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......Korn's video
screens suspended over the stage at the San Francisco Cow Palace Arena, a
recurring image out of a child's primal nightmare welcomed fans into Korn's
netherworld. While the guitarists in the Bakersfield, Calif., quintet hunched
over their instruments like black-clad penitents, as the videos showed a youth
fleeing an unseen predator. Wandering through a house out of "The
Shining," the boy confronts demons and ghosts, and his worst fears come to
life in the claustrophobic shadows. Korn's set began with Blair Witch-like footage of
people running from something in the woods being projected on the huge Korn TV
set at the back of the stage.
......With the rest of the band lurching over its
open-tuned guitars as if the weight of the music was pressing down, Davis'
tortured psyche was unleashed through a sexy, biomechanical mic stand designed
by H.R. Giger. Unlike the two opening acts, Korn's set was dominated by
crowd-pleasing hits from past albums such as "Blind,"
"A.D.I.D.A.S.," "Freak on a Leash," and "Dead Bodies
Everywhere," with newer tracks like "Here to Stay" and
"Hating" thrown in as well. While it sounded at times as if the band
was on the verge of falling apart, Korn was able to make it through each song,
even pulling off a cover of Metallica's "One" - a song that clearly
influenced all the members of Korn.
..... One of the
better moments of the show was when the aggression and head-banging pace gave
way to the creeping industrial sounds of "Alone I Break," with Davis
allowing his emotional vulnerability to shine. Korn was able to please the
several thousand fans in attendance, even breaking out the bagpipes in its
encore for the nursery rhyme medley of "Shoots and Ladders." In true
arena rock fashion, the show ended with a bang as shimmering confetti was
blasted into the air, raining down on the stage and the lucky fans on the floor
level.
.....While Korn's
sound has influenced a number of today's popular bands and has evolved over
time to remain appealing, it was clear on this night that metal will always be
better than pop music - no matter how popular that metal might be. Though Davis
has an undeniable anti-charisma, both as a stage presence and singer, his
subject matter made for a one-note concert. He sang in a multitude of voices
about not fitting in, over and over again. Especially on the latest album,
"Untouchables," obsession with squealing guitar solos and instead
used their effects pedals to conjure the sounds of rusty swing sets and
children's music boxes, cinematic colorations that served as sonic reminders of
Davis' forlorn past.
......But much of
the inventiveness and nuance in Korn's sound was sacrificed in concert to the
bludgeoning of arena rock: This was less about melody and psycho-drama than it
was relentless thump and grind. Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu's bass kept
the hip-hop element in the band's sound at the forefront, often at the expense
of everything else. In the cavernous arena, Arvizu's bass sounded like Satan's
mallet, smashing down on Davis' vocals until the melodies he brings to Korn's
latest album. became little more than mulch. Korn is the biggest rock band in
North America at the moment, with "Untouchables" jousting with
Eminem's "The Eminem Show" for chart supremacy, and complacency has
started to set in. A remorseless professionalism has replaced the
dreadlock-flinging intensity of the quintet's mid-'90s concerts, when Korn was
infiltrating the suburbs by word of mouth. Back then, the band hadn't quite
refined its sound, but it had no problem filling the mosh pit with pit-bull
hysteria. Now, with nothing to prove, Korn basked in its stardom, with Davis
turning his self-flagellation into a misfit celebration of sorts on the
anthemic "A.D.I.D.A.S.," "Freak on a Leash,"
"Faget," "Got the Life" and the latest single, "Here
to Stay." At least Davis has a musical persona that is grounded in some
sort of original vision, however twisted. . And that's become a really, really
good thing as the group have honed their chops and taken their low-riding
seven-string guitar-driven sound into all sorts of interesting new directions,
none of them wanting in the least in the wallop department. Jonathan Davis has
grown, too, managing to get both his low range bellow and his high pitched
warble to work well for him, sometimes in the same song--or even the same line
of the same Song. N short, Korn sound like Korn--and nobody else
........This is the Official Rock Publication Web Site
All photos and written material courtesy of Rock Publication
.Copyright © 2003
E-mail at
Rockpub@aol.com
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Korn
Setlist:
01. Here to Stay
02. Twist
03. ADIDAS
04. Blind
05. Embrace
06. Faget
07. Falling Away From Me 08. Blame
09. Medley: Make Me Bad/ One/ Intro to Justin
/ Freak On A Leash
10. Somebody Someone
11. Thoughtless
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