The Loud!

Last night we went to see Korn, Disturbed and Hatebreed. 10 Years was also playing, but we did not show up for them, because, frankly, who cares about 10 years? I hope you appreciate that guys, I’ve just about guaranteed your future success, just so the universe can smack me about the head with my bad choices

We also caught the tail end of Hatebreed, and while their music on CD is not particularly memorable, they actually sound really good live. The vocals are not as tortured, and the music appears to have some melody. Things noticeably lacking from their recorded material.



Disturbed were next, and I have to say, probably sounded better than Korn. The volume was not ridiculous, you could hear each part clearly, and the vocalist was absolutely on the target with his singing. I’d not listened to much Disturbed in the past, in fact only having heard the one song (you all know which one). We had put their CD on at home before the concert, so I was not totally out of my depth, but I think not listening to Disturbed is something I will have to remedy very shortly. It was also quite refreshing to hear the lead singer say that he did not care how you obtained his music (CD, download, theft) as long as you listened to it. It’s nice to get permission sometimes.



Then came Korn. Now, don’t get me wrong. I really like Korn. They were, until a couple of years ago, one of my favourite bands. They really hit their stride with the Follow the Leader album. The concert last night however, was extremely disappointing. Granted, I had not actually listened to their new album (the reviews were not good however, and even Kristie said it took her 10-15 listens to get in to it), so a lot of the material they played I did not know. That makes it a bit hard to judge, but I will say that I had not heard that much Tool before seeing them live, but it did nothing to lessen my enjoyment of the show at all. The volume of the parts was all so loud that everything drowned everything else out, to the point where it was actually difficult to recognize the songs of theirs that I really liked!

I am sure that from the POV of the mixing desk guys, the sound was awesome, and I understand the need to make it audible at the far reaches of the auditorium, but come on guys. Even the slow parts of the songs I knew really well sounded distorted. The only parts you could understand clearly were when Jonathon was making his random noises in Freak on a Leash!

On the extremely good side, I finally got a chance to wear my one and only band shirt. Technically the second band shirt I have owned, but I have disowned the C+C Music Factory shirt many moons ago.