The Pledge of Allegiance Tour

Well, as soon as I heard who was going on this tour, I thought, "I have to go to this show." I mean, Slipknot, System, Rammstein, Mudvayne, American Head Charge, and No One? It can't get much better than that. Well, the day got closer and "word on the street" was a Mudvayne member was having substance abuse problems so they weren't expected to make the show. Well, that kindof sucked, I really liked Mudvayne, but hey, there's still the other bands. (That's what I thought) So we got to Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids Oct. 28 for the show after a little mix-up in the navigation, but we were there before they started letting people in, so we didn't miss anything.

No One was the first band, I'm not a big fan of them, but they have a few good songs and got the crowd started going some. I believe "Chemical" is there song that's getting radio play now.

Next out, American Head Charge, I saw these guys at Ozzfest and really enjoyed their show, even got to talk with their keyboardist. There pretty energetic and "jump around" the stage. Good music as well. But after they were done playing, they hadn't played some of my favs of their album, The War of Art. That kinda sucked. They started getting the stage ready for the next band, and I was getting pumped to see Rammstein, never saw them before and I heard their pyro and stage show was real good, not to mention the sweet songs they got. But when the band came out, lo and behold, it was System! WTF?! Apparently, there was no Rammstein, no explanation was given, no filler band, no nothing. That made me mad, they were one of the main reasons I wanted to go.

System was the savior of the show though. They had a big screen behind them that played clips while their songs were playing, they had some good stuff. Clips from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 60's style dancing in "fast-motion", and a newscaster preaching what REALLY is going on with people. They went hard and heavy playing there songs including Chop Suey, Sugar, Bounce, and many more.

Finally the Masked Men themselves came out, Slipknot. I'd seen them a few times before so no biggie there. Good crazy stage show as always, played stuff from Iowa as well as their first cd. There was a mixing solo and a drum solo, which was so sweet. He was elevated up in the air, and tilted forward so his drum set, as well as him, was 90 degrees to the floor, then it proceeded to spin 360 degrees. Hopefully you understood that. The one bad thing was, us "maggots" were told to "get down" and wait until I say "jump up" and then to jump up because "we're taping this for our next video." Well, I don't know how many videos there putting out, but I've done this three times now at different concerts. Hey guys, your great, like your music, but get something new, OK?

All in all, this concert at the start had the potential to be a 10 out of 10. Taking away two bands and other things that went on, I'd give it a 6 or 7, still pretty good, but man, it could have been great. I did get some sampler CDs after the show too so that upped the ranking, as well as seeing all the people jump over the fence to get on the floor. Those security guards we're getting pretty pissed.