Even without a name, Korn’s upcoming tour looks to be a wicked, three-tiered assault on the senses, complete with crowd participation, a revolving stage and a mic stand with breasts.
The Tour With No Name is scheduled to begin June 20 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and run through 26 gigs before wrapping up July 29 in Denver. For concertgoers already familiar with Korn’s new album, Untouchables, released Tuesday, they can expect the songs’ already vicious rumblings to become even more so.
“These songs are just awesome,” singer Jonathan Davis said none too modestly, “and they’re even better live. The album’s great, but when you hear it live, it’s even more brutal and awesome.”
Even if they wind up with tickets behind the stage in the nosebleeds, fans needn’t worry about getting a good view. The stage rotates 360 degrees, giving fans a direct sightline to the onstage action no matter where they are in the arena.
“The stage is [set up on] one end [of the venue], but we’re playing in the round ’cause we’re filling up the seats all the way in the back,” Davis explained of the layout. “There’s no backdrop. There’s a ramp that goes all the way up, so we can play to the back. [And] I think David’s drums are going to turn to the back and play to the back. We basically wanted the fans to be the backdrop of our stage.”
One visual fans won’t want to miss is Davis’ prized possession: a microphone stand designed by H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist responsible for the harrowing creatures in the “Alien” film series, whose work is distinctive for its bearing of fangs, bones and assumed genitalia. Not only does the stand, which appears in the video for the LP’s first single, “Here to Stay,” have a head and breasts, it also has a name: Majesty’s Voice.
“I love [Giger’s] erotic art,” Davis said. “My sister’s boyfriend turned me on to it. And this girl came up with this idea to see if we could get a hold of Giger and commission a mic stand from him…. I wanted to do something that was very sexual and dark, in touch with what he does.
“It’s so dope, it’s retarded,” he continued, explaining his fondness for the finished product. “I mean, no one has ever seen a mic stand like that. I just wanted to take it to a different level…. It’s a useable sculpture. It’s functional art and it’s all mine.”
While an elaborate mic and spinning stage point toward a stimulating show, openers Puddle of Mudd and Deadsy make the recipe for rock complete, Davis said.
“I love Puddle, they’re a great band,” he said. “They write good rock/pop tunes. You want a variety when you do a show; you don’t want to hear all the same kind of heavy pounding stuff. You need to give your ears a little break. And it’s great because you have Deadsy, who are really this death-pop, doom-and-gloom kind of thing. And then you have Puddle of Mudd and then you have us. It’ll be a good show.”
