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Three's a crowd, it seems, and one is company, especially at a
Korn concert. While the first opening band, newcomers
Trustcompany, pumps up the crowd and wins over a new, albeit small,
fan base in France, the more well-known and experienced Puddle of
Mudd causes less enthusiasm (read boredom). Oh dear. Wes Scantlin
is pretending to faint. I didn't know men swooned too.
The nerve-defying
track She Hates Me is the only song the audience seems to recognise and
where it shows some interest in the band. Maybe Puddle is too white rock for
the metal audience, too formatted for FM radio. After all, this is a Korn
audience, hence a bit sophisticated and more "dark" in the nu-metal
department. Wait, there's a Black Sabbath riff! The crowd roars, but
as soon as the McWhite Rock sound kicks in again, the audience kicks
out.
Trustco could - maybe should, just to save Puddle Of Mudd some
embarrassment - play their set too. The audience is seemingly looking for a
less generic sound. Trustco certainly fits their expectations more than
Puddle. No Limpy Bizkids tolerated tonight. Only the leaders of the pack.
And tonight it's neither Trustcompany nor Puddle Of Mudd.
Neo nu-metallers Korn are megastars and they know the audience will wait
for them, even if they decide to be fashionably late and come onstage at the
annoyingly late hour of 10pm. And fashionably lean is lead singer
Jonathan Davis, one of the few rock stars, especially in the metal
department, who is able to carry off wearing a skirt, a long silvery leather
number, while almost all of the 17,000 fans are dressed in crow black
uniforms and look spellbound.
But is it the sound or the voice, you ask? While Jonathan is busy casting
his spell on the Children of the Korn, the famous riffs pounce through the
air. The guitars are notoriously down-tuned - how else could you depict
darkness into sound? - but Fieldy's bass has no battle to fight to be
heard. The rhythm section is powerful, giving the music its funk-metal edge,
especially on the tracks from the latest album 'The Untouchables'.
Meanwhile, a giant screen behind the minimalist stage set is depicting a
sort of Blair Witch Project. Very Korny (not to confuse with corny). But
watching Jonathan Davis is far more interesting. His movements are almost
choreographed. How he manages to do squats while wearing a long skirt defies
me. And then you understand the meaning of the skirt - it is meant to be a
funky rock'n'roll version of a kilt. The same goes for the bagpipes.
Certainly a Korn concert isn't a Korn concert without Jonathan playing the
bagpipes, or rather, the Kornemuse (from the French cornemuse).
Got The Life ends the show and the European tour, but not without
saying a proper goodbye.
The "someone or something might happen" promised to me by Fieldy before
the show turns out to be a disappointing "something". Four cannons "shoot"
silvery confetti, which take on a chameleon effect through the reflection of
the colourful lights. So this is the surprise reserved for the last date of
the European tour... One fan compares it to the falling debris of the
collapsing towers of the World Trade Center on September 11. Surely even
Jonathan Davis wouldn't be that morbid. I was actually expecting Dr
Kevorkian or Fred Durst to come onstage.
But never mind. The band proved why their tour is called the Pop Sux!
Tour. And someone, somewhere in Paris, is selling pieces of that confetti to
die-hard fans.
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