2007 Jagermeíster Tour
Featuring: Stone Sour, Shadows Fall, & Lacuna Coilby: Jay Simpson
Upon arriving to the House of Blues, my photographer Kris Gerner and I were stalled at the will call ticket window by a brilliant young Goth couple. “Do you have the credit card that you purchased the tickets with online?” the ticket window clerk said. “Uuhh…no?” responded the Gerber-aged gothic goober. “Ummm, did you at least bring your purchase confirmation number?” responded the clerk with obvious overtones. “…the confirmation what?” (This is when the ticket clerk, Kris, and I had a simultaneous eye rolling contest) “Rooks rike we picked the wrong rine, huh?” I rhetorically rehearsed to my colleague as the other line was spinning circles around us like Spirograph. Meanwhile we’re missing Shadows Fall’s opener and needless to say, getting a little frustrated listening to this gothic idiot couple’s sob story and their matching Jnco’s.
I finally reach the ticket window after the black beacons finally gave up their pathetic attempt at free tickets to this sold out show. Shadows fall is just wrapping up their first song when we made it inside.
They thrashed through several songs from their April 2007 release Threads of Life. I couldn’t help but be amazed visually with Jason Bittner’s spectacle on the skins, and vocalist Brian Fair’s dreadlocks that were at least all the way down to his knees. He was flailing them around in a 10ft. rhythmic circle of brown. I’m not sure how his head could handle supporting that kind of weight, but I did notice that he had a really big neck from this constant on-stage workout. Jason Bittner was just absolutely metal drumming his ass off. There’s a reason why this guy was on the cover of last month’s Modern Drummer, and I got a sneak peek. Towards the middle of their set, they played their Guitar Hero II hit, “the Light that Blinds” and showcased the talent of their lead guitarist Jon Donais. There was another song in their set from their new album whose sweeping guitar solo completely melted my face off.
Next up after an unfortunately short set from Shadows Fall, was Lacuna Coil. This was the first time I had ever seen or heard them, and I was interested to see how they were going to work in the added dynamic of the female vocalist option. During the first song, I got a taste of what I was in for when the whole band did the Goth version of that late 80s hair twirling thing to the pace of not much more than about 60 beats per minute. The addition of estrogen in the band added the occasional tribal feel of Shakira mixed with the clarity of Amy Lee of Evanescense. The other “vocalist” sounded a lot like that annoying rapping guy from Linkin Park. As far as the music as a whole goes, Lacuna Coil is not for me. It just lacked so much dynamic. The best thing about music is that it can be molded to build up musical tension for the listener, and then release with a bang!! Lacuna’s songs just kind of hover in the same spot the whole time in…well…every song. In the two songs that actually did have somewhat of a breakdown, they would being to build it back up, and then just when you thought it was really about to take off, you’d get a bad case of musical blue-balls. I have to give it up to the drummer of the Italian sextet for trying as hard as he could to make nothing at least look like something.
When Stone Sour took the stage, the crowd was ready…and it was on. I was honestly kind of jealous of the people who were more familiar with their music than me, because it was awesome even at first listen, from a completely un-biased point of view. These guys really knew how to put on a heavy show. Vocalist (Slipknot frontman) Corey Taylor made it a point to make this sold out crowd feel like they were the loudest he had ever played for. Whether it was really true or not; it made them feel pretty special, and kept everyone rockin’ and screamin’ the whole time. His on-stage energy was undeniable, as was their drummer Roy Mayorga. This guy had at least the stage presence of (the late) Tommy Lee (yeah…before he pursued that God-awful pop career), and was just really solid altogether. Just before Corey’s solo performance of their radio hit Through Glass, he surprised the crowd with random teases of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game and Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. At the end of his last vocal of the set, and with a respectful tip of the middle finger…Mr. Taylor exited stage left as the band finished out the instrumental of the song. Then one by one the string section finished and meandered offstage, and only Mayorga was left slammin’ his ass of for about 2 minutes straight for the grand finally. This show sold out for a reason, and it’s because Shadows Fall and Stone Sour need to be added to every hard rock and metal fan’s list of shows to see.
