Slipknot in Providence – May 21, 2022

For the first time in over twenty years, the mighty Slipknot returned to play in Providence, with the Knotfest Road Show. The Dunkin’ Donuts Center was the place to be on this Saturday night as Slipknot played a two hour show, along with sets from Cypress Hill and Ho99o9.

The last time Slipknot played in Providence was at Lupo’s in 1999. Quite a bit has changed in that time! Nevermind the fact that Lupo’s is gone, but with six huge albums to their name, Slipknot now has a massive following, and puts on a show of controlled chaos in a way that nobody else does. As the curtain falls, they made their way out to “Disasterpiece,” off of 2001’s Iowa, before kicking into the song that originally broke the band, “Wait and Bleed.” As they played through the song, pyro engulfed the massive stage, but with 9 members in the band, you need a lot of room.

Corey addressed the crowd, and mentioned he’d been under the weather, and had been having trouble singing, but as far as one could tell in the audience, his performance didn’t suffer. In the last year or so, Corey unveiled a new mask design. This is the first time he brought out a new mask before a new album was released, but I gotta say, I absolutely love the design of this one. There’s something that is so unsettling about it, and I love that.

With a 20 song set, they were able to play a good selection off all their albums. Fan favorites like “Psychosocial” and “Before I Forget” got big reactions. As the main set ended with “Spit it Out,” Corey, like always, got the crowd down on their knees, ready to jump at his command. I’d never taken part in this at an arena before, only in an amphitheater. It definitely hits differently when everybody is on level ground.

The encore was a powerful trio of “People = Shit,” “(sic)” and “Surfacing.” Providence had been thoroughly rocked, and hopefully it won’t be another 23 years before the ‘Knot returns to The Renaissance City!