Charlotte

The Good: Trivium kicked off the evening with a hard-hitting 30-minute set that got the crowd warmed up. They were followed by the slightly more mellow metal of Coheed and Cambria's 45-minute set.

Slipknot hit the stage shortly after 9 p.m. and played a relentless 15 songs over the next hour and 15 minutes, followed by a two-song encore. The energy when the nine band members hit the stage was completely different than the previous acts of the evening. This was a Slipknot crowd that was ready to expend every ounce of energy they had and the band fed off of it all night. The band definitely puts on a "performance" as all nine band members are constantly running around, interacting with each other and putting on a show, rather than just sitting around and playing instruments. Band members throwing objects at each other, hanging off drum sets or spinning around on those drum sets were the main activities of the night. You could also see some elements of enjoyment behind the masks as bandmembers gave each other fist bumps while walking by each other. Roughly one-third of the band's set came from its self-titled debut.

Singer Corey Taylor found time to address the crowd a number of times, telling those in attendance, "North Carolina reminds me of Des Moines. It seems like there's a lot to do here, but there's not. We understand what it's like to come from a place where every strike is against you. People from New York and L.A. will never fuckin' understand it."

Taylor made note that Charlotte's crowd sounded twice as loud as the previous night's Greensboro crowd, after a crowd-gone-crazy "Duality" and said "if you can rattle the fillings in my teeth, we'll play one more song for you." He also ended the night saying, "We made a promise before and I'm going to make that promise again -- we will be back here."

During the second encore song, "Spit It Out," the crowd performed what is now commonplace at a Slipknot show -- getting every member of the audience to crouch down and then spring up into the air when Taylor yells, "Jump the fuck up!" Quite a sight to see as the mass of people on the floor turned into a massive jumping, swirling frenzy.

SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the encore, the main drum set rose up into the air, turned perpendicular to the ground and spun around 180 degrees. Quite an exit after the smaller drumsets were doing simliar versions of this for the rest of the show.

The masses walked out drained of every ounce of adrenalin they had, content that they just saw one hell of a rock show.

The Bad: Interesting selection of opening acts -- Trivium's hardcore cookie-monster vocal metal and Coheed and Cambria's more Rush-like approach. I didn't pay attention to either as I was only there for the headliner. Surprisingly, Slipknot only played two songs off of the band's newest album, All Hope is Gone.

The Verdict: I hadn't seen Slipknot live before, but I'm sure I'll see them again.

Slipknot Setlist
(Sic)
Eyeless
Wait and Bleed
Get This
Before I Forget
Blister Exists
Dead Memories
Left Behind
Disaster Piece
Frail Limb Nursery
Purity
Everything Ends
Psychosocial
Duality
People = Shit

Encore
Surfacing
Spit It Out

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