Gig Review: Slipknot / Bleed From Within – Hydro, Glasgow (15th December 2024)

OK, this is a biggie and unexpected. Thank you to our wonderful PR friends for the birthday present of a ticket for the Glasgow show and I ensured I was there early to catch the support. Stories had been rife about the venue refusing to allow entry to anyone wearing / carrying chains or anything remotely spiky, but I gather this was relaxed when people pointed out that a) this wasn’t the case on the last tour, and b) it’s bloody silly. There was, however, a tent (with a metal detector?) that everyone had to walk through before getting to the actual queue, but this was very swift and didn’t hold anyone up.

I read other reports recently of people complaining about being kept outside in the queue for ages and missing the beginning of the headline act. The Hydro queues generally move quickly so I can only surmise that this was due to everyone arriving shortly before the main show instead of getting there early to see the openers. This, as we often bang on, is poor form so they only have themselves to blame.

Tonight there was no way that would be an issue. With local lads Bleed From Within playing their biggest hometown show to date, the Hydro was rammed by the time they came on stage. From my seat on the first balcony I’d say the venue was around 90% full for Hamilton’s noisiest band, and a very large number were here specifically to see them. The reception was rapturous, and singer Scott Kennedy is a liar when he says he’s not an emotional man. That crack in his voice wasn’t from overuse, it was from the sheer weight of the occasion.

Their simple stage setup was all they needed to belt out 50 minutes of classic and new material to an audience that were constantly baying for more. Opening with a new number (“Hands of Sin” from next year’s forthcoming Zenith) is a brave move, but at least it’s been out as a single for a while. More familiar material followed, including “Into Nothing” and the superb “Levitate”. Kennedy took time out on several occasions to basically vent about how made up they were to be playing the Hydro and I can’t blame him. I loved the little story about his dad and I really hope Mr Kennedy Sr wasn’t sat in the car park this time…

“In Place of Your Halo”, also from Zenith, came towards the end and was bolstered by a pair of drummers and pipers, something the band apparently haven’t done elsewhere on tour. It was an obvious crowd-pleaser, not that the crowd needed further pleasing, and it added something special to an already incredible night. Wrapping things up with “The End Of All We Know”, you would have thought that the headliners had finished.

The volume of the cheers, the massive circle pits, the interaction… I’ve been saying for years that Bleed From Within should be commanding bigger audiences on a regular basis. OK, so this was a hometown show, but it only proved that they have the songs and they have the ability. Roll on October and their headlining Barrowlands show! I’m sure they’ll be plenty warmed up after a run of dates supporting Bullet / Trivium.

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So… Slipknot. Is it really 25 years since that self-titled debut album that sent people into paroxysms of either love or hate depending on whether you were open-minded or not? Nine people in a band? Silly masks? Pah.

And then they took over the world.

I’ll admit, I’m not a massive fan of the first album. It’s got a couple of decent songs, but Iowa (IMHO) was overall better and they peaked with Vol. 3. Still, tonight was “first album” night and the crowd knew what to expect.

Bizarrely opening with “Dream Weaver” being played over the PA, the lights dropped, the green band logos were lit up, and cheers echoed around the arena. Former Sepultura skin-basher Eloy Casagrande made his Glasgow debut and he played a blinder all night. The only member not encased in a boiler suit, and I can’t blame him. How Joey Jordison managed it I’ll never know.

The debut album was almost played in full. If I’m right, “Diluted” was missing for some reason. “Me Inside” and “Get This” were included, though weren’t on the original album release, but did appear on a digipak import, with the former also making it onto the December 1999 reissue, though “Get This” was still stubbornly absent at this point.

Album history aside, the live show didn’t play the album in order and it’s fairly apparent why. Arguably, Slipknot has four “big” songs on it which have made regular appearances in their live shows over the years: “(sic)”, “Wait and Bleed”, “Surfacing” and “Spit It Out”. They’re all done by track 6 on the album, leaving 9+ “deep cuts” to follow. Hardly ideal for a live show, and these less well-known tracks were very apparent during the evening.

A taped “742617000027” saw the band appear on stage, launching into the aforementioned “(sic)”, “Eyeless” and “Wait and Bleed” for the opening salvo. The effect on the capacity audience was immediate. Pits opened, people were pushed  back and forth, crowdsurfers appeared. In the flickering coloured lights they did genuinely look like maggots squirming in a mass, vaguely in rhythm to the 9-piece noise-fest being generated by the madmen on stage.

And then an extended slow-down. With “Get This” and “Eeyore” (itself originally a hidden track on the CD) followed by a Sid Wilson remix of “Tattered and Torn”, the crowd visibly mellowed. Sure, there were several hundred diehards going mental, but the temperature had visibly dropped by the time they came back on with “Me Inside”… a song only played live 93 times, the majority being on this tour.

I do appreciate that the band need a couple of breathers mid-set. I’m also sure that they’re now cursing that idea of masks and boiler suits that were awesome when they were half the age they are now! Corey Taylor is about a week older than me, and I can attest to the fact that running round like a loon is a lot harder at 51 than it was at 26. Still, these breaks did leave the crowd a little flat even if they were “true” to the album by including even the oddities like “Mudslide”.

Ensuring the band finished on a high, they saved “Spit It Out” and “Surfacing” for the encore, with an extended “Scissors” wrapping the evening up. In honesty I was a little surprised that they didn’t cram another song or two on the end to bring things up to a full ninety minutes. I know of plenty of other bands who’ve done album anniversary tours and added more songs beyond the birthday release.

As long as you knew what to expect tune-wise (ie, go home and listen to that first album on repeat to warm up) then this would have been a hell of a night, and as madcap a Slipknot show as you could expect, even without the usual “jump the fuck up” during “Spit It Out” that was missing for some reason. A shame as I’d have loved to have witnessed that from my seat!

For those still to see the tour, enjoy. Make sure you’re there for Bleed From Within. With tonight’s home crowd advantage I’d almost, almost say they edged the big boys out of the limelight… We’ll have photos from the second London date once Katie has actually been to it!

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Photos by Katie Frost