Shaken values

Story and Photos of Korn & Deftones by Matt Schwenke
Photos of Flyleaf, Stonesour & Dir en grey by Terry Mayer

As storms darkened the skies and brought down sheets of rain at Alpine Valley, the Family Values Tour seemed at home with the foreboding skyline surrounding the theatre and fought back with its own storm of ground-shaking lows and electrifying shrills. As the evening wore on, more and more mud-covered fans began to appear and those who were able to put up with the weather through the end were rewarded with a refreshing set from the tour's headliners Korn and The Deftones.

Laying down a mat of dissonance-infused metal in their 45 minute set, the Deftones stomped out some new material from Saturday Night Wrist as well as some classics-- both to a heavy roar from the crowd. Front-man Chino Moreno's raps and screams were carried out with intensity as the band switched between eerie wanderings and death metal-like thrashings. At one point drummer Abe Cunningham even managed to beat his kit hard enough to knock a cymbal stand over. Moreno, who was talkative with the crowd and joked with the band, got in on the drum set bashing with a few kicks to the bass drum late in the set, and just when it seemed the band was poised to pour out an hour more of their meaty material, their set was over.

As the stage was shuffled and a red curtain draped, the crowd grew antsy when lead singer Jonathan Davis' sculpture/mic stand was unveiled. When the red curtain was finally torn away, Korn was revealed, one member at a time, joining in on "Right Now" with a group of ghoulishly masked musicians from other bands on the tour backing them up-- creating some demented animal farm backdrop amongst odd imagery projected on a screen at the back of the stage. Announcing they would be playing "Politics" twice in order to get enough footage for their next music video, no one seemed to care as the crowd roared to both takes of the song. Similar to the Beastie Boys concept of fans shooting the band, Korn had ten fans in the crowd running around with video cameras to add to the video. With the video part out of the way, Korn let loose with bass drops and the crowd chanting the chorus of "ADIDAS" before getting the crowd surging in unison to "Falling Away."

Powerful and precise at the same time, Korn delivered their strange brew of metal with the back up group adding electronica to bridge the gaps between songs. Adding another edge to the performance, Davis' bagpipe playing rousted the crowd for Shoots and Ladders before Moreno joined the band for a performance of "Wicked" that proved to be a strong collaboration. "Freak On A Leash" closed the set in full stride, and when the band reappeared for the encore, they were treating the fans in the grass seats with an acoustic version of "Hollow Life" from behind the soundboard. Escorted back through the crowd to the stage, Korn dropped three more sonic assaults on the crowd before calling it a night. And what a stormy night it was.