This show had been on my radar ever since I learned about it but I figured it may be hard to get others to join in so held off on pulling the trigger since I knew it would not sell out and I could always pick up a cheap lawn ticket at the last minute. Enter Larry: he purchased four tickets to take the whole family then decided to be in Greece on show day so sold me the lot for $120. Bob and Kyle were supposed to join for the rare Saturday concert but had to back out so that left just Wayne and I plus two extra tickets that I had to dump on StubHub and probably still have not been paid for.

By the time we entered the cookie cutter amphitheater we had missed Ho99o9 and Cypress Hill had just taken the stage. We were supposed to be in the Lawn section but when we walked in there was no one guarding the 300 level so we just walked into that section and made ourselves at home in a couple empty seats, where we would end up staying for the remainder of the show. There was no Sen Dog as he apparently was dealing with the aftermath of a medial procedure. Considering they were down a key member and sandwiched in between a couple heavy metal bands they performed admirably. It certainly helped that every song they played was a banger. 

This was my eighth time seeing Slipknot but I had not seen them since Aftershock, which was almost three years prior to this. My first thought as the stage curtain disappeared was that they have not changed their stage setup for years but that thought quickly disappeared as I was getting pummeled with “Disasterpiece.” The songs and performance were as fierce as ever. Thankfully they are still putting out excellent new music that excites me. As the show went on I could not help but wonder why Mick’s hair is perpetually wet and just then he emptied a water bottle on his head. Speaking of hair I also noticed that Jim does way more exaggerated hair twirls than I remember him doing. This was Wayne’s first time seeing Slipknot and he just kept saying “This is dope!” Dope indeed. For my money the 1-2-3 punch of “Vermillion,” “Duality” and “Spit It Out” would have been worth it alone but then at the end of the show Corey Taylor announced the greatest encore of all as he promised new Slipknot music in a month…

SETLIST: Disasterpiece, Wait and Bleed, All Out Life, Sulfur, Before I Forget, The Chapeltown Rag, Dead Memories, Unsainted, The Heretic Anthem, Psychosocial, The Devil in I, Snuff, Vermillion, Duality, Spit It Out, People = Shit, Surfacing