In Concert This Week - August 16, 2012

There’s something going on every night this week of all rock/metal styles, so surely there is a show you should get out to see!

Doom metal guitar god Wino brings his acoustic/folk show with Conny Ochs to the Turf Club in St. Paul tonight, Thursday, August 16.

Friday, August 17 has rock band Saving Abel playing in St. Paul at Station 4 with Matchpoint and Aeous.

Of course, Saturday, August 18 is the big day for Knotfest at Somerset Amphitheater. You can read my final update (with set times and live streaming information) about the event here, but the confirmed bill at this time is Slipknot, Deftones, Serj Tankian, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Lamb Of God, Machine Head, Cannibal Corpse, Prong, and Gojira. Also on Saturday, the show for rockers The Classic Crime and Embers In Ashes has been moved from the North Star Room in Mounds View to Station 4 in St. Paul. Saturday as well has classic rock band The Guess Who headlining a benefit show for the Laker Educational Foundation with Patty Peterson and moZiak at Epic in Minneapolis.

It’s a brutal night of metal on Sunday, August 19 at Station 4 in St. Paul with Eyes Set To Kill, My Ticket Home, Awaken The Empire, Brothers Loyalty, and See The Rise. That same night Texas Hippie Coalition will be rocking at The Cabooze in Minneapolis with support from The Lost Wheels.

Things set even more intense at Station 4 in St. Paul on Monday, August 20 with Abolishment Of Flesh, Skinned, Sadistic Passage, What Lies Within, and Fetus Heist.

Station 4 in St. Paul then has an all-local bill on Tuesday, August 21 with Face Of Oblivion, Micawber, Ominous Conception, Australis, and Vessels For Our Ghost.

To wrap up the week’s event, Canadian thrashers Unleash The Archers bring their show to Station 4 in St. Paul on Wednesday, August 22 with local support from the mighty Dawn Of Valor and Eternalize, featuring Pyramaze and Echoterra keyboardist Jonah Weingarten in their first ever full performance.

PRONG Album Review

Prong – Carved Into Stone

Long Branch/SPV, April 2012

9/10

You have to admire guitarist and vocalist Tommy Victor for the perseverance in keeping Prong alive all these years. It’s hard to believe that around 20 years have passed since game-changing albums such as Beg To Differ, Prove You Wrong, and Rude Awakening breathed life into a metal scene that was being overtaken by grunge, but Tommy still manages to crush skulls with intense riffs and catchy songs. Come on, listen to “Revenge…Best Served Cold” or “Keep On Living In Pain” and you can’t help banging your head to the addictive beats and biting guitar work. 2009’s Power Of The Damager was also a great album, but new bassist Tony Campos (Static-X) and drummer Alexei Rodriguez (3 Inches Of Blood, Walls Of Jericho) seem to have helped Tommy bring Prong up to a new level of song crafting. The drumming of Alexei is especially impressive as you wouldn’t expect his experience in his previous bands to enable him to adapt to the simplistic, rhythmic style frequently employed by Prong. I haven’t gone back and listened to the entire Prong catalog to confirm this, but Carved Into Stone seems to have way more guitar solos, licks, and fills than previous efforts, and this is perhaps the most striking difference from prior albums. Otherwise, Carved Into Stone contains everything you would expect from Prong—predominantly rhythmic, mid-tempo songs with killer riffs and melodies along with fast thrashers such as “List Of Grievances” and “Eternal Heat” as well as some slower numbers like the title track and “Path Of Least Resistance”. In addition to the aforementioned “Revenge…Best Served Cold” and “Keep On Living In Pan”, “Put Myself To Sleep” and “Reinvestigate” are the other standout tracks that raise the overall appeal of the album. The passage of time will tell if Carved Into Stone has the lasting appeal of Prong’s exceptional albums from the 90s, but it is certainly their best effort since Rude Awakening. Start to finish this is a fantastic listen, and an album that every Prong fan should own. Perhaps to highest compliment I can think of is that when listening to Carved Into Stone you know this is Prong. Not many bands have such a unique, difficult-to-imitate sound, and Tommy Victor continues to capture that sound in a way that remains fresh and exciting.

Since Prong is playing this Saturday alongside Slipknot I’ll throw out a little-known tidbit about the two bands. Around 1997 or 1998 before Slipknot was signed, they opened a show for Prong in Des Moines. As told to me from a direct source, Tommy Victor was so impressed with Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison that he tried to hire him on the spot as the drummer for Prong. Joey, of course, stayed with Slipknot but he’s gone on to play live for numerous bands over the years including Rob Zombie.

Prong will perform at Knotfest alongside Slipknot, Deftones, Lamb Of God, Serj Tankian, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Machine Head, Cannibal Corpse, and Gojira on Saturday, August 18 at Somerset Amphitheater in Somerset, Wisconsin.

Final Knotfest Update

Due to the unfortunate situation surrounding the well-publicized incarceration of Lamb Of God singer Randy Blythe in a Czech prison and cancellation of their planned tour with Dethklok and Gojira, there’s been a bit of uncertainty about the final bill for Knotfest this Saturday, August 18 at Somerset Amphitheater in Somerset, Wisconsin. A number of changes have been confirmed, and Randy has also been released from prison (on August 2) and is back in the US. Here’s the latest update on the performers at Knotfest.

The most important news is that Lamb Of God will be making one-off performances at both Knotfest events (the other in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Friday, August 17). They had initially cancelled, but now are back on the bill. With the Lamb Of God/Dethklok/Gojira tour up in flames, Dethklok has cancelled but Gojira will still be there. Taking the place of Dethklok is the mighty Machine Head.

According to a recent story on Blabbermouth, the set times for the final billing in Somerset is:

Main Stage

Slipknot: 10:20–12:00

Deftones: 8:10–9:10

Serj Tankian: 6:10–7:00

The Dillinger Escape Plan: 4:30–5:10 pm

Second Stage

Lamb Of God: 9:15–10:15

Machine Head: 7:05–8:05

Cannibal Corpse: 5:15–6:05

Prong: 3:45–4:25

Gojira: 3:00–3:30

If you can’t attend Knotfest, Event View Live is hosting Slipknot’s performance as an internet streaming pay-per-view event for $19.95. In addition to access to exclusive backstage footage and band interviews, Event View Live is also doing a cool thing by allowing you to stream the concert on demand for 30 days after the event. So even if you can’t (or don’t want to) sit at your computer on Saturday night, or if there are bandwidth issues when streaming live, you can watch the concert at your convenience.

Slipknot And Knotfest To Invade Twin Cities and Omaha Areas August 17 and 18

There's been a slew of new concert announcements this week (more on these tomorrow), but one bit of news can't wait and that's the long overdue return of Slipknot to the Twin Cities on Saturday, August 18 at the recently renovated Somerset Amphitheater in Somerset, Wisconsin. To make it even more special, this is one of only two dates for Knotfest, an apparently new annual festival-style touring event—the other being Friday, August 17 in Pacific Junction, Iowa (just outside the Omaha, Nebraska metro area). The band lineup differs slightly on each day, but the Somerset date has a more extensive bill, so far being:


Main Stage:
Slipknot
Deftones
Serj Tankian
The Dillinger Escape Plan


Second Stage:
Dethklok
Lamb Of God
Cannibal Corpse
Prong
Gojira


More bands should be added to the bill. I'm just hoping that a long-time favorite live band of mine, The Urge, who is slated to play the Pacific Junction date, will be added to the Somerset show. From the initial press release, it sounds like there will be vendors and a variety of activities including carnival rides. One cool feature will be a "Slipknot museum" with information and memorabellia from the band's archives. I'll have more information about the event as I learn it!


Tickets for both dates of Knotfest go on sale this Friday, June 8 at 10:00 am CDT through Ticketmaster. The event is all ages and tickets for the Somerset date are only $23 plus fees. The Ticketmaster event page states that "A limited number of tickets will be made available at 'early bird' discounted prices." It's unclear whether $23 is the early bird price or whether this is the standard price.