Concert Chronicles - KnotFest Iowa (Slipknot, Megadeth, Lamb of God, Gojira, Trivium, $uicideboy$, Tech N9ne, Fever 333) 2021-09-25 Indianola, IA

I hate day(s)-long outdoor music festivals.  The positives of these festivals are that I get to see a lot of bands that I might not otherwise get to see live and I get to experience new music that I might not hear otherwise.  The negatives, however, are many and the older I get the more annoying that I find them - such as: short sets, excessive time between acts, long lines for everything, the expense, the parking, the insane amounts of people, the dirt, unpredictable weather, etc...  

So I didn't think I would be attending Knotfest.  I've seen Slipknot many, many times, and although it is (now) always a good show; I wasn't sure that I wanted to put up with all the festival negatives.  That changed the day or two later when the full line-up was announced.  Most people who know me would guess that Megadeth was the deciding factor.  Megadeth did play a big part in the decision, but the tipping point for me was Faith No More.  I've enjoyed their hugely varied musical offerings since I first saw a VHS recording of MTV's 120 Minutes with the video for We Care a Lot.  I can't say that they were ever my favorite band, but they were always intriguing and a good listen.  I enjoyed the Angel Dust album at a time when most people were disappointed in it because of the perceived differences from the previous (hugely popular) Real Thing album.  It's not the best album, but it definitely is better than many gave it credit at the time.  To me, FNM continued to explore the musical landscape and I enjoyed the variety.  Again never my favorite, but always compelling.  Is that enough to overcome my hatred of festival shows?  Possibly but wouldn't have been certain without the song Last Cup of Sorrow; which I find brilliant and would love to see live.  Unfortunately, Faith No More canceled their appearance less than 2 weeks before the show for mental health reasons.  I was highly disappointed at the news, but support mental health and applaud FNM for doing what is healthy for themselves.  Hopefully, I will see you guys in the future.

The weather was expected to be great - mid to upper 70s with clear skies.  I was busy helping get my wife ready for her job and knew I would not arrive at the festival for the beginning but I was more than alright with that as it was already going to be a long day.  Knotfest was expecting over 30,000 attendees, I knew parking would be a disaster.  I decided to take the free shuttle that was offered.  This was a festival first for me.  Previous festivals that I attended usually didn't have this option and the one time that I do remember it being offered, it was completely out of my way and inconvenient.  The ride on the shuttle itself was fine...maybe took 10 minutes longer than driving myself but saved time in the long run by not having to worry about parking.  I (on the shuttle) arrived at the festival grounds at 1:00pm-ish.  This was 2 hours after the doors opened.  I had hoped that the initial crowd would be thinned out and it would be pretty smooth sailing getting in the gates.  I was wrong.  The line was over 1.5 miles long, winding through the parking lot and doubling upon itself on the road several times.  You could just barely hear the band (Gatecreeper who I kind of wanted to see...but not enough that I tried to arrive earlier) and the people behind me were talking about how they hoped to be in before the next stage one band (Knocked Loose) took the stage at 2:15pm.  I didn't think there would be any way for this line to move that fast but at least we would be closer and they should be able to hear it ok.  I was wrong...we didn't make it in AND the sound was terrible from our vantage, they were very disappointed.  As the line finally made its way toward the gates it curved and wrapped through the VIP parking lot.  These were people who paid like $400 per ticket and got special parking and got to basically skip the lines.  Unluckily their cars were really dusty from the gravel road into the parking area and some irate fans in line started drawing dicks in dust on their vehicles.  Witnessing a sea of cocks drawn on these vehicles was pretty humorous to all of us that had been plodding along forever.  It was harmless fun, but I would have liked to see some of their faces when they noticed after the show.  As usual, the majority of fans waiting were tolerant and patient with the situation; even though they were frustrated with the poor planning.  There were a few outstanding people too - like the purple-haired girl that brought a large trash bag picking up trash people left and letting others toss their trash while they waited in line.  This should have been something done by the organizers, but of course, it wasn't.  Others were sharing drinks and food and just being amiable humans stuck in a bad situation.  There were exceptions though - most notably the non-Iowan meatheads behind me who: a)  bragged that they were going to "fuck people up in the pit", b) complained that all the bands suck except for the 3 they liked, c) complained that these fans were different than the fans that used to go see Slipknot, and d) how Iowa is more white-trash than Missouri (not sure what their reasoning was here).  I couldn't get away from them fast enough.

I was finally ticket scanned and inside the festival grounds proper at 3:10pm.  Over two hours to get inside the festival.  It doesn't look as great of a period of time when you look at the schedule but holy crap: three full band sets and half of another missed.  Why?  The production company had been saying for weeks that they expected huge crowds (get your tickets now before they sell out).  They should have been prepared.  The biggest problem was that everyone had to go through a metal detector.  On paper, they had plenty of walk-through metal detectors, at least 20, maybe more...but they missed one tiny detail.  They didn't have tables or baskets for people to bypass their harmless metal objects past the detectors (a few did, but maybe only a third of the metal detector lines were so equipped).   Every time virtually anyone walked through the 2/3 of the other metal detectors they then had to then be hand-wanded because nearly everyone had a phone, keys, watch,  or something else harmless that would set off the detectors.  It brought the entire line to a slow creep.  It was an idiotic oversite by the production company.  Unfortunately, just one of many.

Once into the festival grounds, it was all lines. Lines everywhere.  Lines for food, lines for water and other drinks, lines for the attractions, lines for merch...pretty much if there was something it had a line.  The one exception was the bathrooms.  Here the promoter did a great job and there were probably a couple hundred porta-potties around the edge of the field.  If you had to wait for a bathroom, it was never very long.  Everything else was a different story. I had originally planned on grabbing some food when I first arrived at the concert but then decided to grab a breakfast sandwich and a huge soda to hold me over for a while before boarding the shuttle...this turned out to be a lucky move.   I found a nice, spot to watch the show and spent my time people-watching between acts (especially the people in the lines).  Food and drink lines crossed nearly the entire field.  People were standing in line for two hours or more for water.  Many foods were running out and it was still in the afternoon.  Lines were so bad that there were people fainting while waiting in line for a drink (of course no outside food or drink was allowed).  After being at the show for hours, the lines had not changed much.  Talked to some people near me and they said they waited in line for two and the only food left at the vendor was french fries.  So that is all they had eaten all day (and they had been at the show since 10am...it was now 6pm).  People who made it through the lines and were now starting to buy more than they needed (if the vendor actually had food & drink) and then scalping the extra.  I saw several people pay $20 for a can of water and another guy gave someone $50 for a hamburger and beer.  I think the production company is very lucky that there were not more dehydration injuries (and there were a bunch).  It was poorly run.  It seems like one of those situations where they were like "We will limit the number of vendors so everyone makes more money!" but I think everyone would have made more money if people were actually able to buy food instead of waiting in a line for hours.  I know I decided it wasn't worth it and skipped spending the money that I had planned.  From what I could tell, lines stayed pretty consistent until about 8:30pm when they started to decrease some (not a lot, but maybe only a one-hour wait instead of two plus).  A bit later, I now feel very fortunate that the mismanagement didn't lead to any deaths (hearts out to the people that were injured and killed at Astroworld 2021).

Seeing the breadth and variations of humanity at festival concerts is always interesting.  I try not to judge people too much, but there there is always a few people that I think to myself "What were you thinking when you decided to wear that?"  There were definitely poor fashion choices, but nothing that was completely insane.  I mean, I do question the reasoning of the guy that wore the sloth onesie that was 2 or 3 sizes too small as it looked like his family jewels were more than a little smashed...but I guess that is what he wanted.  Of course, there were tons of people in Slipknot jumpsuits and masks (my calculations: 85% Corey v1 masks, 13% Joey v1 & v2, 2% Clown v1, and 1% Jim various).  Lots of people in various obscure band tees...this was often me when younger, but I wore a muppet tee this time.  I always like seeing the more uncommon shirts and even better when 2 people connect over a little-known band.  I always try to compliment someone when they are wearing a good but not popular band shirt.  The outfit that I had the biggest issue with was the shirtless chubby guy that wore star pasties over his nipples.  I am not sure if the pasties were for sun protection or privacy, but it was a total missed opportunity in my mind.  If you are going to see Slipknot and going to wear star pasties on your nipples, I would think the MINIMUM effort would be to turn the stars upside down and draw a circle around it to create an inverted pentagram.  Such a waste.

The music - I got inside the grounds about halfway through Fever 333's set.  I still didn't get to see that much of them, as I still had to work my way through the masses of people, but the song's that I was able to pay attention to (Burn It and Hunting Season) were enjoyable and I wished I was able to catch more of their set.  Tech N9ne was up next. Although I had not seen Tech before, I had checked his music previously after noticing that he plays at a local venue once or twice a year.  I enjoyed Tech N9ne's show, the horror rap he has is interesting.  My biggest issue was him trying to get the crowd to participate in various Kansas City chants and his Red Kingdom song.  To me, it just wasn't the right crowd - even though central Iowa is closer to KC than Minneapolis, Green Bay, or Chicago...I would say that none of their teams garner a majority of support.  And of those, Kansas City probably has some weaker support (completely based on the small circle of people I know)...it just didn't seem to connect with most of the audience.  I think Tech N9ne was a drag on the crowd...there were enough people just not interested in giving rap a try that the energy just started dissipating.  

I had seen Trivium before...but it had been many years ago.  I wasn't a huge fan back then but I thought they put on a pretty good show at KnotFest.  I thought Matt put a lot of heart and spirit into his performance.  Being a vast majority hard rock/metal crowd, Trivium really helped pump energy back into the crowd.  It still took several songs, but by the end of Trivium's set, the crowd was back to rocking and really ready for Gojira.  This was my second time seeing Gojira.  Previously had also been opening for Slipknot in 2019.   But, I had been a fan of them well before seeing them live.  They are one of those bands that I am surprised are not bigger than they are...still waiting for that one breakout hit, I guess.  Gojira put on a great show and I really look forward to a time when they come back to Iowa as headliners.

The crowd went nuts for Lamb of God.  Personally, I have never understood the appeal.  I've seen them a few times in concert, I have friends that swear by them, I've listened to the albums, I think Randy is pretty hilarious in interviews, etc...I have tried, but their music just doesn't stick with me.  At all.  Even now, I couldn't name a sing LoG song and would have difficulty even producing a lyric, I might be able to identify a couple riffs (maybe)...but mostly it goes right out of my head, so every time I hear it is like hearing it for the first time and being bored by it all over again.  I don't what it is, but my brain just translates Lamb of God to "This is the most generic, boring music I have heard" and quickly forgets it.

$uicide Boy$ were next and I was not familiar with them at all...and I would say the same for most of the crowd.  There was a small group of people that made their way to the front and seemed to be really into and knew the lyrics, but a lot of the crowd decided that it was a good time to hit the bathrooms or grab a drink.  There was some booing, which I didn't agree with as they were doing a decent job...it was just the wrong crowd.  I can appreciate what Slipknot was seemingly trying to do - expose people to a wide range of music.  I think that is great, but I think the rest of the conditions of the festival made the crowd more than a little angry and not receptive to new things.  I think the crowd might have been more receptive if they played earlier.  From my vantage point, I also thought they had some sound issues with the bass being way too loud and blown out.  So not only did it all sound a bit too fuzzy, but also it was so loud that the vocals were lost in the mix.  Overall,  I thought their set was OK.  I would have loved to see Run The Jewels in their place but that is only because I am more familiar with their music.

The headliner of stage 2:  Megadeth.  Megadeth is always a big draw for me, I have been a fan since my older brother first brought home the Peace Sells album in 1986...I was in sixth grade.  I have been lucky enough to have seen Megadeth many times on many tours - in large arenas, mid-sized concert halls, and smaller live music bars.  (I'll get chronicles up about most of those eventually.)  This show, however, was probably the most disappointing.  I might have had my expectations set way too high because I was really looking forward to this show...even with the unfortunate dismissal of David Ellefson a few months earlier, I still had high hopes. But to me, this show just seemed off.  It was still good, just not as good as I had hoped. When I think of a Megadeth show, I think of a dark stage and all of a sudden lights flare up and they bust into a ripper like Hanger 18 to melt faces.  It's zero to sixty in no time flat and it always gets my blood pumping.  This show however started with the recorded version of Prince of Darkness played over the PA system with video of various Vic Rattlehead and Megadeth images swirling and moving about on the video screens.  And this went on for minutes.  I think they thought it would build tension for Megadeth, but for me, it did the opposite.  It was diminishing, it took away all the impact of Megadeth's wall of noise, killer opening.  I was also surprised at how weak Dave Mustaine's voice sounded.  I have been to shows where his vocals were mixed too low but you could still tell his intense sneer, but this wasn't just low vocals it was like he didn't have his usual power.  I know Dave just turned 60 and that he battled throat cancer just a couple years earlier...but still I became distracted, it was hard to concentrate on the current set when my mind was comparing these vocals to all the vocals of past shows.  There also seemed to be a lot of breaks between songs.  I don't remember this happening in the past...the shows I recall were Megadeth coming out and just busting for 45 to 90 minutes, maybe a little banter or rant in the middle but mostly just killer song after killer song, no breaks.  Maybe it was equipment issues, maybe it was age...but play a song, stop for 2-5 minutes, play another song, stop for a few minutes....it just sapped all of my excitement and of course then they can't play as many songs in the set, which was just a waste.  I became wistful and more than a little depressed that this was perhaps the winding down of my faithful companion for the past 35 years.  I still enjoyed the show, it was still very good and these are all just minor flaws of a hardcore fanning pining about the loss of his own youth.  I told others at past shows when there was a lineup change or something wasn't as great as it could be: "a bad Megadeth show is better than many bands' good shows".

Finally, Slipknot.  I've seen Slipknot many, many, many times and after they struck it big, a home state show is always a glorious, high-energy affair.  And this was no different.  But after being somewhat let down by Megadeth, having been on my feet for 9+ hours, having nothing to eat or drink...I was worn out and not really in the mood.  I retreated further back onto the festival grounds to further distance myself from the crowds and just watched the video screens.  It is pretty amazing to see how they have transformed over the years and honed their sound.  Slipknot was good but a little after midnight, I decided that I was done for the day and headed for the exit and shuttles.  I did miss the last couple of songs and the Paul/Joey tribute but I was ok with that so that I could avoid the crowds...and I am glad I did.  I was able to get directly onto a bus and was back to my parked car in about 40 minutes, which wasn't bad.  But as we are getting dropped off at 1am, over the bus' radios you can hear the dispatcher begging for the drivers to return to the festival fairgrounds and pick up more loads of people.  From the radio chatter, it sounded like the production company had only contracted the drivers until 1am and so they were all taking their buses and going home...but the show didn't get over until 12:30am.  Later, I heard a bunch of people had been stranded at the festival grounds until 3 or 4am due to lack of buses and drivers.  Just another poorly planned aspect by the production company.  Personally, I was starving and parched so I headed to the nearest fast-food restaurants...all were closed.  I guess I hadn't really been out late since COVID started and hadn't realized that all these restaurants that used to be open until 3am or even 24 hours were now closing early.  Even most gas stations were closed.  I was thankful to find an open Quik Trip gas station and it was packed with fellow Slipknotters. I grabbed a soda and their last microwave sandwich (which was awful, but also delicious since I hadn't eaten anything since 13+ hours earlier).