Arriving at the KUNST!RASEN around 10:30 in the morning, myself and occasional NMA merch designers Robin and Pluto were surprised to discover we weren't even the first in line. Two other die-hard fans were already waiting as we lay down our jackets and bags and prepared for the six hour camp-out before the venue's doors opened.
Slowly over the course of the day a steady trickle of black-clad devotees made their way through the Freizeitpark Rheunaue to join us in suffering under the sweltering heat. As the sun shifted position we were quickly shaded from the worst of it by trees and we had never been more relieved that the KUNST!RASEN was an open air venue in the middle of a park.
Upon the gates opening, it was a mad dash across an already quite muddy field to secure our places at the barricade (the KUNST!RASEN had been hosting a three month long festival of sorts over the summer, the latest artist, Lea, having played just the night before.) After another two hour wait, the openers walked out to minimal fanfare, aside from the three of us getting a kick out of the lead singer's choice of t-shirt.
As someone who hasn't paid much attention to Spiritbox before now, I found myself impressed. Frontwoman Courtney LaPlante cut a commanding figure from the moment she stepped out onto the stage and delivered a performance you would expect out of a headliner rather than a 40-minute support. It was a shame that the assembled audience was so unreceptive to them until almost the final song, requiring a considerable amount of encouragement from LaPlante and bassist Josh Gilbert to match their energy.
It was a sentiment shared by an unlikely cheerleader that we spied watching them from the side of the stage, as Korn guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch stood camped out behind a stack of equipment. Only partially obscured behind it, he laughed and vigorously shook his head and pointed to his tour-mates when we waved at him, as if insisting that we should be paying attention to them rather than him. We did our best to honor that request as Spiritbox’s set roared to a thunderous close, and I quickly added as many of the songs I could remember to my ‘Listen Later’ playlist on Spotify once they exited the stage.
From the moment the first few pixels of Korn's background imagery flickered to life on the screens, the energy rapidly shifted and personal space became increasingly hard to come by as the masses pressed forward in anticipation.
Opening with ‘Rotting in Vain’, frontman Jonathan Davis sauntered out onto the stage clad in a forest green incarnation of his signature sequined Adidas tracksuit, and one of the staple pieces from their upcoming third collaborative drop from the sportswear heavyweights. Ironically, he had ditched the jacket by the time they reached the song ‘Adidas’, but considering how hot it still was by the time they started at 9pm, no one could really blame him.
His vocals sung, screamed and scatted, have all honestly never sounded better. Though some who prefer the chaotic energy of Davis’ early career performances may be disappointed by the more measured delivery, personally I see it as a small price to pay for vocal clarity, as well as the man’s own health considering what those early performances were fueled by.
Over the course of the set, heavily weighted towards their ‘94 to ‘05 discography with a handful of later-day tracks thrown in, and featuring almost exclusively singles, it struck me just how bulletproof Korn’s back catalog truly is. Boasting dozens of songs that any modern day band would kill to have even one of to their name, the fact that they have been able to continue to produce not only compelling, sonically varied and successful music over the course of multiple decades, is a feat that has escaped most of their contemporaries, and rivals even a lot of their heavy metal forefathers and the acts that they themselves have inspired. The fact that we were even able to see them perform, at the top of their game this far into their careers, and after the myriad of ups-and-downs the band has suffered over the years is honestly miraculous, and felt like a privilege to see in person, especially as close up as we were. As the resident The Path of Totality defender, I could have done with the addition of ‘Narcissistic Cannibal’, but the setlist certainly did not suffer for its omission.
The band members themselves appeared to be taken almost by surprise by the enthusiasm of the crowd, and proceeded to up their game with every song, frequently interacting with both each other and the crowd with a level of energy you would expect from a band not even half as long into their career as Korn are. The true MVP, surprisingly, was relative newcomer to the Korn family, Ra Diaz. Never without a smile, Diaz seemed intent on putting on the best show possible, his enthusiasm for the material outshining even Davis, to the point where you wouldn't expect this was the final night of the European leg of the tour.
While he kept the banter and crowd interaction to a minimum, Davis himself paused to offer an emphatic thank you to the audience for their support over the 30 years the band has been active, an anniversary the quintet celebrated this year. I had screamed myself hoarse at this point but that didn't stop me from trying as he proceeded to launch straight into ‘Y'all Want A Single’ straight after, prompting the loudest sing-a-long of the night by far.
Aside from being periodically shoved by people hoping to shoulder their way to the barricade and at one point having a crowdsurfer land directly on top of me, it was an otherwise relatively uneventful time at the front. Myself, an old-head sporting an impressive battle vest, and possibly the tallest man I've ever seen, managed to form somewhat of a vanguard to keep the swarming masses away from our smaller friends in front of us.
That changed post-encore, however, when the various members took their time tossing keepsakes into the crowd, and upon spotting Pluto’s Love and Death shirt, Welch seemed to dramatically light up, and tossed them one of only a handful of his giant novelty guitar picks, which now takes pride of place on their bookcase and made the long day’s wait in the scorching heat more than worth it. Robin also made off with one of Ray’s drumsticks, which he had to smuggle out of the venue in his underwear for fear that the person next to him might try to wrestle it from him, so irate she seemed to be at having been beaten to it.
Covered in beer, bruises, and friction burns, the three of us left the festival grounds giddy and already planning our next trip for the nu-metal pioneers' inevitable return in 2025, which honestly can't come fast enough.
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