VeeshanVault

When: 11/29/02

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.

Anal advisor...concert reviewer....is there anything you can't do Fairweather?

Nice review.

I am obligated to say "Korn Sucks" whenever I see someone praising them, other then that decent review.

I would like to have seen them in 98/99 or so.

I saw the pop sux tour a few weeks ago. Was Trust Company, Disturbed, and Korn. The absolute best concert ever. We had floor tickets. Korn rocked the house all night long, and the security guards were lighting up with the fans. Everything was cool. I want to seele>Um again sometime soon.

I have seen Korn perform a few times now, and can agree with Fair's review wholeheartedly. Korn seems to play to the crowd, and their best shows are, IMO, the smaller venue ones, where they have a bit more freedom.

I have not been to a Korn show were they played longer than about 90 minutes, but other bands I have seen have played much longer. For instance, saw Pearl Jam about 5 years ago now, and they played for 2 hours and 45 minutes...includes a 20 minute break, that was just a super long drum solo (this being made popular by a lot of '70s bands, like Rush).

Great review!

For instance, saw Pearl Jam about 5 years ago now, and they played for 2 hours and 45 minutes...includes a 20 minute break, that was just a super long drum solo

I saw Pearl Jam about 3 years ago and they played right around 3 hours. I like pearl Jam and all, but enough is enough already, lol. They would play some bigtime hit song and the whole time I'm thinking "Ok. This is their last song since it's such a big hit.". Only, it wasn't their last song. And the next song would be another hit, prompting the same thought process again. I think that pretty much sums up the last hour of the concert for me. Btw, you'll never realize how many hit songs PJ has until you see them in concert. OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS, I tell ya.

For what it's worth, Pearl Jam live I give 5/10. Not very good IMO. I wanted to go home and take a nap afterwards. Eddie Vedder even got the venue wrong when he was talking to the crowd I was unimpressed.

Eddie Veder was drunk by the time he came on stage at the show I was at. He kept hitting at the bottle too all night. After about 2 hours...his singing became the stuff that everyone knows...that non-word dribble/moaning/groaning into the microphone.

But hey, back when I saw PJ, I was such a big fan, and pretty F'ed up myself, it was the greatest thing ever!

I'm by no means a Korn fan now...but in my younger--more angry--days I did attend one of their concerts. I think it was '98, but may have been '99. But I do remember them putting on one hell of a show, it was like getting hit with a Warren Sapp blitz, and even though it was 90 minutes long it felt really short. Good review Fairweather.