Korn with TrustCompany and Marz at the Air Canada Centre, December 4. Tickets: $39-$59. Attendance: 8,000. Rating: N
Rating: N
Korn is so fuckin’ badass. they’re all, like, Pop sux! Yeah! And metal fuckin’ rooooools!We sure waited long enough for them. KoRn did Lord knows what, Lord knows where, before finally hauling ass onstage an hour late. What is it with metal guys? You have one fucking job — to get out onstage and play. How hard is it to do on time?
Looking over a not-even-close-to sold-out Air Canada Centre, I wondered if nu metal is finally on its way out? Dare I dream? Yesss! Yesss!
It’s all their fault, I fumed, glowering at them when they finally did come out. Jonathan Davis looked like a complete doofus sporting a long black skirt emblazoned with a silver cross.
These are the guys who catapulted nu metal into the mainstream, sparking the inevitable glut of copycat bands record companies clamoured to snatch up, no matter how shitty they were, then proceeded to slam down our throats.
“And look at them,” I thought, feeling a little bewildered. Were they always so, so — what’s the word? — mediocre, banal, totally unremarkable and utterly boring? I turned to ask the person beside me about this, but nobody was sitting there.
From the beginning I had to fight to pay attention. There was little if anything to actually look at — a bunch of guys wearing dark clothes in a dark venue — and some headbanging. Fans went a little ballistic for older tracks like the almost decent A.D.I.D.A.S., but even the faithful are getting hip to the fact that most of what KoRn do sounds a lot like stuff KoRn already did.
And acting like a snotty rebellious teenager only works up to a certain age. After a while you start to look dumb.
KoRn’s tour is based on the idea that “pop sux.” But at least pop artists don’t feel the need to define themselves by what they hate and what they’re not.
