Live Reviews : Slipknot, Lamb Of God & In Hearts Wake @ Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne 31/10/2016

Words: Mitch Alexander

Photos: Matt Allan

(Click here to view the full gallery)

Thanks to the decision by Rod Laver Arena (which, keep in mind, is an arena-sized venue) to put two staff on the coat check desk, I spent forty five minutes and all of In Hearts Wake standing in line, in a field, being rained on. And if the live footage I saw afterwards was any indication, I had a better time than I would have had, had I actually seen them play. Zing! I don’t mean that, I’m sure they did fine. But Rod Laver Arena, maybe next time open up the other 6 remaining booths so fans don’t get despondent and your staff don’t teeter on the edge of a nervous breakdown all night.

In Hearts Wake

It’s a testament to the grandiose stature of Slipknot that they can get Lamb Of God to not only support them, but to make Lamb Of God feel like a support band. They were as good as Lamb Of God, an international headlining heavy metal band, could be, but there was just a slight disconnect between them and everyone – save the small dedicated core of fans up the front. It was hard not to notice that they were playing in front of someone else’s crowd, especially when Randy’s calls to “sing it!” occasionally fell on deaf ears. These guys are clearly accustomed to playing shows where they’re in charge, and I honestly felt a little bad for them, especially when Randy asked if the crowd had been given Valium before the show. Closing their set on “Redneck” was a good move, as it got their most enthusiastic response of the night, and made me resent the “outer-suburb subculture enthusiasts” (Watt, 2016) who constituted the majority of tonight’s attendees. People that love singles shit me, and that’s because I’m an elitist. It’s also why I don’t really enjoy Slipknot as much as I could.

Slipknot are surprisingly huge. Seemingly the last “big” band to make it through to arena/stadium size, before the gates were closed on the likes of LoG, Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch and their ilk, I just can’t imagine another band reaching this size in my lifetime. The music scene has changed; I don’t need Roadrunner Records to tell me I will like the ‘Next Big Thing’. I have bandcamp search algorithms, and my new favourite band is a doom group from Boise, Idaho. Slipknot peaked right before this became the trend, but what’s surprising is that they stayed there.

Lamb of God

I thought people fell away from Slipknot when I did, with the final nail in the coffin being the lacklustre All Hope Is Gone. Apparently fucking not, if the response to “Psychosocial” and “Dead Memories” was anything to go by. Which is to say, they got any response at all, likely because “it’s dere single wat I like,” and not because they’re good songs. Because they’re not.

Slipknot are now in a position where they have so many “hits” it’s impossible to please everyone. Do you please me, a conceited dickhead who likes your old stuff better, by playing “The Shape” (which was flawless, FYI), or do you please the thousands of fans who love themselves a good sing? They definitely tried their best to bridge the divide, but missing out on songs like “People=Shit” or “The Blister Exists” hurt when you have to listen to “Killpop” or “Dead Fucking Memories” through a fantastically clear and booming mix.

Slipknot

Eschewing pyrotechnics for a video screen may not have been the best move either, with the graphics timed to the music swinging between “kinda spooky, I guess” and something a year 10 film student produces the week after he discovers David Lynch. There was a frankly embarrassing Goat-S starwipe feature used just before the chorus of “Psychosocial” that had me in stitches, which I’m confident wasn’t their intention. But they’re gotta have something, cause these guys aren’t 20-something hungry beasts with a collective deathwise. Gone are the fights, stage dives, rolls and even headbanging; there’s a lot more standing and looking. Which is fine; you’re Slipknot – you’ve proved you could and you don’t owe anyone shit. And that said, Corey Taylor put on a particularly enjoyable performance (though stop saying we’re going down in history every time we sit for “Spit It Out”; it’s as hollow and asinine as the Guinness World Records themselves). But overall, their live show is now a vessel for the crowd to enjoy themselves, not a chance for them to prove to the world they should be the biggest band in existence. They did that already.

It had been close to a decade since I’ve been to a gig this size, and I don’t think I could’ve seen a better or bigger band. While my tastes have changed, there is something still insanely enjoyable about watching hundreds of people moshing as one, sharing in an experience that we have been enjoying – on and off – for almost 20 years. It’s an impressive feat that this band continues to pick up new fans while holding on to so many of their original, and to see that confluence play out at a live show is one of life’s pleasures. Now all we need to do is convince 75% of this audience that metal happens in the city on every other weekend of the year as well.

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