On Sunday night, the veteran nu-metal band Korn (see video below) played St. Louis, the headlining act at Verizon Amphitheater’s day-long Pointfest concert. As is true of every Korn visit to St. Louis, it rained, heavily. This time, the drops didn’t come through in the gale-force style of last summer’s appearance, when a hot, summer night turned cold and windy in a matter of minutes, before the skies opened up with a drenching, frigid thunderstorm. This year, the rain came early and often, softly saturating everyone in the open, on what was already a cool day.
It wasn’t completely surprising then that a sold-out house had thinned considerably by the time Korn hit the stage at 10 p.m. With hundreds of fans soggily traipsing to their cars after the penultimate set by Papa Roach, the seating area beneath the overhang had plenty of space. Even the pit had large pockets of room, which certainly would’ve been filled by the well-soaked fans on the hill, had they been given a chance to roll down to the stage-front.
Such is life, though. As a wise man once sung: You don’t always get to sit where you want.
Initially, as befitting the tone of this weekly blog, I pitched the Point and Live Nation for a unique view of the show. Maybe the pit, or the soundbooth, or the light booth, or the monitor station, or up in the rafters with the pigeons, or any place other than the seating area. As it turned out, Korn’s management nixed any chances of those options, and I was offered a simple lawn seat for the evening. Which might’ve been fun, since any kids still remaining in that area that wet that late in the night were probably kids you’d wanna hang around during a rock show.
But when my lawn ticket was lost at will call, I gained a 12th row seat instead. Walking past the hill, I saw someone, literally, slide on his heels about a dozen feet down the soggy ground, onto the concrete below. (More amusing was that he never lost his footing.) That pretty well put the kibosh on thoughts of roughing it on the grassy knoll.
Since Live Nation was kind enough to let me crash the fun, I should probably add a few thoughts on the evening, if not a proper review.
1. Korn’s become a rock and roll revue band. With about 20 signature tracks (if not outright “hits”), they’ve got enough material to fill a full, two-hour set. On this night, they jammed right about 20 cuts into their show, in half the time, mostly by stringing together three to eight song medleys. That’s just odd. And while it’s cool to appeal to every pocket of your audience, playing at least some of their favorites, the 90-second versions of tracks don’t give the punch you want. Y’know? Weird. Weird, weird, weird.
2. That said, Korn can still deliver some punch, when they decide to open it up. Their opener, “Blind,” did the trick. As did the slow-and-grinding (and played to completion) “Alone I Break.” When motivated, they’re a legit, bring-the-heat metal band. That’s a group you wanna experience, whether or not you’re soaked to the bones.
3. Non-musically, getting in and out of Verizon is still an adventure. Since I arrived well after primetime, the venue’s parking lot was cordoned off by orange cones. I missed my entry, drove a half-mile through suburban office park confusion, then righted myself. To get into the venue, though, I clearly had to drive into a now one-way-out lane of traffic which, thankfully, hadn’t yet kicked into full effect.
4. I have various other gripes about the lack of signage, but what good would it do? This venue’s had about two decades to put America’s traffic engineers to work, but the county road system is still not equipped to handle the post-show traffic of a half-full house, so why complain? It is what it is. Always will be.
5. Part of the fun of a late arrival at a day-long rock show is seeing the bad behavior of the diehard partiers. But Sunday’s crowd was well-behaved. Either that, or the scofflaws had long since been taken out of circulation. In any event, things were weirdly relaxed. Maybe the fans were too cold to act up.
6. My goodness, the Point loves all-boy bands. That lineup was severely lacking in estrogen.
7. And, lastly, leaving Verizon can be fun when you head through the remaining farmland of deep West County. It’s somehow pleasing to drive through any part of our region and not be treated to a parade of chain restaurants and mini-malls. To pass through minutes of darkness, past acres of soy fields, is strangely calming. Especially after a Korn show.
Korn Show! (That's Right) from Thomas Crone on Vimeo.
Korn @ Pointfest Verizon Amphitheater 5.15.11 Shot for SLM Daily @ STLMag.com 5.18.11
