Murderdolls + Stone Sour
Glagsow Barrowlands, 10th July 2003
Throughout Stone Sour's hefty hour-long set I find myself somewhat distracted. You see, in honour of our beloved country (that'll be Scotland), rather tasty frontman Corey Taylor is sporting a kilt. A kilt of a rather horrible, Gold Bros. picnic blanket tartan admittedly but he's wearing it 'regimental' as they say. And he has his foot on the monitor. Temperatures in the Barras are rising and no mistake, and not just because it's summer. (Yes, contrary to popular belief we do get summer in Scotland. Occasionally.) Security guards at the front of the mosh pit are squirting the sweating kids with water sprays like 1950s scientists battling mansize bugs and much flesh is being bared, both on stage and off.
Live, Stone Sour sound a lot better than they do on record. With a majestic instrumental intro that leads me to expect pods and a six inch high Stonehenge, the band storm onto the stage in a blur of flailing arms, flying hair and flashing strobe lights. The somewhat over-processed nu-metal of the album is translated into fierce, visceral power in the flesh. With thrashing guitars, battering drums, and pounding bass, they sound like Metallica in their prime - in fact Corey blatantly wants to be James Hetfield when he grows up (just needs to start working on those sideburns) a fact that is underlined during a solo interlude when the single 'Bother' segues into 'Sanitarium'.
The consummate frontman, Corey certainly knows how to work the kids. Like all truly great bands, both Stone Sour and the Murderdolls have that gift of making the crowd feel as if they're all part of one big gang, misfit youth versus the grown-ups, us against the world. So raise your fists, horns in the air, fuck the world and let's rock. And Corey takes his kilt off at the end. Phwoar!
Can the Murderdolls follow this? Er, yeah! Bursting onto the stage in a riot of red and black PVC and flying dreadlocks, they rip into 'Dawn of the Dead' and the crowd goes wild. As ever, they look great, a bastard hybrid of Mötley Crüe and Dr Frank N Furter, and they're sounding damn hot too, firing on all cylinders as they race through a set culled almost entirely from debut album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls, with 'Teenage Zombie' and '1976' particularly well received by the sweating mass of flailing bodies below.
New track 'Murder Pie' boasts a cool funky bassline reminiscent of Alice Cooper's 'Blue Turk', although Wednesday's intro ('This is a song about getting drunk and killing people. Which is fine by me.') demonstrates the same forehead-smacking, lame-brained attitude I complained about when reviewing new single 'White Wedding'. Which, incidentally, is an absolute triumph live, as is its B-side, the gloriously stupid 'I Love to Say Fuck' - although whether it really merits a five minute intro and special UV banners displaying the legend 'Fuck' in three foot high fluorescent letters remains debatable. They finish up with 'Dead in Hollywood' and then it's all over 'til next time. With Corey and Joey returning to the Slipknot fold this autumn to record a new album, next time could be some time off, but I for one can't wait!
Murderdolls + Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Thursday 12th December 2002
