[Vince]

... and it was actually pretty good.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't have gone to the show if a friend of mine hadn't given me a ticket for free, but I'm glad I did. There were some interesting opening bands, particularly Flyleaf, which strongly reminded me of The Gathering. They're a nice rock band with some solid playing & an interesting Alanis Morissette type of singer. At least that's what I picked up from hearing them live, she might sound completely different on CD.

The real highlight of the show for me was Stone Sour. Goddamn, they're a great hard rock band. I'd heard some of their stuff before, but compared to the other bands they played with on this tour, they blew them all away. It's too bad they weren't headlining. Corey Taylor's vocals for Stone Sour were dead on all night, and his use of compression, delay & reverb on his vocals are IMO at an expert level. It sounded like there were 3 of him onstage. When the singer did "Bother" solo with no one else on stage and only with a cleantone guitar, it was absolutely beautiful. And I've seen moments like that backfire. I remember back in 1996 helping boo Chris Cornell off the stage when he tried to do "Black Hole Sun" by himself, absolutely hammered & singing off key.

Speaking of singing off key, what in the world are the Deftones doing on tour? I'm going to leave it at that. It felt like amateur night.

Ok, as for Korn, I was actually impressed. I haven't been a fan of their music much since their first disc (and at the time, I think I was just enamored with their UV7PWHs they played live), and I wasn't expecting much. Their live show was a bit of a freakshow, but it was definitely entertaining. Two drummers, a keytarist, a bunch of guys walking around and above the huge stage wearing wolf masks, etc. I was actually really impressed with their live sound & Jonathan Davis' singing. I've never been a fan of his singing, but he definitely sounds like a tour veteran now. His little touches he puts on his vocal lines are tight & defined, and he really exudes the attitude of their music live through his performance. The guitar sound was tight as nails too. Definitely Ibanez/Mesa combination or some similiarly crushing type of amp sound. I don't care which genre of hard rock you're playing, you can't go wrong with Ibanez 7-strings.

Anyway, good show, not necessarily great, but I'm glad I went. I'll definitely be seeing Stone Sour again on tour, they were an absolute rush while up on stage, and that's saying a lot for a band you really can't mosh to. Some bands just have a certain something that makes them better IMO.