The two-month Pop Sux! Tour will kick off October 8 in Manchester, New Hampshire, with confirmed dates running through November 2 in San Antonio, Texas, according to the band's management. Only cities and dates were available at press time. Venues and additional dates through December 1 will be announced later.
The tour's name, which follows in the tradition of "pop"-named treks such as U2's PopMart (1997), 'NSYNC's Pop Odyssey (2001) and, most recently, Blink-182 and Green Day's Pop Disaster Tour, takes its name from a prank the Korn guys played at a pop music festival in Munich, Germany, earlier this month. Throughout the show, a plane hired by the band flew overhead towing a banner that read, "Pop Sux! I love Korn."
Disturbed, supporting their forthcoming second album, Believe, and Trust Company, on the heels of their debut, The Lonely Position of Neutral, have been tapped as opening acts. Swedish fans will get a glimpse of what the U.S. can expect on Monday (August 26), when the two bands share a bill in Stockholm.
For their second go-round in support of their fifth album, Untouchables, Korn will come cheap for some. A limited number of tickets for fans 19 and under will be discounted $10 as a way for Korn to give their younger followers a break.
"We just think that right now, because the economy is so screwed, kids are getting it the worst," singer Jonathan Davis said. "And we know that there aren't that many parents buying Korn tickets for kids right now, so we wanted to do something for our younger fans."
Fans who caught the Tour With No Name (see "Korn Tour Opener: Daddy Comes Home To Dysfunctional Family") won't be getting a warmed-over version for Pop Sux!, Davis assured. The stage will be scaled down some, with the ramp that ran behind the bandmembers missing. Video screens, projecting original footage courtesy of video director and longtime Korn collaborator Nathan Cox, will be set up behind the group and a new lighting arrangement will be employed. Davis also promised that more new songs will appear in the set list.
"It's not that elaborate as the other one," he said. "We're making it more about the band than the huge light shows and all that other stuff. Overall, we like it a lot better."
Whatever the scale of bells and whistles around him, the best part of any show, Davis said, occurs before any of it can really take effect.
"My favorite part of the show is when we first walk out and the fans see us for the first time ... it's just that rush of getting back onstage and being with our fans, it never goes away."
Korn�s �Pop Sux!� Tour, which includes Disturbed and TRUSTCompany, has the following confirmed dates lined up:
10/08/02 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
10/09/02 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
10/11/02 Fairfax, VA Patriot Center
10/12/02 Mansfield, MA Tweeter Center
10/13/02 Portland, ME Cumberland Civic Ctr.
10/15/02 Philadelphia, PA First Union Spectrum
10/16/02 State College, PA Bryce Jordan Center
10/18/02 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amp.
10/19/02 Marion, SC Carolina Amphitheatre
10/21/02 WinstonSalem, NC LJVM Arena
10/22/02 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
10/24/02 Tampa, FL Ice Palace
10/25/02 Miami, FL Bayfront Park
10/27/02 New Orleans, LA UNO Lakefront Arena
10/29/02 Little Rock, AR Barton Coliseum
10/31/02 Dallas, TX Smirnoff Music Centre
11/01/02 Austin, TX Auditorium
11/02/02 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amph.
11/06/02 El Paso, TX Don Haskins Center
11/07/02 Tucson, AZ Tucson Conv. Center
11/09/02 Long Beach, CA Long Beach Arena
11/12/02 Bakersfield, CA Centennial Garden
11/13/02 Las Vegas, NV Hard Rock Hotel The Joint
11/18/02 Portland, OR Memorial Coliseum
11/19/02 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
11/21/02 West Valley, UT E Center
11/22/02 Colorado Springs, CO World Arena