If Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor is nervous, he's doing his best to hide it. Decked out in full slasher-movie uniform, he dances through a doorway, belting out the chorus of Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms." Some nerves could be excused: Tonight is the Iowa metal band's first-ever Madison Square Garden gig, an evening made possible, in part, by the band's 2008 Number One album, All Hope Is Gone. "I don't know why they even let us in," Taylor marvels. "They must think we're the Jonas Brothers."

Backstage, the band receives well-wishers, including Marky and Tommy Ramone, to the delight of Taylor — although he's embarrassed to be caught wearing a Ramones shirt. DJ Sid Wilson, in costume, plays with his puppy and shows off the mechanical eyebrows on his new Darth Vader-ish mask. Guitarist Jim Root stops at an oversize photo of George Harrison — part of the Garden's décor — and announces to no one in particular, "Everyone else doesn't matter — just that dude right there."

When the nine-piece storm the stage, Wilson dangles perilously from a hydraulic prop, pyrotechnics punctuate the bigger choruses, and Joey Jordison's drum platform rises and spins during the rap-driven "Spit It Out." Midway through "Disasterpiece," a gut-punching grinder from 2001's Iowa, seven of the members gather in a loose formation, jumping and stomping in unison.

Earlier, percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan shared his unique perspective on the big gig. "I'm serving [my time in the band] out like a sentence," he said solemnly. "That's why I came up with the masks. I don't want you to see the tears. But the band has given me life: It took me out of depression, being an insomniac, extreme anger and violence. It showed me the world."

[From Issue 1073 — March 5, 2009]