On September 23rd, 2024 at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ
The most notorious Nu Metal band in the history Korn, well as much as they say no the band that created the music genre, is in the midst of their 30th Anniversary Tour across major North American cities. They are supported by one of the most known heavy metal bands Gojira, who just made their mark as the first metal band featured in Olympic opening ceremony, and fast rising metalcore band from Canada Spiritbox.
Written by Andris Jansons
The night got started off by a raucous performance by Spiritbox. Canadian metalcore four piece has release so far only one studio album back in 2021 called Eternal Blue, while they have release a few extended plays with the latest in 2023 called The Fear Of Fear. Bands set mostly conceited from the material taken from these two releases. Bands founders Courtney LaPlante and Mike Stringer were joined by the drummer Zev Rosenberg and Josh Gilbert on bass. Their performance was exceptional and well received by all seasoned metal fans in the audience. For me it was the second time seeing the band live and both times Spiritbox delivered all the goodies you would expect for a rising stars in the metal universe.
Spiritbox links
Read more about Spiritbox in our magazine here.
See full photo gallery of Spiritbox performance here
Next came mighty Gojira. I already mentioned why they are one of the most talked about bands in metal music. Metal has been regularly overlooked in most of all mainstream sports and cultural events, and musicians along with fans embracing this outcast status as a badge of honor. But hey, the moment a headless Marie Antoniette led to the fire spitting performance from Gojira at the windows of an old French prison Conciergerie playing “Ah! Ça ira”, got all of our hearts racing. It showed the world that metal is and will be alive – always.Gojira was joined by French-Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti.
Gojira’s performance at PruCenter (yeah, we like to shorten up talk in NJ) was anything but perfect. They opened up with Born For One Thing and relentlessly followed with one heavy hitter after another one. Of course Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!) performance brought back up the Olympic memories, but the best (undoubtedly in my mind) was left for last. The set was wrapped up with Silvera, their thunderous hit from 2016 exploring the will to become the best version of yourself.
The band certainly set a stage to complement their musical and thematic message, with thousands of small lights illuminating visual messages and switching to live video feed of the performance, and all that topped off with towering flame throwers.
Gojira links
Read more about Gojira in our magazine here
See full photo gallery of Gojira performance here
Korn had the stage blacked out by a curtain. Their set was inclusive of most of their storied musical catalog. The biggest hits were intertwined with some less played songs infusing the depth and retrospect of the bands development. As any fan I would have loved more songs from the back wall, but it was plenty of favorites for every fan. Biggest and best included – Blind, Shoots and Ladders, Here To Stay and for the dessert (encore) Falling Away From Me, Clown and Freak On A Leash. During the Freak On A Leash at the moment when breakdown hit the apex the fans in the arena got showered with confetti.
By now Jonathan Davis has a few signature looks. One of the earlier is his Adidas sports costume. This tour his sporting a bright red Adidas kit. Brian “Head” Welch and their new bass player Ra Díaz (from Suicidal Tendencies replacing Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu who is currently on hiatus from the band) went with some Adidas high socks as well. While I strongly believe that Fieldy is irreplaceable, my opinion is that Ra did amazing job filing in.
Korn links
Read more about Korn in our magazine
See full photo gallery of Korn performance here
Korn will continue to tour till the end of the next month making also a stop at the Louder Than Life Festival. See the full list of the remaining shows below and purchase the tickets here – https://kornofficial.com/
KORN 2024 TOUR DATES WITH SPECIAL GUESTS GOJIRA AND SPIRITBOX:
Fri Sep 27 – Detroit, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sat Sep 28 – Chicago, IL – Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Sun Sep 29 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life*
Wed Oct 02 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater
Thu Oct 03 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
Sat Oct 05 – Los Angeles, CA – BMO Stadium^
Sun Oct 06 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
Tue Oct 08 – Portland, OR – Moda Center
Thu Oct 10 – Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome
Sat Oct 12 – Nampa, ID – Ford Idaho Center Amphitheatre
Sun Oct 13 – Salt Lake City, UT – Delta Center
Wed Oct 16 – Denver, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre>
Fri Oct 18 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center
Sun Oct 20 – Houston, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Mon Oct 21 – San Antonio, TX – Frost Bank Center
Wed Oct 23 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
Fri Oct 25 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
Sun Oct 27 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
*Festival Performance
^Special Guests include Evanescence, Gojira, Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway, Spiritbox and Vended
>Not a Live Nation Date
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