Description

The November 16th 1999 was the premier of Korns fourth studio album ‘Issues’. To celebrate the release the band had a pre launch concert at the Apollo Theater in New York on the 15th of November. The Apollo is a world famous theatre and wherever you go you see wall-to-wall portraits of stars that had once played there. It holds no more than a thousand people and has an extremely intimate and warm feel to it. The theatre is a piece of history. That night, history was rewritten, and the Apollo will never be the same! The hearty contingent of the NYC Police Department Drum and Bagpipe Corps on hand, this brief evening of music began promptly at 10 PM. Adorned in traditional kilts the men of NYC’s finest kicked off this rather weird, eclectic evening. After being joined by Jonathan Davis (who was dressed in a black kilt as well) and the rest of the band, the mellow, droning bagpipes and drums were quickly replaced by the crunching guitars of Munky and Head. Let us not forget the bellowing bass lines of Fieldy and the slam-bang, intricate drumming of David Silveria. Performing the entire album unabridged and in sequence, Korn proved themselves to be even more enthralling than on past visits to NYC. Extremely heavy on the bass mix, Davis’ vocals were often unintelligible, yet the gist of the lyrics managed to come across through the muck and mire. Rife with many of the seven words not supposedly playable on the radio, it is questionable as to what various stations will do to the final product, but I can tell you, as one of the lucky 1,000 or so that managed to get into this very exclusive show, Korn’s onstage power is unquestionable. They rocked the Apollo to its core, probably harder than it’s ever been rocked before. Running one into the other, often with weird instrumental bridges in between, each song took the level of energy in the hall higher, and even though there were seats instead of a mosh pit, the crowd’s enthusiasm was plainly evident. Jumping in place, the audience was transported by the intense offering that is Issues. Despite the incomprehensible lyrics, due to the poor mixdown, the angst that Davis sang with was more than apparent. Track listing: 1. Dead 2. Falling Away From Me 3. Trash 4. 4U 5. Beg For Me 6. Make Me Bad 7. It's gonna Go Away 8. Wake Me Up 9. Am U Going Crazy 10. Hey Daddy 11. Somebody Someone 12. No Way 13. Let's Get This Started 14. Wish You Could Be Mine 15. Counting 16. Dirty