Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen, Germany & Stadthalle, Offenbach, Germany
14th & 16th March 2012
Korn, The Dirty Youth, J Devil
KORN brought rage back into Rock music. In a time when rock scene was dominated by sleazy Brit poppers and latecomers of the Grunge movement, KORN were giving a new powerful voice to the disoriented youth overfed by the information era. The Californians were revitalising a whole genre being said to be very un-cool at the beginning of the 90s: Heavy Metal! This evening they came to Oberhausen in support of their new album ‘The Path Of Totality’.
J Devil
J DEVIL is the alter ego of KORN front man Jonathan Davis. Under that moniker he’s exploring different musical territory than he does with KORN. L attest news is that he’s writing some new tracks for the project. http://jdevil.com/
Music & Performance
Well, the first thing to say about the J DEVIL set is that it was loud. So loud in fact that you could feel the bass waves about ten rows into the venue still. Jonathan Davies had a lot of fun obviously, jumping around, riling up the crowd to the dubstep beats. Apparently, the new KORN album had more than just little influence on those tracks. Neither was it very original nor enough to get the audiences engines running, really. After about 20 minutes the whole thing was over already and preps for the next band started. Compared to Oberhausen, the sound on Offenbach was slightly better. It still was loud, but the ears were not aching as much as during the first German show.
Rating Oberhausen // Offenbach
Music: 3 // 3
Performance: 3 // 4
Sound: 5 // 6
Light: 5 // 5
Total: 3.6 / 10 // 4.1 / 10
The Dirty Youth
THE DIRTY YOUTH formed in 2007 and short time after headed towards the studio to record their first, self-titled EP they spent a good time of the following years promoting with live shows, part of them completely sold-out. Their first album ‘Red Light Fix’ has been released on 10th October 2011. THE DIRTY YOUTH is Danni Monroe (vocals), Matt Bond – (guitar, keys), Luke Padfield (guitar), Leon Watkins (bass) and Tom Hall (drums). http://www.facebook.com/thedirtyyouth / http://www.thedirtyyouth.co.uk / http://www.myspace.com/thedirtyyouth
Music & Performance
For the next few minutes we had an actual band on stage with a volume that was much more bearable than before. THE DIRTY YOUTH brought some high-speed, punk inflicted rock music to the venue and while from a technical point of view it was well-crafted, the show itself didn’t draw anybody from the woodwork, really. This wasn’t particularly due to a lack of action or encouragement from on stage. I think the reason was everyone being tuned for KORN already and at this specific moment being busy staring at the female front devil. As for me, it was nice to watch and a little entertaining but to get to Wembley it’ll take a little more than that. 
In Offenbach, the band showed the same fun in playing. Singer Danni just chose a different tight outfit for the show. What I liked during the Offenbach show was, that the lights had more effect on the musicians since they were hanging a bit lower and so, enlightened the faces a little more. So, you could see this time the while band, and not only the singer. The presented setlist on the second German show was exactly the same though.
Setlist
01. Rise Up
02. Final Chapter
03. Crying Out For You
04. Ellen
05. Requiem For The Drunk
06. Red Light Fix
07. Fight
Rating Oberhausen // Offenbach
Music: 5 // 5
Performance: 5 // 6
Sound: 7 // 7
Light: 6 // 7
Total: 5.5 / 10 // 5.9 // 10
Korn
KORN started in 1993 and released their first album just one year later. Along with the following ‘Life is Peachy’ from 1996, it is a favourite among early KORN fans. The third instalment ‘Follow The Leader’ became their commercial breakthrough and was the beginning of a hard shift to rather easy digestible as many say. But all those who were criticizing the band for becoming too “mainstream” in the past could experience the surprise of their lives since ‘Korn III - Remember Who You Are’ was supposed to be going back to the dark roots…or not. Instead of critical praise it received rather mixed opinions and the most recent one ‘The Path Of Totality’ makes It even more difficult for the old fans, mixing rock elements with dubstep. KORN is Jonathan Davis (vocals), James Shaffer (guitar), Reginald Arvizu (bass) and Ray Luzier (drums). http://www.korn.com/ / http://www.facebook.com/korn / http://www.myspace.com/korn
Music & Performance
So the final act was about to begin in a few minutes or more. You couldn’t exactly be sure. The motto was: Timetables are for losers! What you could expect already was it to become loud, and when the show eventually kicked off you were almost literally blown away by the volume. I mean, how insane must one be to turn up the bass that you can still feel the waves at the other end of the hall and your ears ache even with earplugs on. Seriously a bummer! KORN’s show kicked off with ‘Predictable’ and frenetic noise of the audience. Justified since the track is a killer live and with its prog elements is a little more challenging than your usual nu-metal track. ‘Lies’ continued from there on with some straight beats, suitable for the masses to start jumping along, something they could keep on doing on the following ‘No Place To Hide’. With a ferocious ‘Good God’, the old-school part found a temporary end.
For the next pile of minutes, the set was dedicated to the new album ‘The Path Of Totality’ and electronics were the prevalent element. Something that didn’t meet with excitement everywhere and keeping in mind the horrible volume from before it became unbearable at times and I for one wasn’t unhappy when that chapter of the set got closed and a few hits came along, starting off with ‘Here To Stay’, putting the crowd in a rave of ecstatic movements. ‘Freak On A Leash’ came up next and the riff, the distinctive melody of the song did something with the people could can hardly put into words. A real treat though was presented with the cover of PINK FLOYD’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’. I admit I’m not much of a fan of cover versions, especially of songs that are already that good, but the KORN version has punch and rocks like hell, and is quite a choice for a set closer. I should say a main set closer for the band came back for another three piece encore that blasted the hell out of everybody and left a sweating crowd that could now cool of in the fresh winds of the night.
Even though the setlist was also for KORN the same like in Oberhausen, the whole show left a much better impression on me. First of all, due to the balcony I had a much better view onto the band and the fans. Latter ones seemed to be more in celebration mood than in Oberhausen. But this might be a subjective impression. People were all jumping around, moshing, screaming and singing along. Furthermore, from the balcony I also had a great view onto the light show and the LED elements built up on stage. When all those light elements did not make a real impression when standing in the crowd ot close to the stage, it came to full effect from the distance. I just looked amazing! Another difference to Oberhausen also for KORN was the sound. The ears were not aching too much. Just a little sad was that the voice was too low, at least when standing on the balcony. Since I was on both German shows I can judge about both and I think the second one was the better one!
Setlist
01. Predictable
02. Lies
03. No Place to Hide
04. Good God
05. Narcissistic Cannibal
06. Kill Mercy Within
07. Chaos Lives in Everything
08. My Wall
09. Get Up!
10. Way Too Far
11. Here to Stay
12. Freak on a Leash
13. Falling Away From Me
14. Somebody Someone
15. Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd cover)
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16. Shoots and Ladders / One
17. Got the Life
18. Blind
Rating Oberhausen // Offenbach
Music: 8 // 9
Performance: 8 // 8
Sound: 5 // 7
Light: 7 // 9
Total: 7.4 / 10 // 8.4 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
Written by Sebastian Huhn (Oberhausen and common parts) and Daniela Vorndran (Offenbach)
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