Corey Taylor Spits Out Electrifying Performance in Rhode Island

Corey Taylor
The Met
Pawtucket, RI
December 7, 2011

“Chicken-Cow-Cow.”  Not exactly the intro music one might expect for a rock star with the body of work Corey Taylor has amassed over the past 12+ years, but then, nothing about this appearance was entirely expected.

Taylor began the performance by setting some ground rules then reading excerpts from his book, Seven Deadly Sins.  He prefaced the reading by saying “This is #50 on the Christian reading list … that means two fucking things by the way, one, they’re buying it in bulk to burn, or two, I am warping the shit out of the Christian youth of today.”

Taylor also took some time to tell stories and answer questions from the audience.  Many of the stories, such as getting electrocuted by Daniel Tosh and the origins of “Chicken-Cow-Cow” contained a lot of humorous elements.  Other stories offered insight into Taylor’s life as a musician, like the creepy doctor’s office in Indianapolis that provided the best remedy for sore vocal chords and his remarks about what life is like now that he’s been sober for a year and a half; “When I thought I was singing great wasted, turns out I was not.”

For the second half of the appearance Taylor whipped out his acoustic guitar and played songs to the delight of the crowd.  The set included the Stone Sour favorites “Zzyzx Rd.” and “Through the Glass,” as well as songs from the Slipknot catalog like “Spit It Out,” “Psychosocial,” and “Snuff.”

Taylor also played a good number of cover tunes, including Elvis’ “Burning Love,” Alice In Chains’ “Down in a Hole,” U2′s “With Or Without You,” and the Ramones’ “Outsider.”  Despite being a bit under the weather, Taylor sounded great.  It was impressive to hear how he made the songs his own by playing them his way and not trying to over-emulate the bands.

The set closed with a rowdy rendition of “X-M@$,” the anti-holiday track Taylor released last year.  It’s no wonder why he makes such a great front-man, because whether he’s singing, speaking,  and playing guitar (or even cheap Casio keyboards), Corey Taylor is lively, animated, and engaging.  He doesn’t have to work to connect to the crowd; he just does it instinctively.

Taylor’s closing remark from the Q&A session sums up this evening pretty well, “As long as your passionate about something, fucking do it.  You don’t have to define your life by it, but at least try for it.”

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