In a long overdue pairing, Slipknot and Korn are touring together. Slipknot chose Flint, Michigan natives, King 810 to be the opening act.
The tour made it through my neck of the woods at the end of the US leg last night at the Izod Center (aka the Meadowlands) in East Rutherford, NJ. Korn and Slipknot make awesome tour mates, they compliment each other really well.
I missed King 810’s set, but was more than ready for Korn to hit the stage marking my 8th show.
Their stage was really simple. No backdrop, a light up floor, two screens (the boxes with the blue circles on them in the picture), a long light set across the top and four custom hanging cluster light rigs that were spread out on the right and left and directly behind the band.
A near sold out venue lit up right when Korn hit the stage. With the lights out an odd remix of Twist started to play. Ray came out first with some lights highlighting him taking position at center stage behind his new white kit. As each member came on the crowd got louder until we saw JD come on stage, he hopped into the light and they started Twist off right. Strobes and floor pulsating in time. With that quick classic done the lights went out and Munky starts the riff for Here to Stay. “Here we go!” lights flash orange and yellow and the beat just drops off a cliff with everyone hanging on for dear life. That got the place jumping.
Amazing sound, it just blew me away. Super clear, great separation, JD perfectly in the mix. They are playing so well right now. Lots of energy, JD sounds as strong as ever and he controlled the crowd from beginning to end. They played almost all singles in a short, 50 minute set. Really disappointing amount of time, but they made the most of it. Song of the night for me was Good God, which is one of my favorites in their entire catalog and one of the heavier songs they played. So good live, JD was right on the money, the final freakout was just unreal. That amazing run out of the chorus into the delicious chunky bass riff and crisp cymbal work break down. The build up that only Korn can do just before all hell breaks loose. JD practically cracked the Earth with his howl, I swear he hit it just like the album. That was played right after Falling Away From which got a huge response. 15 years from release and it’s just as powerful. Freak on a Leash was another one that just knocked everyone silly.
With such a short set, I wished Hater was replaced by anything off of the new album. Played well, but they have much better songs than that. Oildale would have been amazing. This really should have been a co-headlining tour. Full sets for Korn and Slipknot would have made it perfect. Everyone was having a great time and just when you think you’re in the middle, it was the end of the show! Anything less than 60 minutes is a crime. Despite my complaining it was one of the best performances I’ve seen them give. They’re going to be playing the entire self-titled album soon,which has been done maybe twice in 20 years. Judging by this show, that is going to be absolutely intense. I hope they do it outside of a few festivals, I really want to experience it.
Korn worked everyone up with a upbeat, party like setlist. They let Slipknot do the heavy lifting with their 100 minutes of metal. Slipknot took the reins and whipped the place into a friggin’ frenzy. They know how to put on a show (this was my second). A sick looking stage with awesome lighting and some wild pyro (which was pretty reserved. It was used wisely). It reminded me of the club in the movie From Dusk Til Dawn.
I thought the sound was rather muddy, it seemed like it was being tweaked through out the show. It was easy for Corey’s vocals to get lost in the mix, but he was really powerful last night. He knows how to work a crowd, he name dropped New Jersey a lot which won him a lot of points and they picked a killer setlist. Just one crusher after the next. Psychosocial sent the place into a frenzy. 5 new songs and they were all played really well. Custer being the new monster song, which I called when the album came out. Duality, Left Behind, Wait and Bleed, Eyeless, Spit It Out (has to be experienced in person to understand. We got high praise that we hit a drop off chorus perfect, something a crowd had yet to achieve this tour. Bonus points for Shawn going into the crowd with balloons too). The encore was brilliant too. [sic] into People = Shit and then Surfacing to shut it down. The crowd ate up every second of it. The pit was way more active for Slipknot than Korn, it spread out probably 3 times the size at some points. The spinning  hydraulic keg platforms for Chris and Shawn continued to be a crowd pleaser. Sid must be feeling much better from his surgery in October as he was running all over the place, jumping off the back platform onto his tables and hanging off of just about everything he could reach.
Near the end of the show Corey said that this was one of the best tours the band has ever done. They came out of a dark and uncertain period with a great new album, picked the right supporting bands for their first US arena tour in a few years and their fans turned out in droves to support them.
The tour picks back up in January in Europe for another long leg starting in Dublin. It’s a great time to see these guys, I hope they come back and do it again. It’s a day later and I feel like I’m in withdrawal. Go see it!