Slipknot
Lamb of God
Xfinity Theater
August 2, 2015

Summer’s Last Stand tour came to the Xfinity Theater in Hartford. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch opening acts Motionless in White and Bullet for my Valentine, but we heard good things about their sets. Lamb of God and Slipknot, however, brought one of the most powerful tours of the summer, though unfortunately not everything ran smoothly.

Lamb of God

Lamb of God has just released their seventh album, VII: Sturm und Drang; their first album since vocalist Randy Blythe’s 2013 manslaughter trial in the Czech Republic. After the experiences Randy and the band have been through, they were full of energy and ready to kick some ass.

They played two singles off of the new album, “Still Echoes” and “512.” With a relatively short set, fans were thankful that it wasn’t overstuffed with new tracks, so classics such as “Walk With Me in Hell” and “Laid to Rest” could be heard.

Setlist
Walk with Me in Hell
Now You’ve Got Something to Die For
Still Echoes
512
Ghost Walking
Ruin
Hourglass
Vigil
Laid to Rest
Redneck

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Slipknot

Still running strong in support of last year’s .5: The Gray Chapter, Slipknot had an eventful show tonight. The night started off very strong; I’ve seen Slipknot a handful of times over more than a decade, and over the course of the first few songs, it was shaping up to be one of the best shows I’ve seen them put on.

Unfortunately, after the 5th song of the night, “AOV,” before drummer Jay Weinberg could start the next song, lead vocalist Corey Taylor stopped the show and informed the audience that something was wrong backstage, and they wouldn’t continue unless everyone was healthy. Eventually he came back out to let us know that bass player Alessandro “V-man” Venturella had a medical emergency, and they would keep us posted. Over the next ten minutes, while the crowd became more and more anxious, an ambulance could be seen pulling up to the side of the stage, that eventually loaded in a stretcher and took off. Finally the lights came down, and Corey revealed that V-Man had been rushed to the hospital. They made some modifications to the setlist, and decided to come back out and finish the show without him.

While it was great that they were able to continue the show, the first song back, “Wait and Bleed,” sounded extremely thin and weak without V-Man supplying the low end. The rest of the songs weren’t as hollow, but the sound for the rest of the show was certainly a disappointment after they started out so strong. It was revealed the following day that V-Man was suffering from extreme dehydration, and collapsed. He rejoined them at their next show, however he played sitting down backstage.

Setlist
Sarcastrophe
The Heretic Anthem
Psychosocial
The Devil in I
AOV
—
Wait and Bleed
Before I Forget
The Blister Exists
Duality
The Negative One
Spit It Out
Custer
—
(sic)
People = Shit
Surfacing