Man, the Slipknot Mayhem show last night in Holmdel, NJ at PNC Bank Arts Ctr was so great! Was excited to see the guys again after so long. It was a spectacle I believe Paul Gray would’ve been super proud of. From the eerie intro to the final notes of “Surfacing,” the night was filled with fire, explosions and a total appreciative and killer audience! I was mostly at the soundboard, but when I went to the side of the stage to view, those 30′ high flames (I think there were like 5 of them or more) emitted too much heat for me! Not to mention the loud pyro which we got no warning on, except if you noticed the techs covering their ears, only then ya knew it was coming! There was a moment where the Number 2 was spotlighted during one of the songs in honor of Paul (it was always on in the background) and I managed to get a couple of cool shots of that, I will post! (Check out Lou Brutus‘ Facebook for some KILLER pics he took at another show!) One of the funniest moments of the night had to have been over at the soundboard where, on top of one of the gear boxes, was a metal fork. And with the vibration of the music, it was “pulsing” all over the top of the box. So naturally I had to capture it. Will put it up as soon as I can grab off my iPhone. I called it “Pulse of the Fork” since it was filmed during “Pulse of the Maggots“! Showed it to the guys afterwards. Funny stuff. Then while I was taking a walk to the ladies’, Clown had come off the stage and into the audience. At the soundboard, he found our friend from Roadrunner, Mark Abramson, who was holding a beer. Now, in the past, Clown has knocked the beer out of Mark’s hands during their sets, but this time, Mark was ready to protect his suds! But NO!!!! Clown manuevered around Mark and popped that cup up in the air! And when it came down, it poured all over the President of the label AND the soundboard lap tops! ARGH!!!!! Glad I was away from that! Meanwhile, after the show, talked to Corey Taylor and Jim Root (and I had heard most of the first disc of the new Stone Sour album.) Told ’em it’s great stuff and how much we’re all looking forward to hearing that. And then Jim revealed the drain on his appendix side of his body where he has to continually flush out the absessed organ! I thought he already had it removed, but noooo! He has to do it next month! He told me when he had the attack last month, he had a 103 fever for 4 days AND DIDN’T GO TO THE HOSPITAL! Men! Why are they such babies??!!!! You can’t mess around with stuff like that, yo! Anyhow, sounds like the surgery means Stone Sour may have to bow out of a date or two. More on that later. But be looking for new Stone Sour music “Gone Sovereign” and “Absolute Zero” coming out soon…Yesterday I also got to hear 3 new All That Remains tracks from their new forthcoming album called A War You Can Not Win. The single will be called “Stand Up.” Look for that and new Stone Sour later this month!…..Foo Fighters and the Black Keys will play the Global Festival on Sep 29th in New York City’s Central Park, according to Loudwire. The event will also feature Neil Young, Band Of Horses, K’naan and others. The massive show is being staged to help spread awareness of the global epidemic of poverty and raise funds to stop its spread around the world. Because the show will take place on Central Park’s Great Lawn, which is a public space, all tickets must as a rule be free and distributed through a random lottery. In this case, however, fans will be allowed to enter the lottery by taking some kind of action, including making donations or going online to educate themselves about the cause. Global Poverty Project co-founder Hugh Evans told Rolling Stone, “We wanted Global Festival to be about action, not money. By thinking different about how we distribute tickets, we’re building a movement.” Foo Fighters said in a statement, “We are very proud to be lending a hand to such a creative, important event and are looking forward to adding to the noise in the big park and helping the effort toward reducing the global shame of deep poverty.” Damn! I will be in Las Vegas @ Rock Vegas and a radio convention! UGH! What a drag! Second time I am missing my beloved Foo Fighters! In May, I had to be at Rock on the Range when they did Bamboozle! In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, I am doomed!…..Oh man, this is crazy! Check out this video of Marilyn Manson performing a cover of the Eagles‘ “Hotel California.” I think he forgot some of the lyrics. It was during the wrap party for “Californication” he filmed for HBO. This season, Manson plays himself and performs in a couple episodes….Muse has confirmed to Britain’s NME the band will perform at the closing ceremonies for the 2012 summer Olympics in London, scheduled to take place this Sunday (Aug 12th). The band will play its new song “Survival,” which was chosen as the official theme of the Games. Drummer Dominic Howard said, “I’m happy with the song. It’s a proper Muse song. It’s not something we just did for the Olympics. They sowed a seed by asking us to do some music but then five months went by. We showed them a few songs when they asked us about (playing the) closing ceremony and they loved it. It represented the enormous competition of what the Olympics is.“…Working away on a great promotion for our upcoming HARDDRIVE LIVE TOUR with MARK TREMONTI! And your local stations in the tour markets will also have a killer way to be a part of the tour and win cool stuff. So stay tuned! And if you live in the NYC area and want to see Mark perform on Sep 12th, keep an eye here for ways to enter a contest! And the tour announcement is coming, with tickets on sale next week! Deets on all coming soon!
