The Corey Taylor Experience
Corey Taylor, The Cherry Bombs
April 13th, 2019
Q Casino
Dubuque, Iowa
700 miles round trip. Traveling across the entire state of Iowa. Getting lost and finding myself in Wisconsin. It was a long weekend, but well worth the trip to Dubuque, Iowa. I have many fond memories of one of Iowa’s largest river cities and was about to make new memories.
Announced back in February, Corey Taylor’s show at the Q Casino in Dubuque sold out in less than 3 minutes, a record for the casino’s concerts.
Tonight’s concert wasn’t going to be your average run-of-the-mill Corey Taylor performance, that much I was certain about. Taylor normally tours in conjunction with his book releases and dubs the shows “An Evening with Corey Taylor”. Tonight’s show would be all about the experience, the Corey Taylor Experience. This would be Taylor’s first tour to have an opening act, choosing to go on the road with The Cherry Bombs. For those not familiar, The Cherry Bombs were founded by the phenomenal Alicia Dove, Taylor’s longtime girlfriend and fiancé.
The Cherry Bombs’ burlesque show was full of heavy metal music, women comfortable with their sexuality, and fire. Yes, fire. Dove is an accomplished fire swallow-er, and fire dancer. These women know how to put on one helluva performance. Their choreography was also spot on. Each of them moving in perfect synchronized time with each other. The ladies also looked like they were genuinely enjoying teasing and toying with the audience.
After The Cherry Bombs thoroughly set the pace and tone of the evening, a local comedian prepped the crowd and let us know that tonight’s show would be recorded for a live album. This announcement really got the sold out crowd primed.
It was now time for Corey Taylor and his band of merry men to take the stage. If I’m not mistaken, Taylor dubbed his backing band the Ruptured Nuptials, the world’s most dangerous wedding band. Dustin Schoenhofer of Walls of Jericho stepped in as drummer and apparently learned the set in three days. Jason Christopher would once again be joining Taylor on tour. Christopher has been a staple at Taylor’s solo shows, and I believe has filled in several times in Stone Sour. Zach Throne, who slams shots of tequila as well as I do, rounded out the live line-up.
What a lot of people missed was that this was not An Evening with Corey Taylor. Taylor wasn’t promoting a new book or album. Taylor was touring for several shows in the Midwest because he wanted too. Having seen the set’s from a few of his previous shows, I knew he wouldn’t be playing any Stone Sour or Slipknot tracks. Those are saved for his “An Evening With” performances.
I still heard a few people whinging about it though, which makes no sense. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen Slipknot, and Stone Sour dozens of times live, but I’d rather see Taylor perform those tracks with his other bands. For tonight’s show, I wanted to hear Taylor and his friends smash through a set of tracks that they wanted to play from artists that inspire them and songs that they love. That’s what this short string of tours dates is all about; Having fun. To be honest, it wasn’t for everyone. There were the hardcore Stone Sour, and Slipknot fans that I know left disappointed. That being said, those of us who went to the show with an open mind were treated to an exceptional, once in a lifetime performance from some incredibly talented musicians.
