Last night was the opening night of the 2022 Knotfest Tour. I have never attended the Fargodome before, but I have to say I was really impressed. It is very well laid out and the staff was extremely helpful. First up on the evening was a newer band Wage War. I had heard of them before but was not familiar with their music. They are very much in step with the newer bands right now. Very loud hard driving music with a little bit of angst mixed in. One of the things I appreciated about them was they had two singers. They traded off vocals which made the music at least in my opinion more interesting. They had a lot of energy, and they were fun to watch.
Second on the bill was one of my favorites, In This Moment. Who in my opinion, fit perfectly on this tour. There are so many things I love about this band from the theatrics to the music. To me they are the complete package and exactly the type of artist I very much enjoy seeing live.
They worked their way through a 45-minute set and went over extremely well with the crowd. Although I have to say there were a lot of In This Moment fans in the crowd. They opened with an eerie version of Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle”. And then went into all their original songs. The highlights of this show for me in the setlist was their songs,” Blood”, “Sick Like Me” And they closed out with “Whore”.
Their production works perfectly in a larger venue. It kept the crowd completely engaged for the entire show add their musicianship is top notch. Guitar player Randy Wetzel, is among the best in the business. To the best of my knowledge this show also marked the return of their original guitar player Chris Howorth, who was absent on their last tour. Rounding out the band is Travis Johnson on bass and Kent Diimmel on drums. Both equally as talented and fun to watch. It was nice to see the complete band back together again playing live. I find lead singer Maria Brink to be among the best in the business as well. She is captivating to watch along with the dancers. In This Moment is one of those bands that I can’t recommend enough. If you like Slipknot and other bands in this genre, please give In This Moment a listen. and follow that up by seeing them play live. You will not be disappointed.
Headliners Slipknot left nothing on the table. They were absolutely fantastic. I think one of the things I enjoy about going to shows that are a little bit farther out in places like Fargo, is the fans are not jaded like some of the big cities. Don’t get me wrong, they have a strong following wherever they go but the kids were so excited to be there. It was people of all ages from very young to older than me. All having an amazing time enjoying some rock and roll together.
They embody everything that a rock band should have in my mind. They create excitement, chaos and a huge adrenaline rush watching them play. Although I’m sure some of the old timers would snub them as a gimmick, I would argue that they are one of the best bands on the road today. When you make your fans that happy, how could you not be awesome?
The thing I want to share with you above anything else is the incredible talent I find Corey Taylor to be. Admittedly when they first hit the scene, I didn’t get it. It wasn’t that I was against what they were doing it just didn’t make sense to me. But then I started to see them play live and eventually it made total sense what they were doing. What really struck me was seeing Corey Taylor play with his other band Stone Sour which is completely different than Slipknot. But even more so his solo project CMFT, which is downright amazing. Infact, I would say about all three of his projects. Not to mention the solo acoustic shows that he does now and again.
When I was a young kid, I used to read about bands and artists that I love. They would talk about bands and artists that they grew up on that were an influence on them. I think that still holds true today. For any of you that don’t understand a band like Slipknot, you owe it to yourself to look at the history and the bands that influenced them. I know for a fact Kiss and Flipp are on that list for Corey Taylor. Brynn Arens of Flipp told me he used to see Corey in the front row at a lot of Flipp shows when he was young.
They played a very long set of 17 songs that included the opener. “Disasterpiece”, “Dead Memories”, “Psychosocial”, “Snuff”, “Duality”, and “Spit It Out” to name just a few. The light show was over the top along with the pyro and all the other chaos you expect to see at a Slipknot show. The one thing they have over many other touring bands is the loyalty and love of the fans who go absolutely crazy whenever they play live. This is a tour as a rock fan you do not want to miss this year! You don’t have to be a fan to see this. You will be very impressed and walk away feeling glad that you went.
