Live Review - Stone Sour in Glasgow!

STONE SOUR - 15th March - Glasgow Academy

Forever Never open to a smattering of fannies in Slipknot t-shirts, but their ballsy tunes of no-nonsense British steel soon have more and more punters flowing down into the front area with pints in hand, ready to half-strip and join the pit at any given moment. Bruiser frontman Renny Carroll doesn't shirk from rallying the troops with his battle cries, and before long a nut in a Forever Never t-shirt dives in and kicks off the first mosh of the night. Sounding every bit like a young Machine Head in this dauntingly massive venue, and with an army chanting "FOREVER! NEVER!" in their wake, the young lads show a room full of strangers just why they deserve this support slot.

The same can't be said of Flyleaf - as an established act with history under their belt, they should more than shrug off the gauntlet set by upstarts Forever Never. This should be half an hour of powerful, fist-pumping chaos to wow a room ready for action - instead it stops everyone like a bucket of water to the face. In a week's time, no-one will remember this.

So in swaggers Corey Taylor, his shiny bald head making him look like a cross between a rejuvenated Phil Anselmo and a tattooed Glasgow nutcase hankering for a greasy kebab....He announces that it's a "braw bricht moonlicht nicht, the nicht" to vociferous cheers!

Next single "Sillyworld" gets a furious airing, Jim Root tearing notes from his guitar as the song builds into a an uplifting balls-to-the-wall anthem - for the younger kids more familiar with 2006's "Come What(ever) May" album, chanting "We fought a lot!" with Corey is a big highlight.

The first half-hour rarely sees them stray from this record, delving into heavyweights like "30/30-150" and "Reborn". Before long though, things are derailed with a surprise instrument failure, a guitar is tossed away and the band storm off - leaving a sheepish Corey standing stage front, grinning. You couldn't possibly predict what he was going to do next, but one thing's for sure - you'd have got long odds on him firing up a solo rendition of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Lighters are held aloft and we join him in crooning "I don't wanna fall in love....with you!" - you wouldn't get this at a Slipknot show!

A bit of normality returns - making it all look like improv, he effortlessly slides into fan-fave "Bother". There's more cover madness before he's done, whipping out "Sweet Home Alabama" with new lyric "Singing songs about Scotland!" finding its way into the first verse... Technical problems fixed, the boys reappear and play "Through Glass", their last single and a rant against plastic pop culture.

Corey's mid-song patter has finally evolved, now favouring a bit of banter and chat to the tired old "You're the best fucking crowd in the whole goddamned world" ...but he still can't resist throwing in a "You crazy motherfuckers!" It just wouldn't be a Stone Sour gig if he didn't call us "crazy motherfuckers"...

Soon it's the "last chance to go crazy!", and anyone who believes that has been sorely deprived of a good gig in their life - a riff rings out from a battered guitar, the lights go down, we chant for more, wait a minute and to everyone's surprise they reappear for an encore!

"Hell & Consequences" is one last vicious blast for the conveyor belt of crowdsurfers, with fat sweaty bastards lining up for a shot to go up top. On what could have been another quiet Thursday night for her, Corey keeps the Academy's cleaning lady in a job - stopping mid-song to barf up most of his rider demands, the stage covered in a steaming pile of yellow afterbirth. Yum.

http://www.stonesour.com 

http://myspace.com/stonesour 

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/artists/StoneSour