Slipknot at Freeman Coliseum - more photos... photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer |
by Harrison Davis - club kingsnake staff
I wasn’t expecting much going into the Slipknot show at Freeman Coliseum. I wasn’t impressed the first time that I had seen Trivium, and was not what would be called a fan of either of the other bands playing, so all had something to prove.
The first band on was Orlando’s Trivium. The problem that I have with Trivium is that they are constantly trying to fit into one particular mold, whether it’s the generic metalcore found on 2005’s Ascendency or the Metallica sound-alike band they became on 2006’s The Crusade. That’s not to say however, that they don’t have a few good songs in there. The band tried to get the crowd into their show, but it really didn’t work. The crowd was there for Slipknot. Their general apathy towards the openers could be seen in the emptiness of the arena compared the massive lines at the merch booths. Trivium tried, and I think there show has improved considerably, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Next was the Nyack, New York prog band Coheed & Cambria. I was only vaguely familiar with the band, but had not heard very many good things. The band opened with their most well known song, “Welcome Home” and continued to flow from one song into the next after that. The music was clearly extremely difficult to play, as most prog is, but the band let that get in the way of their performance. While the band did sound good, they pretty much just stood and played for the entirety of the set. I think that it would have been a better show had it been in a more intimate venue.
When the lights finally went down for Slipknot to take the stage, the crowd went crazy despite the fact that the stage was hidden behind a red curtain. As the curtain slowly rose to the instrumental loop track 742617000027 from the debut album, the band was already in their places and ready to go. For the first half of the show, the band completely had me with their stage show. Much of the actual show quality of it was created by the two percussionists, who don’t seem to actually play very much percussion and exist more as hype guys. Both Chris Fehn and Shawn Crahan spent time walking around in the pit, causing much havoc wherever they went. Even more impressive was that Crahan’s setup was built on an elevator. He would rise about 20 feet above the crowd and then spiral down. While that was awesome the first time, it lost its appeal pretty quickly as did all the other gimmicks they threw out in the first few songs and repeated for the rest of the show. The show went better than I had expected and I found somewhat of a new appreciation for Slipknot, but I doubt that I would go see them again.
Slipknot at Freeman Coliseum - more photos... photo by jeff barringer - staff photographer
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