Concert Review & Photo Gallery: Slipknot & Coheed and Cambria at Nokia Theatre (February 22)

by Erin Rice

Riding high on Billboard chart topper All Hope Is Gone, Slipknot returned to Dallas-Fort Worth for the second time in less than a year.

Though Slipknot came to town just last summer, and the Oscars were beckoning on TV, that didn't stop more than 5,000 people from packing into Nokia Theatre on Sunday evening. Sporting their most tattered black t-shirts and jeans, the metal crowd came out to see one of the more interesting lineups to hit Grand Prairie this year.

The "All Hope is Gone Tour" featured the relentless brutality of Slipknot with the visually stripped down, but sonically Rush-esque anthemic Coheed and Cambria. Opening their set with "Welcome Home" from Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One..., one's initial worry was that the Slipknot-fan heavy crowd would not appreciate Coheed's progressive, conceptual rock vibe. By their final song, however, it was clear the quartet won over at least the large portion of the crowd who did not spend the entire set in beer lines.

Following the break, Slipknot took the stage, standing motionless and evil-doll-like as the bright red curtain lifted amid sounds of electronic distortion. Leaping into action, lead vocalist Corey Taylor and his masked crew of eight more opened and closed the set with songs from their 1999 self-titled, major label debut. Beginning with "Sic" (featuring the great concert starting phrase, "Pick up the pace!") they moved down the album's track list to "Eyeless" and "Wait and Bleed" before launching into more recent material.

Throughout the seventeen-or-so-song set, Taylor addressed the crowd, profusely thanking those in attendance for helping to make Slipknot's most recent release and tour namesake, All Hope Is Gone, reach the top spot on the Billboard 200 charts. Claiming Dallas "fucking" Texas to be one of the band's favorite tour stops, the attendees pumped their fists and gobbled every bit of praise. Though one might have deemed Taylor's effusiveness as knee-jerk, it felt genuine, and despite the nature of the music, there was no love lost in that packed house Sunday night.

With as complicated a stage set up as Slipknot, nothing is done off the cuff. Between a more traditional drum kit, set at center stage on a hydraulic lift, and two percussion stations sporting kettle (keg) drums, one on a spinning platform that lifts, the other rocking back forth, lowrider style, there's obvious choreography taking place on stage. But, even though they've been coming to Dallas, as Taylor explained, since Ozzfest 1999, they're not just resting on their twisted, circus-like props.

At any given time, percussionists Chris Fehn and Shawn Crahan may be banging away on drum heads, taking a metal bat to the side of a keg-shaped drum for extra "clang," or providing backup vocals, all of which require different implements thrown back and forth between the band members and backstage hands, with nary a one dropped. Sid Wilson on turntables and Craig Jones on samples aren't necessarily employed musically in each song, but instead of chilling behind momentarily unused stations, they're flying across the stage, hanging from a swirling platform or riding a gyrating drum kit like a mechanical bull. Not just a band consisting of talented musicians, Slipknot employs genuine entertainers at every post.

After performing nearly all of their either Grammy-nominated or -winning singles, "Duality," "Before I Forget," etc., they played a number of songs from the new album, including "Psychosocial." Stirring the crowd into a frenzy, Taylor dedicated the "final" song to his beloved crowd, which, humorously, turned out to be "People = Shit" from Iowa.

Beyond the random displays of one particular woman's (quite large) fake breasts and attempts to organize a theater-wide chant to entice the band back onto stage during the encore break, individual lighting revealed much about the crowd. As is standard practice at most concerts, when waiting in a darkened space light devices come out. Throughout most of the theater, traditional lighters burned their owners' fingertips. The exception was a fairly sizable crescent shape around the front of the stage in the main moshing area. The light there was provided by cell phones. The divide was clear. Not (legally) allowed to smoke and relying on a family phone plan, the youngsters crowd the stage, fearing little for the safety of their bodies. Those with a pack of cigarettes in tow and the (hazy) memory of one too many Doc Martens to the head years prior were more than happy to keep a healthy distance and just enjoy the music.

After three or four minutes to allow Freudian crowd-gazing, Slipknot returned to stage and finished the night with "Surfacing" and "Spit It Out." Promising to return, Taylor exited while his bandmates peppered the crowd with drum sticks and set lists. As the concert-goers streamed into the cold night, most in attendance no doubt secretly wished that their hearing would come back in time for Slipknot's next DFW show, whenever that may be.

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