Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN
October 27, 2024
Photos by Brett Zisler
Review by Nick
KORN brought a fantastic lineup with them to celebrate 30 years of KORN with GOJIRA and SPIRITBOX! KORN had a huge stage with a minimalist set up utilizing screens that monuevered all over the stage. KORN brought out all the hits for the set including a few that haven't been played for a while, which is always a bonus when you've been seeing this band for the last 25 years. Coming out swinging from the moment they took the stage with a fiery (no pyro) "Here To Stay" and you knew the band was not going to mess around tonight.
KORN was in top notch form tonight with vocalist Jonathan Davis taking full advantage of a big stage, guitarists Head and Munky whipping their hair around like they haven't aged a day, bassist Ra Diaz throwing down the low end and the phenominal Ray Luzier with his massive drum center holding court on a Sunday evening. The two screens that moved all over the stage made the stage look clausterphobic for "Blind" and "Ball Tongue" a great nod to the smaller stages they would play during the first album tour cycle. Following it up with "Clown" made it a great mini set of songs from the debut record.
You can about imagine that they couldn't play every one of their hits or every song a KoRn fan would want to hear but throwing "Good God" and "Ball Tongue" in the set tonight was well the price of admission alone. KORN played just as hard tonight as they did back on the Sick and Twisted Tour or the Family Values tours and the sold out crowd was here for it singing along with "A.D.I.D.A.S.", "Got the Life", "Twist" and "Y'all Want a Single". The biggest surprise of the night had to be "Oildale (Leave Me Alone" from KoRn III, kind of a deep cut that was a single for the hardcore KoRn fans played in between arguably two of their biggest songs "Falling Away from Me" and "Freak on a Leash."
KORN and the crowd both came to play and to have a blast celebrating 30 years on a Sunday night! Here's to many more years!
GOJIRA took full advantage of being on an arena tour and put the money in to not only give long time Gojira fans something they've never seen before but also to bring in as many KoRn fans as possible in their hour set. GOJIRA had a beautiful stage set up with drummer extraordinare Mario Duplantier bashing in the drums in to submission on top of a good 10 foot riser with screens below it and to both sides of him. GOJIRA brought the pyro and weren't afraid to use it during much of the set cementing future arena headliner status for themselves.
Vocalist and guitarist Joe Duplantier demanded everyone's attention front and center while guitarist Christian Andreu and bassist Jean-Michael Labadie commanding stage left and right respectively. GOJIRA know how to deliver a show and they have taken that and turned it to 11, everything was bigger, better and louder. The set list had something for every fan including a blistering versions of "Born for One Thing", "Backbone" and "Stranded".
GOJIRA brought out a punishing version of "L'enfant Sauvage" before tearing in to their contribution as the first metal band to ever play the Olympics this past Summer in France with "Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)". "Silvera" was a big hit with the crowd and you couldn't have asked for a better closer with an epic "Amazonia"! GOJIRA dominated their hour long set and set up KORN to deliver the home run win for the evening.
SPIRITBOX had a solid 30 minute opening set that was highlighted by their newest slugger "Soft Spine" that made for Spiritbox at their heaviest tonight. Their set sounded awesome, just wish they had a little more time to play with to get in more than 6 songs. Overall, making this a night not to forget for any fans of the 3 bands, well worth the money spent to get in to the show and buy some merch!
SEE MORE of BRETT's PICTURES of KORN and GOJIRA here!
