Stone Sour Helps Lift Rock N’ Roll Spirits in Columbus

Thursday, May 18th 2017, will forever go down in history as a day where the music industry lost another icon. In the early hours of Thursday, reports that Soundgarden lead singer, Chris Cornell, passed away quickly spread across the internet. Soundgarden, who was scheduled to headline the opening night of Rock on the Range, is now mourning the loss of their lead singer.

To help fans in Columbus cope with the news, Stone Sour was in town to play the official kick-off party at Express Live!. The event was part of a special Rock on the Range promotion that gave ticket holders pre-sale access for $11 tickets. When the event was officially on sale, it was sold-out almost instantly.

The sold-out crowd lined up early at Express Live! with lines wrapping around the entire block. Once doors opened, fans quickly filled in the hot and sweaty venue for the opening night of the Hydrograd Tour. First to take the stage was none other than Stone Sour frontman himself, Corey Taylor. Fans roared as he came out to introduce the show for comedians Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine, who were hosts on That Metal Show with Eddie Trunk. Both Don and Jim gave the crowd some much-needed comic relief.

Stone Sour took the stage with two monster tracks off of their album House of Gold & Bones, Part 1, “Gone Sovereign” and “Absolute Zero.” This quickly set the tone for the night at Express Live! Corey and the band then went though some old tracks that haven’t been played live in almost 10 years such as “Take a Number” and “1st Person.” The group also tossed in a new tack of theirs called “Song #3”, which was it’s live debut. It was nice to see Stone Sour come out and give fans in Columbus something positive to remember from the tragic day.

Almost anyone at the venue could have guessed that Stone Sour would somehow pay tribute to Chris Cornell on the day of his passing. Sure enough, Corey dedicated their performance of Soundgarden’s “Outshined”, to Cornell. The tribute was met with a huge ovation from the crowd who was due to see Soundgarden on Friday. Corey took the time to tell the crowd how much Cornell meant to him and its clear that his passing is taking a huge toll on the music industry.

The night ended with a positive vibe and some hard-hitting Stone Sour tunes. The set was closed out with “Do Me a Favor”, which every one joined Corey in singing. It seemed like a 14 song set wasn’t good enough for the band, so they came out after a short break for a 3 song encore. The encore featured another live debut, “Fabuless,” “Get Inside,” and the monster track “30/30-150.”

Stone Sour, truly showed that this summer they mean business. With their new Hydrograd album dropping at the end of June and a huge summer tour coming featuring Korn, Corey Taylor and the rest of Stone Sour are in for a busy year.

Stone Sour Setlist: