In wake of the terrible tragedies the United States has suffered in the past week, no sector of life has been left unaffected, even music. Though things like sports and entertainment seem almost meaningless at this point in time, one change that will affect Madison is the rescheduling of the Pledge Of Allegiance tour, which was set to invade the Alliant Energy Center on Sept. 19. The tour, which features the angry masked men of Slipknot as well as System Of A Down, Rammstein, Mudvayne and American Head Charge, has been rescheduled for October 12 at the same time and location. Tickets from the original show will be honored at the new date.
The Slipknot-headlined tour gives the Midwestern metal heads a chance to try out new material from their recently released record Iowa, which, according to some industry insiders, made a somewhat disappointing debut on the Billboard 200 chart. The album was expected to enter at number one with sales nearing 500,000, but entered the charts at number three with sales around 250,000. Although a strong initial selling, Iowa makes a point: that Slipknot, and its rage-filled music, is not for everyone.
System Of A Down are also on the tour in support of their new release Toxicity that, like Slipknot, speaks to a specific demographic of music fans. Following a riot at a free show that ended up never taking place in California, the band is hoping to actually take the stage and test out the MTV-rotated track “Chop Suey!” and the rest of the material from the loud and disjointed new release.
Rammstein’s pyrotechnic and often shocking stage show was welcomed by Korn fans everywhere when the band undertook its first major U.S. tour in 1998, but since then Rammstein has almost entirely disappeared, despite recently releasing an album entitled Mutter. The band and its shock value seem to have worn off on an American music-buying public that has seen and heard a little bit of everything.
Mudvayne and American Head Charge are both up-and-coming acts hoping to cash in on whatever success the Pledge Of Allegiance tour has to offer. Both acts recently toured together on Ozzy Osbourne’s brainchild Ozzfest, and while Mudvayne picked up an MTV Video Music Award in the MTV2 category, American Head Charge is hoping to jumpstart its career. The seven-week Pledge Of Allegiance tour will begin September 21 in Denver.
