Stone Sour – Manchester Apollo 12/03/2007
With Flyleaf and Forever Never

Arriving at Manchester Apollo, you wouldn’t believe there was a gig due to begin, there’s no queue and very few touts. Less than thirty minutes after open doors, everyone’s inside and raring to go. However, the outside can be deceiving, despite the show not being sold out, the venue is packed and with ten minutes to go the crowd is a solid block that spills out into the bar area, much to the security guards’ annoyance.

Bursting onto stage to warm up the crowd are our friends Forever Never and make a big impact with their opening number ‘Aporia’. Despite the crowd not being the most co-operative bunch, the lead singer encourages the crowd to get moving and the rest of the band demonstrate by leaping around the stage like it’s on fire. New guitarist, Jack, looks right at home as him and the bassist compete for room to throw themselves around. As ever, FN give 110% and are full of energy, which is more than can be said for the crowd. Although they give way slightly and get some movement going for ‘As I Lie’, participation is at a minimal for ‘0707’ despite the singer’s best attempts at a sing-a-long. Closing their set with ‘This World’, Forever Never leave the stage knowing they put on a great, if slightly unappreciated, show.

Next up are Flyleaf from Texas who are also eager to impress. The guitarist flings himself about the stage and performs some death defying leaps whilst the vocalist has some pretty interesting moves herself. Using their unique sound to their advantage, each song hits the mark and the room is filled with the ambient nuances which are soon brought crashing back down by the guitars, greatly pleasing the crowd. Flyleaf certainly have an original sound and they powerfully direct the highs and lows of each song in a way that isn’t possible on CD.  However, the fans once again refuse to put their best foot forward and with the singer’s poor audience participation, it feels like the audience are going to be difficult to impress.

Stone Sour take the stage and you can almost feel the confidence radiating from them. A bald Corey Taylor creates a strong looking front man and easily whips the crowd into a frenzy as the fans finally wake up and realise that the band they came to see is about to begin. Opening with obvious choice ‘30/30-150’, the crowd are soon singing along and thoroughly enjoying themselves. The band don’t put in half as much effort as the previous two bands did, but then again, they don’t need to. Corey commands the crowd and they clearly love him for it, chanting “Corey” as opposed to the band name. With his usual banter and crowd participation in between songs, the front man ensures they put on a good show and entertains the crowd effortlessly. Mainly focusing on tracks from the new album, ‘Reborn’ is really well executed and the crowd go wild without any encouragement. However, the tracks from their debut album go down well and ‘Get Inside’ obviously makes the crowd go nuts. The atmosphere picks up loads during Stone Sour’s set and you now feel lie your getting your money’s worth. A good gig all round, showing the headliners to be on top form.

Ms. Morgan