The Pledge of Allegiance Tour
Worcester, Massachussetts
10-30-01

My friend Alex and I arrived at the Centrum Center at around 6, and
we
were met by a incredibly long, twisting line of kids with piercings,
bright,
flourescent spiked hair dos and of course the essential Slipknot shirt.
We
waited in the excruciating cold for a very painful twenty minutes, and
were
admitted by fat guys with rubber gloves. They were surprisingly
gentle, and
Alex and i shuffled into the arena. In between our entrance and the
start of
the show, we waited. When Minnesota's American Head Charge took to
the
stage, we upgraded our seats significantly, and were one of the only
people
standing during AHC's set. The crowd was not in the least receptive to
American Head Charge, and the band received their loudest cheers during
their exit, but they played with intensity. Not knowing them at the
time of
the concert made it hard for Alex and I to really appreciate the songs,
yet
they at least made us nod our heads. Blistering versions of "Pushing
the
Envelope" and "Reach and Touch" stood out, but they were gone sooner
than we
would have expected and No One was quick to up the tempo.

This band is from my family's hometown of Chicago, and did a
pretty
good job of rising the energy level of a now half-filled arena. They
played
a cheesy, nu-metal/industrial type of set, with the heaviest tracks
plucked
from their self-titled album. The band was enjoyable to watch, and
frontman
Murk incited us with stupid requests like, " I want you all to let out
all
your tension on this next song, realease it guys." Alright, well... he
tried. They were fun, and I bought their album later that week, but
they
were a band that should only been seen live... the album sucks.

The whole Centrum was packed from top to bottom when the lights
went
out for SOAD. The chance to step onto the hallowed floor was present
as the
aisles leading down were packed with kids, ready to break throught the
security. I was asked, "yo, dude... you wanna run?" But I declined,
and
they successfully crippled several security guards and packed the floor
very
tightly. The SOAD set began with a stupid slide show thing, with an
old man
yelling, and it kind of summed up how their tedious set would unfurl.
They
kicked things off with "The Prison Song" and things sounded ok. They
got
an good response from the crowd, but played songs without anything new,
it
was jsut like listening to the c.d. at home. But then things got worse,
they
started playing bad songs! Alex and I sat down along with most of our
section, there was little moshing going on, and I screamed the loudest
when
"Sugar" closed the set.

Now...the good wait, the wait of some 15 or 20 minutes that I had
eagerly
awaited since August 8, when I bought "Slipknot" and fell in love. I
was
waiting to see the best band in the world. Pandemonium struck when
"(515)"
throbbed along with errie strobes that flashed behind a tattered
curtain.
Just as the anticipation seemed to reach a head, the big black shroud
dropped and the explosive "People=Shit" blew the crowd up into bits.
Nearly
the whole floor was moshing in a frenzied painful kind of way, and
there
were even some sizable pits that surfaced in the seats. Alex, who's an
easy-going, quiet kid, was headbanging and pushing people around, and
everyone seemed to be having as much fun. Corey has a remarkable
talent
with an audience and praise goes out to him for making the set as
awesome as
it was. When the "Heretic Anthem" kicked in, upon 8's request, the
whole
floor was enveloped in a swirl of pushing, punching and just plain
pissed
off kids. Mick threw a water bottle over 40 yards and Shawn did
nothing,
but the night was totally great...but all we were left with was
pounding
ears and a scent of smoke and beer on every article of clothing. Oh
yeah,
and the desire to see them again.