AlaskaApril 4th, 2010 by Phantasmo IT’S ON!Planets aligned on March 26th and 27th, as Korn kicked off their ‘Assault on the Americas’ 2010 tour. I’m not sure how this all played out, but for a band as big as Korn to emerge from the studio and begin a global tour in little ol’ Anchorage, Alaska is incredible in itself. A ticket was snapped up as soon as they went on sale, and a backstage ‘Meet & Greet’ pass was secured via the Korn website. IT’S ON!!!
7:45 PM. About a dozen Korn fans, including myself, are ushered to the 3rd floor with Korn’s manager Sebastien. First up at the meet-and-greet is new drummer Ray Luzier, who is chatting on his cell phone and looks shockingly like Rob Thomas. I’m at the front of the line and Ray is very friendly and talkative, asking about Alaska and thanking us all for coming while signing CDs and getting his photo taken. Several minutes later, Munky strolls out, cracking jokes and asking me why I’m not at the bar getting drunk like I should be. He signs a few items, snaps a pic with me, and then continues on down to the other fans as he steals my silver Sharpie that I brought along. Oh well. Jonathan Davis walks out a few minutes later with two “handlers” and he does not look very happy. No photos are allowed with Jonathan for some reason and he will sign only one item – kind of a dick move, but whatever. Fieldy, we are told, is “at church” and won’t make it to the meet-and-greet. WTF?!! The meet-and-greet ends and I hit the bar, as instructed by Munky. 9:18 PM. The lights dim and the crowd instantly goes nuts as Korn takes the stage – Fieldy, Munky, new (and incredible) drummer Ray Luzier, touring guitarist Shane Gibson and keyboardist Zac Baird all file out. The recognizable, thunderous bass of ‘4 U’ rattles my heart in my chest. The music builds until Jonathan Davis slowly approaches center stage, quietly singing as Zac and Ray create a swirling, hypnotic trance of music. ‘4 U’ ends and the band launches into the thrashing, pounding ‘Dead Bodies Everywhere’ – one of my favorites that I did NOT expect to hear! From there, the band were all over the discography map, resurrecting rarely played songs (‘Need To’ and ‘Clown’ and ‘Good God’) and, of course, their radio-friendly hits (‘Freak on a Leash’ and ‘Got The Life’). Fieldy started the show out looking like he was just going through the motions, but halfway through the show he was grinning and bouncing around, pounding his bass to ‘Good God’ and ‘Did My Time’ and clearly enjoying the energy of the nearly-5000 strong Anchorage crowd. Munky, complete with tribal face paint, was at his finest, entertaining the screaming fans at his feet, tossing out guitar picks and providing massive background vocals (‘Right Now’ was truly impressive as he was screaming his head off). Apparently a man of few words, singer Jonathan Davis had very little to say throughout the show, saving his banter for the last song with the obligatory “Make some NOISE Anchorage!” while twisting and screaming in his Adidas tracksuit. Sadly missing from the stage setup was Ray Luzier’s custom drum kit (he told me earlier at the meet-and-greet that he was using a loaner for the shows) and Jonathan’s custom H.R. Giger-designed mic stand. I would have loved to see that thing up close, but for some reason he has not used it since 2008. The crowd was energetic and the band reciprocated. Jonathan Davis went absolutely insane during the three encore songs – ‘It’s On!’(a complete surprise since they rarely play it), ‘Blind’ (featuring an echo effect on the “Are you ready?!!” intro that blasted the entire room) and ‘Faget’. The setlist was perfect and I could not have asked for a better mix of old and new songs (though they saved the debut of their new song ‘Oildale’ for the following night’s performance). It was an incredible show, the band was extremely friendly at the meet-and-greet (well, Ray and Munky were…Jonathan was pretty quiet) and it was two nights of amazing metal.
March 26 Setlist: Intro/4 U March 27 Setlist: Intro/4 U |
