LIVE REVIEW: Slipknot at the Hollywood Palladium (Oct. 29, 2009)

October 31, 7:16 PMMusic ExaminerPaul Gargano

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Slipknot's clown: Shawn Crahan
(Photo by Ronn Dunnett)

Slipknot aren’t sneaking up on anybody at this point in their career. They’ve spent the past decade turning the metal world end-over-end, their reputation preceding them as a highlight reel of masked vomit, broken-bones, head-banging, hair-whipping and apocalyptic mayhem plays in the background.

They became a product of their own hype before their hype even had a chance to prove itself, to the point where their biggest story is often their mere survival

At the recently re-opened Palladium in Hollywood, CA, Thursday night, Slipknot not only lived up to the challenge of their hype, but they left it broken, beaten and scarred into submission. No, Slipknot aren’t going to sneak up on anybody… But the sheer power and razor-sharp onslaught of their performance just might.

A run-of-the-mill metal band has enough problems locking down and keeping their sound intact onstage, so you’d have to excuse nine guys in macabre masks –a DJ, a sampler, two custom percussionists, two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer and a frontman – if their sound were to occasionally lead itself astray.

Yet it never does.

It would be one thing if they were just so damn loud you couldn’t hear yourself think above the rancor, but watching and listening to Slipknot’s Palladium hysterium from the safety of the balcony, you could pinpoint the precise riffing of guitarists Jim Root and Mick Thomson. Are moshpits more your speed? Then feel free to navigate the frenzy of the main floor, where at any point a small handful of peripheral circle pits fed the furious center of the floor, where during “People = Sh.t” two pits actually merged into one, both swirling in opposite directions.

If a tsunami had a soundtrack, it would be performed by Slipknot – airtight and impenetrable, and paralyzing in stature.

Drummer Joey Jordison and percussionists Shawn Crahan and Chris Fehn anchor the band’s sonic charge, with Root, Thomson and bassist Paul Gray leading the musical surge – Gray with blanket of cover fire, Thomson with the heavy artillery, and Root with a more refined spray. They work together masterfully, a cascade of guitar chords filling “Get This,” Thomson and Root sharing the spotlight on “Before I Forget,” and Crahan and Fehn strapping drums over the shoulder and creating the drum corps from hell during “Sulfur.”

At the helm, frontman Corey Taylor flips from the death chant decree of “Eyeless” and the equally as anguished, floodlit finish of “The Blister Exists,” to the melodically charmed splatter of “Wait and Bleed” and the vocally-driven, Bob Seger-on-sedatives matte of encore opener “Snuff.”

Taylor’s dynamics keep the songs fresh, while the band’s dynamics keep the crowd in a fever-pitched frenzy, Crahan getting Warriors-inspired as he attacks his beer-keg drum rack with an aluminum baseball bat during “Duality.” The floor became a tidal wave of surging bodies during “Surfacing,” but nothing could compare to the entire near-capacity crowd crouching to their knees during “Spit it Out,” waiting for Taylor to order an eruption that made the whole venue quake.

“Keep the dream alive,” Taylor told the crowd as he left the stage after the 90-minute set. There’s no telling what that dream is, but it would probably constitute a nightmare to much of this fine country.

And Slipknot wouldn’t have it any other way…

Setlist
1. (sic)
2. Eyeless
3. Wait & Bleed
4. Get This
5. Before I Forget
6. Sulfur
7. The Blister Exists
8. Dead Memories
9. Disasterpiece
10. Vermillion
11. Psychosocial
12. Duality
13. People = Sh.t
ENCORE
14. Snuff
15. Surfacing
16. Spit it Out

(Slipknot are the headlining musical act at this weekend's Fangoria Trinity of Terrors in Las Vegas, and perform tonight at 9pm at the Palm Casino Resort's Pearl Concert Theater.)

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