Tickets: $32.00ea. The show was not sold out.
Venue: Wendler Arena in Saginaw, Michigan
Start time: 7:00pm
Bands:
Some local band--missed em.
TRUST Company-- I liked them. They sounded excellent. Of course, the 4 fucking cock-jockies sitting behind me yelling "KORN!!!!" the entire set was not helping my enjoyment any. They played for about an hour, which is a long time for a warm-up band. Many of their songs had a great drive behind them. I wouldn't go out of my way to see them, but if they were local and cheap, I might consider it. Come to find out, my GF had the CD at home. It was 9.99 at Best Buy. Kinda college rock stuff, but enjoyable non-the-less.
Korn-- Let me preface that I had seen Korn once before when they sold-out Van Andel Arena, which was about 5x bigger than Wendle and I loved their show. This time, their stage was OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS smaller and they had little to no "bells and whistles" on their stage.
In Saginaw, MI on 11/29/02, Korn owned all.
The stage and arena were in jet-black darkness when suddenly, in unision, the curtian dropped and flowing/lighted backdrop with the Korn logo and an insanely loud redition of "Here To Stay" kicked in. I'm telling you, hearing this song live was worth the price of admission. You talk about a crowd pleaser...goddamn. I was surprised since I thought for sure this would be the closer/encore. I certianly wasn't expecting it as the opener. Anyway, I appreciated that they took about 3-5 seconds of silence inbetween each song. It let you adjust and prepare for the next hit. Last time I saw them, they kinda blended one song into the next. This format was much more enjoyable IMO. Anyway, they played all the greats: Freak on a Leash, Falling Away From Me, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Blind, A.D.I.D.A.S., Got The Life, It's On!, and about 4 songs off their new CD. Total show was about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I thought it was the perfect amount of time, yet my GF thought it was too short. /shrug
A couple of great surprises worked into various performances. During a long insturmantel, John Davis broke into "One" by Metallica. "Darkness. Improsioning me. All that I se, Absolute Horror...ect." It was pretty awsome, and the entire crowd didn't miss a single beat, singing along to good old Metallica
They also did another Metallica cover later on, from Master of Puppets.They had one brief intermission of about 5 minutes. This allowed the lead singer, John Davis, to change into his kilt and grab the bagpipes. This was really a highlight of the show IMO.
The best description I can give of Korn's playstyle is tight. It really shows that these guys have been playing for years and years together. There were frequent stops/restarts and solos. They never missed a beat.
Overall: 10/10. While Korn is far from my favorite band, they have consistanly had the best live performances I have ever attended. You know how you go see a band in concert and you hope they play that particular rocking song? Virtually every song Korn performs is worthy of being the encore song. Their show is non-stop adreneline.
----Interesting side note
Cops were all over smokers. If you lit up, security wadded through the crowd and made you put it out. If you lit up a joint, you were arrested. I'm torn on the whole thing. On one hand, those are a big part of going to a concert for many. On the other hand, it was the first concert I have ever been to without any smoke and it was fucking great. I don't smoke, so it didn't affect me personally. It was interesting to see cops dragging people out of the stands tough
This is the best concert venue I have ever been too.
I was unimpressed.