Im all for supporting support bands, but Puddle Of Mudd, Korns support band, are beyond bad.
they're abosloute cack.
Picking a scab is more impressive and enjoyable then watching these washed up,
tedious nu-grungers.
" I just wanna say how cool it is that Manchester is cool with puddle of mudd!"
starts blonde pretty boy frontman Wes Scantlin. " Theres way too many haters out there"
he adds, cocky as ever.
Whether hes trying to make the strong crowd warm to his band with this statement
is unknown, but he is greeted with unpleasent cries of "get off the stage you muppet!" by
the first three rows of the moshpit.
Oh dear.
The "golden haired heart throb" growls, says something under his breath and spits into the
middle section of the pit in disgust, narrowly missing a crowd steward and hitting a rather
nasty looking man with long brown hair about four people to the right of me.
Big mistake, Mr. Scantlin.
About five seconds after his body juice sharing actions, about five glass bottles
come flying at his pretty little face, one smacking him soundly on the cheek.
Time to go back to america boys.
heres a tip, stay there.
Lets face it. Korn havent been to the UK in two years. Over two years. If you have a pop grunge act supporting
one of the biggest and haviest bands in the world, this is going to happen.
Mudd lurch into thier latest chart smash, She hates me, with the grace of a newborn antelope with broken legs
running from ten dozen hungry Lions. Mudd actually have to stop playing after the first two verses because of
battle cries circulating and echoing in the sold out EN arena of "we fucking hate you! blah blah blah blah!"
When Mudd stare at the audience wondering what the hell happened to thier credibility, and wondering who the
hell put them up to this, a steady flow of insults coming from the korn fans turns into confused chants of
"we want korn !"
Sorry Mudd.
When Korn finally do come on though, its safe to say all fucking hell breaks loose.
A concave cinema screen behind David's beast of a drum kit sows a small child being chased through a house
by an invisible force, The force seems to ctach him and rip him to shreads, and blood fills the screen.
Then, the crowd sees five men standing behind a translucent curtain where the images are being broadcast.
The screen goes into a static haze, and the EN goes apeshit.
The moshpit is already thrashing in antispation, the white curtian drops and korn launch themselves
into the bone crunchingly heavy riff for here to stay, the first single off Korn's new album, Untouchables.
Korn are back, and My God, they know how to make an enterance.
Frontman Jonathan Davis looks fucking amazing for his 31 years, clad in a denim/silverish effect skirt
down to his ankles, whipping his torso thorugh the unsettling self mutilation driven lyrics of here to stay.
Muscle bound drummer David Silvera looks every inch the part time CK model he is, as he pounds his drumkit
into oblivion with an endless array of assaults from his signature Vater sticks, with a new found agression
that is truly scary.
Guitarist Munky Shaffer launches his signature Ibanez K7 guitar into the air, and catches it in true rock
god fashion, and continues the pulsating distortion in a white jumpsuit looking every inch as terrifying
as David Silvera.
forget the shaven, neat, tidy puma sportswear clad Korn from 1998, korn have truly changed, and fuck,
they look good.
Upright bassist Fieldy looks amazing sinister as he points his signature Ibanez K5 bass towards the fans in the
moshpit and pretends to fire it, just like a shotgun, at thier heads.
The fans adknowlege Fieldy's air of pure cool, and amazingly, the first 5 rows of the moshpit raise
thier arms up and down worshipping Fieldy while he looks genuinely astonished, perched on the edge
of the stage on Heads side, half laughing, while he is worshipped as a God.
what the hell.
Korn are gods.
The star of tonight however, is korn guitarist and background singer, Brian (Head) Welch.
He is amazingly inspiring as he thrashes around the stage, kneeled over, bending down to his
toes one second, his long plaits flying, and then stopping suddenly, as still as a statue,
staring right at the first row of the moshpit menacingly with his piercing, intense, ice blue eyes.
he then starts over again, not missing one chord, getting everything on his guitar absolutely perfect,
but stamping around and kicking and even screaming with an intensity even Jonathan Davis cannot match,
occasionally flashing the metal sign to the fans, and stomping around, even in a circle, with his
long plaits touching his toes. suddenly, he stands up, and then sinks down very slowly,
still playing the guitar, on the end of the stage almost, glaring at everyone with those amazing eyes.
you can actually see tears in them, Head is feeling the music that much that night.
head knows it, too.
He highfives some lucky girls on stage, and it looks like hes having the time of his life.
Korn whip out a full arsenal of fan favourites including Twist, trash, ADIDAS, Blind, and Falling Away From Me,
to name a few.
The ultimate tear jerker of the gig is the burning, manic suicide anthem No Ones There. when Jonathan
almost bursts into tears of rage at the line " where are you? my soul is bleeding, I am seaching, am i Blind?!"
pointing directly at a girl in the front row of the crowd, who is in tears, witnessing all of Jonathans
rage and fury, that you cant even begin to know, by simply listening to a korn album.
he then continues to the line " all alone, and bound forever, trapped inside me for all time..."
and only then the crowd witnesses Jonathans overwhelming sadness,
and it causes more than a few people to have tears in thier eyes for the rest of the gig.
Korn end the wet with thier new single thoughtless, and return for encores with the blistering,
twisted Shoots and Ladders, and then leave thier fans on a slightly happier note with the glitter
infested music industry bashing tune, got The Life.
"Thanks for coming out to see us! See you all next year!"
Screams Jonathan as David is tossing out a small fortunes
worth of drumsticks, and Munky and Head are tossing out plectrums, causing mass scrambles in the pit.
Fieldy even tosses out any liquid he can find on stage, including beer and water, to attempt to
refresh the pit, which is on the verge of collapsing after the Korn onslaught.
"You're a great crowd. we love you guys so much. See you all next year" is Jonathans last words.
You fucking bet Jonathan.
You bet we will.
[signed stuff]
i got to meet Jonathan and Head in the venue thanks to a really nice roadie guy.
heres a picture of the doll I got signed.
Korn Live