Beneath a backdrop that reads ‘Hated’ stands arguably the most loved man in Los Angeles right now.
Corey Taylor has a somewhat checkered history with this particular street, Sunset Boulevard, which he relates in the spoken word section of the show, his local knowledge adding an air of intimacy to tonight’s performance.
But more than that, the audience crammed into The House Of Blues feels like they know him. And in that they would be right. What we’re seeing tonight is not an act, it’s just who Corey Taylor is.
And so, after 45 minutes of storytelling – part Heny Rollins, part Denis Leary – we get into some songs. Corey goes off for a piss first, even though this is being broadcast live on YouTube, and again there’s that intimacy… We may as well be in his living room or around a campfire. Inevitably there’s a Pink Floyd medley. Hell, there’s a bit of everything, from numerous Stone Sour songs to a verse of Steel Panther’s Community Property to Live to Green Day, but that’s the beauty of Corey Taylor’s shows; no matter how brilliantly delivered, we’re still just hanging out with friends. He forgets the words and no one cares. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you get an entire audience hopping on one leg while you laugh your ass off through an acoustic version of Slipknot’s Spit It Out. Bloody marvellous.
