey Taylor tweeted, “To everyone at the PA show tonight: I’m SO SORRY we couldn’t get the power back on. I promise we’re going to do our best to reschedule.” Slipknot and the pavilion had two open dates before the next show in Charlotte, N. C., but the show was never rescheduled and Taylor got an earful about it on Twitter.
• No. 1 in the world: The new Slipknot album, “We Are Not Your Kind,” topped the charts this week in the United States along with Australia, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Belgium, Finland and the UK, where it dethroned Ed Sheeran after a four- week run. Taylor promised “Iowa’ levels of heavy,” and Slipknot delivered with a 63minute opus that could very well be their pinnacle. It has tons of menacing atmosphere, all the old Slipknot explosiveness with a new musical maturity and an astonishingly dynamic performance by Taylor, who was battling through a divorce and depression. He has said that the album’s intensity was further fueled by Donald Trump’s “bigotry” and “racism.” Check his Twitter feed more on that — daily.
• The nine: Slipknot still has six of the nine members who played Ozzfest in 1999: Taylor, Crahan, keyboardist Craig “133” Jones, guitarists Jim Root and Mick Thomson, and turntablist/ keyboardist Sid Wilson. With Slipknot having last played here in 2015, with Lamb of God, this marks the band’s first show here without percussionist Chris Fehn, who filed a lawsuit against the band claiming withheld royalties and was promptly dismissed in March. In his place is the mysterious new ninth member dubbed “Tortilla Man” for the flatbread look of his mask.
The core rhythm section, dating back to 2014, consists of bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg, whose famous dad, Max, is in the E Street Band. In 2009, when he was just 18, Jay filled in for him on a Springsteen tour. Asked about his son going to the dark side with Slipknot, Max told the PG in 2017: “For me, rock is more about an attitude than any particular chord progression, and when I go see Slipknot, I see the intensity of the fans, I see the precision the band plays with, the seriousness with which they take their job, and I like the power.”