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Photos and review by Alisha DeCou
After a year of tribulations and tour delays, Korn is finally back on tour in support of their 2019 release, The Nothing. Check out photos from their stop in Phoenix at the Ak-Chin Pavillion with support from nu-metal tourmates Staind.
Korn
Life’s not really been peachy for KoRn lately. In reality it’s been quite the sneaky little bitch, slowly tearing away at their tour plans for over a year. First, the pandemic completely killed plans with Faith No More for a summer 2020 tour, with the band finally calling it just two months before it was set to kick off in Denver, Colorado. A year later, there was a glimpse of hope with the official announcement of a fall 2021 tour with Staind. But, that hope would be crushed, continuously, all summer, starting with co-founding bassist, Reginald Quincy “Fieldy” Arvizu’s (hopefully temporary) departure from the band, followed by back-to-back Covid diagnoses for singer Jonathan Davis in August and guitarist James Christain Shaffer (Munky) just weeks after the tour resumed. It’s enough to crush any band’s spirits. But this is KoRn we’re talking about! And if there’s anything the show in Phoenix proved, it’s that spirits get crushed by KoRn, not the other way around! Munky’s temporary replacement, Phoenix’s own J.R. Bareis killed it, as did Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Roberto “Ra” Diaz, who is Fieldy’s tour-long replacement. A still-recovering Davis spent more time out of his now infamous stage throne than in, but still nailed every scream, growl and note. The metal-head crowd, which consisted of not just us old fans, but many fans clearly not old enough to even drive, ate every bit of it up! The setlist was full of fan favorites, from throwbacks from "Life is Peachy", “KoRn” and “Follow the Leader” to instant classics off the newly released The Nothing. Before the show I arrogantly proclaimed that we were seeing KoRn 0.5. I’m here to humbly state, I was wrong. We saw KoRn 2.0 The passion, the energy, the performanced and the vibe was just as enormous, if not possibly even more, to my first KoRn show circa 1999. Staind definitely helped to set that vibe with their opening set. Hits from their 1999 break-through album “Dyfunction” and it’s equally influential sequel, “Break the Cycle” prepped the pit perfectly. And closing with fan-favorite "Mudshovel", almost made up for singer Aaron Lewis’s poor choice of attire and phoned-in vocals.
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