Slipknot

On Thursday night, to make sure we had a well-rounded week, we saw a show that was a little less wholesome than The Fray or The Tyra Show: Slipknot with Trivium and Coheed and Cambria at Madison Square Garden. We got our tickets at the last minute, so our seats were in a weird location, perpendicular to the stage. It made watching the first two bands weird, but it was the perfect location to watch Slipknot. I had wanted general admission floor tickets, but after seeing the floor turn into one enormous, sweaty moshpit, I was more than happy to have seats. The first band to play was Trivium, and even though we couldn't really see them, they sounded great...The second band was Coheed and Cambria. They sounded really good, too, girly voice and all. They were pretty high energy, so all of my pictures turned out blurry, but it's not like you couldn't recognize that 'fro...Finally, Slipknot took the stage and played a toe-tappin', two-hour set. The band is absolutely amazing to watch live and actually reminds me of a hardcore version of Stomp. They used quite a few special effects (some of which even rivaled Trans-Siberian Orchestra), which made the show even better. Not to mention with nine members, there's always something to watch. I was skeptical of how the show would be, but I would go to another Slipknot concert, hands down...Their setup was sweet...We were closest to the Clown, who is Pat's favorite member because he bangs on kegs with baseball bats. He also proves that pigtails and band kids can be hardcore...I've always been partial to the one I like to call Mr. Spiky...The DJ reminds me of the winged monkeys in Wicked, he jumps and climbs on everything...Corey, the singer, taking a stroll...I like to call this one Mr. Pointy Nose...I like that even Slipknot members wear skinny jeans...This is after the concert...Photos couldn't do the special effects justice, so here are some video clips. This is the aforementioned keg hit. A keg never sounded so good...

Although I didn't get a video of it, the drum/kegset on the other side of the stage was on mechanical bull-like hydrolics that made it buck back and forth and spin while the guy was on it. The drum/kegset that was on our side of the stage could do this...

They used pyrotechnics during their bigger songs...

This is the one song of theirs that I know some words to...

During their last song the entire main drumset went sideways and started spinning as the drummer continued to play. It was awesome...

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the show. I was also surprised when the girl in front of me who was rocking out the whole time turned out to be a mom in her mid to late 40s.