Not only did the show rule, I won 200 bucks playing blackjack. Kyle and I found the ideal table. The dealer kicked ass and the deck we sat down on was from the gambling gods. The dealer got 21 maybe 5 times, I got a like 3 blackjacks and whenever I split or double down it usually went into my favor. Kyle won like a hundred.
Feels good to break my losing streak.
11/10/07 Verona, NY
Turning Stone Casino, The Showroom
Set List (pretty sure this was it)
1) System (from Queen of the Damned)
2) Last Legal Drug (B side from See You on The Other Side)
3) 4U
4) Hey Daddy
5) Forsaken (from Queen of the Damned)
6) Dirty
7) Alone I Break
8] Slept So Long (from Queen of the Damned)
9) Love On The Rocks (Neil Diamond cover)
10) Hushabye
11) Kick the PA (Spawn soundtrack)
12) Not Meant For Me (from Queen of the Damned)
13) Hold On
14) Blue Monday (New Order cover)
15) Careless (from Queen of the Damned)
16) Redeemer (from Queen of the Damned)
17) Got The Life
18) Trash
19) Falling Away From Me
20) The Chauffeur (Duran Duran cover)
It was an amazing show to put it as simply as possible. Really small venue that’s tucked into the side of the casino, it was easy to pass by it. The stage was the size of your average high school stage, held 1,000 people tops (we estimated 600 people in house, the last tier was completely empty). The place was so small there really were no bad seats. We were on the floor, right in front of JD about 30 feet from him, it was crazy.
We skipped seeing Godhead and came in just as Shenkar hit the stage. He’s the fiddler who worked on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack with JD and I guess JD is giving him a chance to play in front of some US crowds. Holy shit is he bad. Like beyond description sound. It was like watching Yani or something, nobody knew why this guy was stage doing what he was doing. He did 4 “songs”, got an applause for saying “This is the last song” and then got booed off the stage only to come back out 20 minutes later for Jon’s set.
Very simple set up, Jon was sitting in a throne (you can see it in his promo pics for Untitled) with the rest of the band spread behind him (5 guys). Nothing extra was on stage besides a big drum for Jon to wack on a few songs. Since Shenkar stunk so bad I knew it could only get better from there and it did, I was really blown away.
This is a tour for the hardcore, it’s safe to say anyone who goes is a die hard JD fan (even more so than a Korn fan). You’re going to see him and he knows and caters that. While korn songs were played the arrangements and sounds was very different, almost like new remixes. It’s hard to describe, the sound was different than even the Unplugged session. Jon sounded unbelievable during the whole show, nailing everything. Some sound issues were there (Jon’s volume needed to be adjusted, Zach’s keyboards were way too loud) in the very beginning but they fixed them in quick order. They charged through the set with him feeding off of us and us feeding off of him. He put all of his emotion into his singing, like he was singing them for the first time (some tracks he was actually) and just for us. “4U” ruled, “Hey Daddy” was INCREDIBLE, he had to compose himself at the end of it. “Alone I Break” is a personal favorite of mine and we got to hear that for the first time ever and it was completely intense. His stage presance fucking ratiated out of him. Even though he only got up once it was still such a powerful show. It was very different, it could have been a disaster, but I think he made all the right choices for the show. No “Tearjerker” or anything off “Life is Peachy” was a bummer though. The band he put together to back him up is totally awesome. A very special shout out to the bass player who looked cool as shit and absolutely KILLED IT on a few songs. There was one time where he had almost a solo going where he was on like a different plane of existence wailing away on that huge stand up base. I want to say it was on either “Hey Daddy” or “Trash”. I can’t remember exactly, I wish I had it on video it was so unbelievable.
The biggest fans were in front of us, the super hardcore Korn fans. They know all the words (even to the super rare QOTD songs), knew what he was drinking, freaked our during the whole show. Seemed like there were some people behind us that thought they were too cool for the room, but we were a great crowd, loud as hell and he thanked us for it. “This is some crazy shit, isn’t it?” “Thank you for coming and letting me do this.” “You guys are an amazing audience, thank you.” I’m pissed I didn’t bring my camera in, there was like no security. My cell phone pics blow and the video I got is a little better, sound came out better than I thought though.
The downers? They didn’t have the DVD ready to sell! I came out of there ready to drop 30 or 40 bucks on that thing it was such an amazing show. I was also stupid and didn’t buy this kick ass skully with JD’s signature sewed onto it. And most of all, I wanted more! At the end of the show we were begging for more and Loc Dog just swept him off the stage like a minute after the last song. It went by so damn fast…I guess that’s a good sign of a crazy good show.
If you love JD and can get to see him do this, don’t hesitate, it’s worth whatever you have to pay and do to get to see it.
Follow this link to get to see some video from this show:
Call of Duty 4 came in today, driving up to Verona, NY to see grandma, gamble and see Jonathan Davis in his first ever solo tour at the casino. His set list is 21 songs of mostly rare stuff, I’m really excited. The potential for a completely awesome weekend is off the charts.
Some more impressions:
To cut to the bone, this album is over produced. The last 3 albums sound like The Hives are just going crazy in front of some mics, this album the sound like they planned on recording an album and carefully crafted and cleaned up and layered these tracks. So it does sound different. But there are still some great songs on here. The lead single “tick tick boom” is classic Hives. Great tune.
There are a few producers on the album and you can tell…pretty sure his finger prints are all over “giddy up”, a song that I love and hate. It’s very different for the Hives, but it’s really catchy too. Annoying too, it’s really hard to describe. Another iffy track for me is “puppet on a string” (some catchy hooks, but it’s slow and repetitive. Saying a Hives song is repetitive is redundant though). And I’m still on the fence with “T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S”. Good mixed with annoying. The only track I really hate is the 6th one, so much so that I took it out of the playlist. The Hives have done some instrumentals before and the kick ass, this one is just really out there. It doesn’t sound like a Hives track, it should never have made it onto the album.
Aside from that, I love the remaining 10 songs. “You Dress Up For Armageddon” being my current favorite. Solid album, not sure how well it’s going to be received though.