Korn
Alliant Energy Center
Madison, Wisconsin
March 29th, 2022
By Bryan McCabe
Ask any fan of metal and I’m willing to bet that Korn had some impact on their musical taste in some shape or form. For me, hearing Korn for the first time on my friend’s crummy boombox was my earliest memory of heavy music. To say that they’re pioneers of nu metal is an understatement. Without them, a lot of today’s bands don’t exist, so when I saw that Korn was coming to Madison, WI, I was not going to pass on my long overdue chance to see them for the first time. I don’t know what took me so long, but it was going to finally happen.
With the crowd feverishly waiting for the band to come out as the giant curtain lit up with “Korn” shielded us from what was to come, the band ripped into the opening chords of “Forgotten”. The curtain dropped and the crowd went wild. It didn’t take the band long to take me right back to my middle school days by going right into “Got The Life” next. Having never seen them live, I never realized how much of a beast Jonathan Davis is on vocals. His screams can hold up with anyone else currently in the metal game.
Nearly 30 years into their careers, and they are still proving how heavy they can be. I was also seriously surprised just how good everyone in the band sounded. They were honestly flawless. The biggest surprise though was when the band brought Tom Farley up on stage. For anyone that isn’t a native of Madison, he is the brother of the legendary Chris Farley. Korn had the crowd let Tom know how much everyone in attendance loves his brother.
After what you could call a perfect greatest hits spanning their career, they closed out the show with the song that started it all, “Blind” The crowd that had been going wild all night, left it all on the floor during the final song and the band did the same on stage. Don’t wait 20 years like I did to see Korn live. Get out there and see them as soon as you can.
