Artists: Korn
Venue: Halifax: The Piece Hall
Date: 9th August 2024
"Another thing I hadn’t realised was how good a drummer Ray Lozier is, some of his runs and fills being epic; Progressive even! So all in all it was a good night, the weather had been kind and everything had run smoothly..."
Up until this show, I had never seen Korn do their own thing on their own terms, only catching them previously at festivals and suchlike, so I was unsure exactly what I would be seeing.
The Halifax Piece Hall is a really nice venue, the only problem with it being that it’s standing only, so if you are not steady on your legs it’s going to be slightly strenuous. It’s also outdoors, so the weather needs to play fair, and we were lucky today with no rain. The stage is set up in one corner of the plaza, and there are many steps and raised areas which, if people sat on the rather than standing would make it a seated venue, sort of. Anyhow, the folks had turned out for Korn tonight, who had played Scarborough the previous evening, where it rained quite a lot. Apparently they had ‘Wargasm’ as support on that occasion, but it was a band called Loathe tonight, who came on at around 19.45.
The four-piece hailing from Liverpool, which vocalist Kadeem France mentioned a few times, did a fairly solid set, which seemed to please most people, although I was a little concerned when the crowd started chanting “Yorkshire, Yorkshire”, bearing in mind that senseless idiots did the same when attacking a hotel in Rotherham earlier that week. The music went from harsh, shouty vocals from the frontman, to softer, more melodic tones from guitarist/vocalist Erik Bickerstaffe, where he and bass player Feisal El-Khazragi also played keyboards. As I had never heard them before, I was unfamiliar with the music and on first hearing it is hard to give a solid opinion, other than to say that I preferred the quieter stuff merely because I don’t like screech, growl, shout or scream vocals. One thing I have to say though is that they have interesting song titles, such as ‘Dance On My Skin’, ‘I Let It In And It Took Everything’ and ‘Heavy Is The Head That Falls With The Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts’, of which they played all tonight. The crowd were happy, so job done.
Set List:- Gored, White Hot, Dance On My Skin, Screaming, 451 Days, New Faces In The Dark, Two-Way Mirror, Is It Really You?, I Let It In And It Took Everything, Heavy Is The Head That Falls With The Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts.
Korn came on at 9.05, although they were behind a light curtain for a few seconds. When revealed, Jonathan Davis was wearing a glittering, purple tracksuit, which I thought a bit weird and something I would expect Pop artists or rappers to wear, but there he was. Starting off with ‘Rotting In Vain’, it wasn’t long before bodies were surfing over the front barrier into the pit, keeping the security team busy. Naturally, a Mosh Pit had formed after Loathe came on, and it became more frantic with Korn. For the third song ‘A.D.I.D.A.S.’, the light curtain came down again, the band remaining behind it for about a minute as it displayed shapes and abstract objects dancing across it. And I couldn’t help notice that Jonathan Davis kept going back to the drums frequently between songs, to take what I imagined to be oxygen via a mask. To be fair though, he does move about a bit. I imagined a fair area of Halifax, including the houses in the hills at the back, would be able to hear a lot of this, as popular tracks ‘Blind’, ‘Falling Away From Me’ and ‘Coming Undone’, which also included a bit of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’, were performed, and especially ‘Y’All Want a Single’ where Davis had everybody shouting two particular words, and Halifax must have wondered what was happening. There was a short pause after this, that I didn’t know was the end of the main set, but it was, and the crowd roared as Davis came back on with the bagpipes before going into ‘Shoots And Ladders’. In total there were four encore songs, the night ending fittingly with ‘Freak On A Leash’.
One thing I hadn’t really noticed on seeing them before was that Jonathan Davis doesn’t really communicate with the audience. There’s no anecdotes or badinage in there, apart from him encouraging the crowd to join in on ‘Y’All Want A Single’. But one funny instance was when the crowd once again chanted “Yorkshire, Yorkshire” just before that song. Davis asked “What the fuck are you guys singing?”, listened a couple more times, said “Lobsters”, they got louder and then, still not understanding he told them to shut up. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how good a drummer Ray Lozier is, some of his runs and fills being epic; Progressive even! So all in all it was a good night, the weather had been kind and everything had run smoothly (with a quick shout out to Jon Rhodes and his team for making my life easier. Most professional). My only disappointment? They didn’t play ‘Twisted Transistor’ or ‘Politics’, and if there was any time to play the latter, it’s now…
Review: Andy B. & Lou C. Photo’s Andy B.
Gallery. All photos © Andy B (used with kind permission)
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