LEWISTON – Three of metal rock’s biggest bands – Korn and up-and-comers Mudvayne and 10 Years – sold out the Colisee Sunday with their predatory sounds.
Hours before the show began, fans bought the last of 4,400 seats, then stood in two lines that wound for several hundred feet on either side of the entrance.
By the time the first act took the stage at 7:30 p.m., the fans were prepared for the audio assault.
“Usually, we have to warm people up,” said Jesse Hasek, the dreadlocked lead singer of 10 Years. He stood on a monitor at center stage, raised a hand and said, “You’re ready to go aren’t you?”
The applause shook the small arena.
Fans had begun arriving at the Colisee as early as 10 a.m., treating the show as if it were a sports event. One group tailgated in the parking lot, cooking burgers and hot dogs on a gas grill.
Others groomed for the show. Some dyed their hair. Some shaved it off. And some spiked what they had left.
Joe Lacomb of Norway painted his mostly bald head white and spiked the narrow strip of hair that remained.
He spent more than four hours in line. His favorite band: Mudvayne.
“I like their style,” he said, searching for a way to describe the effort he made to be among the first in line to the general admission show. “Mudvayne’s just awesome.”
Beside him, Tim Barrett, 19, just nodded and smiled.
A student at the University of New Brunswick, he left his home in Fredericton at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, and drove all morning to catch his place in line, behind 20 other people.
“Music’s my life,” said Barrett, who arrived about 1:30 p.m. “It’s what I do.” However, at school in Canada, he’s studying to be a science teacher.
Like Lacomb, Mudvayne drew him to the show.
That band took the stage about 8:30 p.m., following a cascade of white lights and a recorded bit of classical music” German composer Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”
As the prelude finished, Mudvayne’s crashing rhythms took over. However, lead singer Chad Gray wasn’t satisfied by the first cheers from the fans.
“I want you loud!” he taunted them. “The sign outside says the home of the Maineiacs!”
The cheers grew. And following the tradition of metal shows everywhere, fans began shoving each other.
That’s what fan Nick Horton of Portland expected.
One of the guys who cooked burgers before the show, Horton, 27, said he was a veteran of brawling mosh pits, here and at other venues.
“The last time I saw Korn, my ears rang for three weeks and I got kicked in the head during the last song,” he said. “It was great.”
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