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05/18/2009 Korn, Burn Halo, Caustic, His Name Was Yesterday (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
By Eric | May 19, 2009 11:22 am
I wasn’t sure how to feel about this show. Have I “outgrown” Korn? Up until a week before the show I didn’t even know who the openers were, until the local boys in His Name Was Yesterday announced that they were on the bill. I got into the venue and got myself a HNWY shirt, a beer, and wandered up to the stage area.
Being the local band, His Name Was Yesterday was on first. Not that they necessarily deserved that slot, as they have more chops and stage presence than a lot of “national” openers I’ve seen. Anyway, they ran through the songs from their “Witness To A Dying World” EP, and sounded pretty damn good doing it. They got a pretty good pop from the crowd as well, which was fairly sizable by this point, so hopefully they pick up a bunch of new fans. There were quite a few HNWY shirts in the crowd both before the show started and afterwards, so they certainly weren’t complete strangers
HNWY – Funeral Song
Caustic was on next, and they didn’t sound as good as they did with Disturbed a couple of months prior. I did get to hear the full set this time around as opposed to just two songs, and they came off as more nu-metal to me this time. They had quite a few people sporting their shirts as well, so their crowd pop was quite good also.
Direct support was Burn Halo, who I’d just seen with Static-X about a month ago, and they played pretty much the exact same set. For whatever reason, the crowd seemed less receptive to them this time around than at Static-X, which I found sort of odd because I figured there would be some Static/Korn fan overlap. Apparently not the case. In any event, their set came and went, they sounded good, but didn’t get the same sort of reaction the first two bands did.
Now it was time for Korn. It was a bit unusual to see them with a stripped-down (or complete lack of) stage set-up. I hadn’t seen them since Buffalo in March of 2000, so in the 9 years between shows, some things were due to be different. Neither Head nor David Silvera are playing with them anymore, and besides their two fill-ins, they also had a guy doing keyboards and effects. None of this hampered the performance any, as they sounded great, Jon Davis can still belt the songs out, Munky and Fieldy can still play, and it all came off very well. The evening’s great surprise? Practically all old songs! Interestingly, while the set was well spread over the back catalog, it was heavy on self-titled stuff. Five tracks! The rest of it broke down like this: self-titled – 5, Life Is Peachy – 2, Follow The Leader – 2, Issues – 2, Untouchables – 2, Take A Look… – 3, See You… – 1, Untitled – 0. Save for “Coming Undone”, the set was devoid of anything off of the last two albums. Not that I was complaining in the least. I also proved my own theory to myself, that I have a much better time when I’m around people that are into it. I spent most of the main set towards the back of the mass of people with those that were just standing around, maybe a couple of them moving or bouncing around. When I heard the opening strains of “Blind” to start the encore, I broke for the front, right in the middle of everyone, and proceeded to have a blast for the last three songs. Probably shoulda been up there the whole time. On the whole, Korn sounded good, the crowd was thrilled to be there, I know as an older fan I was really happy with the song selection, and its cool to see these guys still rocking the spot after 16 years. I guess I still haven’t “outgrown” them quite yet!
Clown
Korn Setlist: Right Now, Good God, Did My Time, Thoughtless, Falling Away From Me, Clown, Ball Tongue, Bagpipes Solo (Shoots and Ladders), Helmet In The Bush, Twist, Fake, Y’All Want A Single, Coming Undone (We Will Rock You insert), Somebody Someone, Freak On A Leash. Encore: Blind, Here To Stay, Got The Life
Topics: Concerts | Tags: 2009, Burn Halo, Caustic, His Name Was Yesterday, Korn, Main Street Armory, rochester | 1 Comment »
May 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
they should keep Blind as the opener…. what better way to get a crowd going then slowly building to the apex of “ARE YOU READY?!?!”
holy crap it has been that long since I’ve seen them too!