Korn and Chevelle in Providence – March 16, 2022
Providence often gets passed by on major tours. Many artists play New York City and Boston, with no stops in-between. This year, there’s some major shows coming to the Renaissance city, with the first being this week at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Wednesday night saw nu-metal pioneers Korn, who are halfway through a US tour supporting the album. Joining them for this trek are their friends in Chevelle and Code Orange.
Chevelle
While hard rock band Chevelle never went away, it certainly feels like they’ve had a bit of a resurgence in recent years. In 2019, I saw them perform for the first time since Ozzfest 2003, and they were as strong as ever. Now they’re touring in support of their 9th album, NIRATAS, released last year.
With a well-balanced set featuring new songs like “Mars Simula” and their classic hits like “The Red” and “Send the Pain Below,” Chevelle had the crowd rocking through their hour-long performance. The duo of brothers (plus a new touring bass player) has a space theme going on with the new album, the title of which stands for Nothing is Real, and This is a Simulation. The drum riser was flanked by aliens, and the screen displayed a variety of alien, astronaut or Mars-themed imagery.
Of the crowd isn’t here for the imagery, they’re here for the music, and the band sounded great. Chevelle first really broke onto the scene nearly two decades ago, and their songs have stood the test of time with audiences.
Korn
Korn released their fourteenth studio album, Requiem in February, and the album was well-represented tonight. The show kicked off with the album’s second single, “Forgotten,” before playing two classic favorites, “Got the Life” and “Here to Stay.” Both songs are always great choices that really get the audience fired up, and it was just the start of great things to come.
Just as when the band hit the road last summer, bass player Fieldy is not out with them, who has taken some time to himself. We wish the best, and hope to see him rejoin the band soon. In his absence, Suicidal Tendencies bass player Ra Diaz is holding down the low end, and is doing a great job. It must be intimidating to step into a large band, especially one like Korn where the bass tone makes up so much of their sound, but as he runs around the stage, he doesn’t appear to be fazed by it at all.
One special treat on this tour, is they’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the album Untouchables. After frontman Jonathon Davis mentions how special and important this album was for them, they played the song “No One’s There,” which hasn’t been played in the last 15 years. There were definitely fans around me who lost their mind for the song.
Another highlight of the set was “Y’all Want a Single,” with the crowd sticking the required middle finger in the air during the chorus. Of course the audience went wild for “Freak on a Leash,” the last song of the main set.
Korn has so many great songs from their nearly 30 year career, so when they came back out for the encore, they played a medley that consisted of snippets of “It’s On,” “Trash,” and “Did my Time,” the full 50-second track “Twist,” and the last minute or so of “A.D.I.D.A.S.” Certainly would have loved to hear more of these songs, but I suppose giving people tastes of as much as they could is a great way to come back out.
The show, of course, ended with, as Davis likes to say, “how this all began,” with the song that originally broke them, “Blind.” Always a powerful closer, it brought the house down, and a fantastic show to an end.
