This is for the fans: Curious? Stone Sour played in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday (June 23), and then three days later at the Whiskey in LA on Wednesday (June 26). Couldn’t be there to check it out? Check out this awesome write up of the Des Moines show, written by Denny Harvey (who was an original founding member of Stone Sour, and although no longer in the band, who introduced them at the show). “Where do I begin? My day started at 9am and I had to work all afternoon before the show. This is what I get for being in retail. After putting up with the public’s bullshit all day. I had a lot of anxious fellings about this show, it was the first official Stone Sour show in five years. I know, I know…what about Superego? Over the last two years, I kind of knew it was going to come back around. Every time our old friends would see Corey it was always “When are you going to get Stone Sour back together?”. People, myself especially, wanted to see this for so long it hurt. Deep down Corey really wanted to do it too. In a way, I think Corey always wanted this and all of the project x / superego stuff was to test the water and see what people thought about it. 9 times out of 10 it was an amazed reaction. Those of us who knew what Corey was capable of knew barking like cookie monster wasn’t going to cut it forever. Don’t get me wrong, I love Slipknot and what they do, but I know just how much further Corey can go in other kinds of music. This was the homecoming that we had all waited for. This was about fun. About loud emotions being set free. About letting the rest of the world hear something made with heart and spirit along with the aggression. Sing along, this is the soundtrack to your life. I got to the venue @ 6pm. The line was wrapped along the building and snaked around the other side. Poor bastards. To those who waited out in that Iowa humid 95 degree heat, I salute you! Inside, I met up with Corey and Co., talked with the “Round Guy” from KGGO and shot the shit with Lou Brutus from Hard Drive. Lou is a fucking maniac in the finest sense of the word! I met him 2 years ago in New York and had a blast. He came out for this as a vacation! How many people do you know that will take their vacation in fucking Des Moines, Iowa?!?!?! A town we have been trying to escape our entire life! After the doors opened, I was pretty much mobbed by old friends I haven’t seen since… Well… since the last Stone Sour show! A lot of love in that room, a lot of memories for the people who remember. People who kept Corey and I alive for a few fucked up years. Speaking of which, Gram showed up!!! “Gram” Taylor is a lot of the reason I am still alive right now. Hell, she kicked Corey out of his own room so I had a roof over my head. I have a lot of love and respect for that lady. Anyway, it was getting closer to showtime. I went back towards the side of the stage and went back to the “green room”, which was a glorified broom closet, and hung out with the guys for awhile. Corey was a little nervous as to what the crowds reaction was going to be to Stone Sour vs. what they were used to with Slipknot. I told him “Fuck It, I think this is going to kick ass…don’t worry about it” or something to that effect. Joel summed it up best: “Let’s just have fun.” Ever since Corey had asked me to do the introduction, I was stoked. Back in the old days, I would always open the show with a big “Kiss Style” announcement. I went over what I was going to say in my head and getting more nervous by the minute. I really don’t get nervous about being in front of a crowd, I’m used to it, but this was different. This was a night to remember. It was time. I left the room and looked out, the place was stupid packed full of bodies. i walked up to the stage, took a deep breath, and made my way up to Corey’s mic. This is my little speech, as best I can remember: “What’s up Des Moines! About ten years ago I guess I did something right, I helped start this band.” “How many of you have never seen Stone Sour live before?” [much cheering] “How many old school people do we have here that remember the battle of the bands?” [lots of cheers] “Back then, they said Stone Sour wasn’t good enough. ” [lots of boos] “Well, I guess fate is a bitch. Cause the way a see it…Tonight it looks like these guys win after all!” [Crowd goes batshit] (for those who noticed, this is where I start to get choked up) “I have been waiting five years to say this… Would you please welcome Des Moines own… STONE SOUR!!! ” At this point, they kick into “Get Inside” and it’s on ! People crowd surfing, moshing, stage diving, the works. I was standing over on stage left on singing my ass off all night. At one point, during “Inhale”, I got so choked up I actually cried. They sounded great from my side of the stage, i didn’t get to hear it through the front of house speakers so i have no idea how you guys heard it. Back in my section it was friends and family,m and we were all beaming with pride. Dizzy, Katie, Laura, Burk, some model from Chicago (?!), Brandon…too many people to list. I did get a kick out of Corey doing “Bother” by himself. It reminded me of sitting at Gram’s house with no air conditioning and an acoustic guitar. He really was having a blast, I can tell. The show closer “Tumult” was explosive to say the least. I about blew my vocal cords singing along. One of the funniest moments of the night was watching Brandon (yes, that Brandon) stage dive from the stage only to be tackled by the security guards and running across the stage flipping them off. I laughed my ass off. At the end, both Shawn and Jim threw their guitars/bases and destroyed them. Thus, fucking up any possible encore. Josh is protective of his shit, no broken guitars there! I almost had everybody ready to do an encore of “Wicked” but security had already started clearing everybody out. It was a good thing, Corey had passed out from exhaustion out behind the bar. Afterwards, we stuck around to talk to old friends. Corey was talking to the kids to see what their reaction was, most were extremely fucking positive. That’s about the time I met S2k. He’s a cool guy. I am an easy person to talk to so I think I blew his perception of me. Eventually, I went to Perkins for some food with old friends of ours. Lou showed up with everybody but Corey and Joel. We pretty much took over the smoking section for a couple of hours. After that, my happy ass went to bed. Looking back, I was very happy with the turnout and the show itself. It was a great way to introduce this band to the kids who really were curious about it for so long. It was nice for this to be their introduction. Today, when I went to the bank for a deposit I overheard some kids in the parking lot talking about how much they loved the show. And that’s what it’s all about. Thank you to everybody who showed up, there is so much more to come, this is only the begining. See you at the show.” Love, Denny Want to read more comments on the shows? Check out the following messageboard thread here (www.musicfanclubs.org/slipknot/bbs/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topicf=1t=000454) – thanks to Chad Wierson (a.k.a. S2k) and Dizzy Draztik (ex-Rejects) in particular for writing! VIDEO: What else about these 2 shows? The LA show at the Whiskey A Go-Go was filmed for use in a video for ‘Get Inside’. The description, “Aggressive. It’s a collage of sounds coming together to be a kick-ass song,” tells Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor. The goods taped during soundcheck will be used as b-roll footage in the video, with the meat of it shot later in the evening during the band’s live performance.