Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Korn’s “The Path of Totality Tour” shakes up St. Anthony’s town, June 26th, 2013


California’s Korn perform in Padua, Italy in front of 3,000 die-hard nu metal fans.  Korn are the first band to be labeled as “nu metal”.  They are also credited with having started the new wave of American heavy metal music.  The current line-up features Jonathan Davis, Brian “Head” Welch (a return to the band after a eight year absence), James “Munky” Shaffer, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu” and Ray Lazier played to about 3,000 fans at the Geox Theater in Padua.   Korn released their first demo album, Neidermayer’s Maid, in 1993. Korn's latest albums are Korn III: Remember Who You Are (2010) and The Path of Totality (2011). 








The band has sold around 50 million worldwide with eleven of the band's official releases which have peaked in the top ten of the Billboard 200, eight of which have peaked in the top five.[  Korn’s also won two Grammy Awards out of seven nominations. 











Someone had originally suggested “Corn” as the name’s band, but the band rejected that name. Shaffer had the idea to spell the name with both a "K" instead of a "C", and a backwards "R", so the band's name would appear as "KoЯn" (the logo was designed by vocalist Jonathan Davis). 






A special treat this time for Korn aficionados on this 2013 tour as in early 2005 “Head” Welch had announced that he would be quitting the band.  In front of a crowd of 10,000, in three services at Valley Bible Fellowship in Bakersfield, California, Welch said: "I was addicted to methamphetamines and tried everything ... rehab, stuff on the Internet, but nothing helped me kick it. I was trying on my own to quit and couldn't do it. I wanted to die. No one knew what I was going through. I could not quit. Church was my last shot. I would sit in church high [on drugs]. I would wonder why people would go up to the front after the service. But one day it was for me. I said [to God], 'Show me how to quit”.  Welch made an official return to the band as of January 2013 and also in time for the band’s eleventh studio album (indeed an appropriate place for Welch to play as St. Anthony just happens to also be the patron saint of Padua).  





 
The band’s influences? Many, such as Metallica, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Primus, Slayer and Rage Against the Machine, just to name a few.










Monday, August 12, 2013

English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator perform in Udine July 3rd, 2013



Van der Graaf Generator, a progressive rock band that was formed in 1967 at the University of Manchester by singer-songwriter Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith, performed in front of a sold-out crowd in Udine.





Ironically, this British band didn’t experience much commercial success at home but instead became considerably popular in Italy during the 1970s (ditto for another great prog-rock band, Genesis, extremely popular in Italy, almost more than in Britain). The quartet subsequently achieved significant success in Italy with the release of Pawn Hearts in 1971.  Udine instead had the privilege of seeing on the same stage Hammill, Guy Evans and Hugh Banton. 
  








And the band’s particular name? It was based on a “Van de Graaff” generator, a mechanical device that produces static electricity (the misspellings are by the way accidental). 









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Some of the rather interesting churches in Italy and around the world.