Live Reviews : Slipknot (Melbourne) – 27/10/1008

Having only heard a few tracks off their MySpace, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Sydonia. Their guitar-sololessness doesn’t really suit my taste too well. With a pretty empty Rod Laver Arena greeting them it seemed several other people felt that way as well. However their high energy performance really blew my expectations. Featuring several Soulfly/ Sepultura-esque whole band drumming segments (at times featuring the whole crew) the live setting seemed to suit Sydonia much more then the barren MySpace gazing of a tired exam-preparing student (me). With riffs at times not too dissimilar to the mighty Meshuggah and the clear passion displayed by all members Sydonia put on a strong showing and hopefully made a few members of the crowd check out some of the music from the local scene.

Suddenly chants of Machine Fucking Head (sadly my Corporal Jigsore Quandary chant didn’t take off) filled the air and it was then that the pit began to slowly resemble a sardine tin.

Since the release of 2007’s phenomenal album ‘The Blackening’ (unquestionably their best album since their classic debut ‘Burn My Eyes’), Machine Head have reached an astounding level of popularity amongst old and new-schooler alike. This huge level of popularity has lead to them supporting gods such Metallica, Judas Priest and ultimately playing their second Melbourne gig in under a year (361 days to be exact).

While last time they were headlining the Australian leg of ‘The Black Crusade’, this year they were supporting one of the biggest international bands around in Slipknot. As such it was with sadness and a bowing of my heavy metal head that I knew that tonight’s show, unlike last years, would not feature Halloween dress up and impromptu Tenacious D covers. Still the juggernaut that is the Machine Head live show rarely disappoints and tonight was no exception.

As has become common place, Machine Head kicked off their set with their 10 minute plus opus ‘Clenching the Fists of Dissent’. While the crowd seemed initially slow to get into the show, Rob Flynn’s commanding call to “Get a fucking circle pit going” seemed to immediately change that. Soon a rather large old-school circle pit erupted onto the Rod Laver Arena floor resulting in mass carnage. Sadly the wet floor made this particular circle pit even more dangerous than usual and resultantly I have a bruise on my knee the size of a full Testament ‘best-of’ album collection (okay nothing is that big, not even Wacken).

With the completion of this song, the crowd began once more chanting of “Machine Fucking Head” and almost immediately Machine Head raced into the heavy-as-fuck ‘Imperium’. The crowd ate up every second of it and that was the tune for the rest of the sadly pretty short set.

Unquestionably the loudest reaction the “bay area kings” received (at least from me) was when Rob Flynn ordered the crowd to prepare for an “old-school thrash attack” marking the beginning of “Aesthetics of Hate”. Highlighted by flawless solos by both Rob and Phil Demmel this song was this years, along with last years, song of the night. With it came unquestionably the biggest pit of the set, which even Barry Hall would have felt out of place in.

Despite the overall awesomeness of the performance, when the final note of the Burn My Eyes classic, Davidian was played, one couldn’t help but feel unfulfilled. This was due to the shortness of the set as this was of course a support slot. Despite this, with the chants of Machine Fucking Head circling the arena, it was obvious that the majority of the crowd was very fucking satisfied. Hopefully a promoter realises the huge popularity this band have and bring them down here for a full headlining show as one hour really isn’t enough time to appreciate such a good band.

As the lights came back on and the crowd began piling up the stairs to get more beer, one couldn’t help but think we had just witnessed the gig of a headliner rather than a support band and with the now one year old Blackening tour apparently continuing until the end of 2009, hopefully that is indeed what we will see next year.

MACHINE FUCKING HEAD!

Setlist:
Clenching the Fists of Dissent
Imperium
Beautiful Mourning
Aesthetics of Hate
Old
Halo
Davidian

Massive cheers to Elliot Coombe for that review.

Due to my terrible memory and a last minute commitment, I unfortunately had to miss both of those two bands. Although I did see Machine Head with Slayer last year and didn’t think a whole lot of them. Anyway, onto the headliner, Slipknot.

First off, let me say, you can leave all of your “Slipknot aren’t metal, they’re commercial pop music” bullshit at the door because when it comes to the live scene, it doesn’t get much better than these guys.

Contrary to the standard technique for most bands, with everyone running onto stage and jumping straight into the first song, Slipknot chose to build it up a bit more. Joey appeared up at his drumkit with the other members slowly making their way onto the stage after him, one by one as the intro track played in the background. This could not have worked better because by the time the band exploded into “Surfacing”, the crowd was already going nuts. And what a crowd it was. I have never seen such a devoted audience. There are always a few groups at gigs who don’t join in, but everyone was on their feet and at Corey’s command. If he wanted the audience to clap along, you could count the people that didn’t on one hand. It really was amazing to watch.

The stage set up wasn’t exactly and eyesore either. A series of large metal Slipknot S’s ran across the back of the stage with bursts of flames constantly dancing behind them. The two drumkits at the front corners were both on hydraulic lifts, one raising 10ft or more into the air, and the other rocking around like crazy in all directions. Shaun, Chris and Sid went crazy, climbing all over the kits and hanging off them like a barrel of monkeys– thoroughly entertaining stuff. The number and combination of different lights spread all of over the stage was incredible and the massive banners hanging in the background just topped it off.
Of course, the stage doesn’t make a show. It was the combination of effects and the sheer energy on the stage that really made it special. Some people may bitch that a band doesn’t need nine members, but it sure makes it more exciting to watch on stage. There were, obviously, times when the energy died down a bit on stage but nobody complained because when it picked back up, it blew you away again.

The setlist was a bit of a mixed bag. The band blasted through “Surfacing” and “The Blister Exists” with the crowd off their nut throughout both. The sound wasn’t the clearest, but it certainly had a lot of power which benefited the heavier songs like these a lot. “Get This” was boring, I’m simply not a fan of the song and found it to be powerless live, and quite a few people around me tended to agree. “Before I Forget”, the band’s ‘hit single’ of sorts, sent the crowd crazy and was probably the biggest song of the night as far as the response goes. A few more killer songs went by before a couple of newies popped up. “Dead Memories” is, to put it bluntly, terrible on the album, the clean vocals in it are simply irritating, but they pulled it off live. It had that little extra punch which made it close to the Slipknot of old, and the clean vocals were flatter and more of a yell, which is an improvement. “Psychosocial” is another song I’m not overly fond of and while the clean vocals in this song sounded awkward live, the powerful chorus and marching feel really got the blood pumping. Surprisingly, that was all off the new album. I was hoping for “Gehenna” or the title track, but no luck. “Prosthetics” was quite easily the highlight of the night for me. Smoke filled the stage with a mixture of blue and green lights sneaking through it, with the band and crowd more still than usual. There was an eerie feel throughout the place, and the heavier part of the song sounded absolutely chaotic (even more so than recorded)! “Only One” was an interesting choice to finish off the main set and I admire them for not sticking to the usual live set formulas, but the crowd had a bit of trouble moshing along to it and it didn’t go off as well as a final song should. “(515)” saw the band wander back on stage and finish off with a very energetic encore of “People=Shit” and “(sic)”, including Joey’s famous rotating drum kit which was great to watch.

The majority of Slipknot fans would have gone to show, and most others will still write them off as popular shit, so I’m probably just preaching to the converted here. But when they tour again, go see them. Whether you are a fan of the music or not, Slipknot know how to put on a show, and considering most international bands tend to skimp in the stage-set department on their Aussie tours, this is one you shouldn’t miss out in witnessing.

Plain and simple – Slipknot put on a better live show than Iron Maiden. There you have it.

Setlist:
Intro
Surfacing
The Blister Exists
Get This
Before I Forget
Liberate
Disasterpiece
Dead Memories
Psychosocial
The Heretic Anthem
Prosthetics
Spit It Out
Duality
Only One
——————
(515)
People=Shit
(sic)

Slipknot reviewed by Mean Machine

Photos by Scott Boelson. More are available HERE.