[ATTENDED: August 28, 2025] Korn
Back when nu-metal started I liked Korn. I thought they were weird and interesting. Jonathan Davis in particular was a fascinating guy. I still think Freak on a Leash is a fantastic song. But I really hadn’t listened to them in years and had no idea they’d put out so many albums that I’d never heard about.
But when this tour was announced I was pretty excited that Korn was the co-headliner because I thought it would be interesting to see them live.
I was mildly worried about arriving too late to catch them–traffic on a Thursday night going to East Rutherford sounded like a nightmare. In fact, I’d really wanted to see the two other openers, Wisp and Polyphia, but earlier in the day, I assumed that we would certainly miss Wisp (they went on at 5:30 and at 5:30, we were still 20 minutes from our parking area) and I figured we’d miss some if not all of Polyphia, and I accepted that. Indeed, we arrived at the venue during Polyphia and then wandered around looking for merch (SOAD stuff was all sold out!) until their set ended. So we heard them but I couldn’t tell you anything about them except that they were LOUD.
But we had plenty of time to get to our seats before Korn came on.
And when they did, wow. They opened with Blind which has several false starts. These starts were really loud and all the stage lights lit up with each chord. I was very very glad that we brought earplugs.
After a minute or so, we saw humans on stage (I still don’t like how far away we were, and really I would have loved to be on the floor, but over view was pretty great, so deal with it.
Jonathan Davis seemed pretty psyched to be playing the huge arena–I’m starting to think that playing MetLife Stadium is a big deal (~60,000 people!). And this show proved to be something of a greatest hits show with 3 songs from their debut album, three from Life is Peachy, 2 from Follow the Leader, 4 from Issues and four more from their next three albums. They only played one song that was less than twenty years old (Cold from 2019’s The Nothing). David made a point of saying how they’d been doing this for 30 years and the band appreciated everyone staying with them for so long.
This suited me fine as that’s the era I know best, although I think I stopped with Issues. Anyhow, they played the big songs and the crowd responded accordingly. There were two sections on the floor, a GA Pit, which was close to the stage and a GA Floor section which was still standing but was separated from the Pit. This was odd but also kind of fun because it meant there were at least two mosh pits, one in the front and one in the second half.
The set was great–heavy and loud (really loud) and the band sounded great. I love that they played the weird, minute long Twist. It was cool hearing songs I didn’t think I knew, like Here to Stay (the chorus was instantly familiar). I was surprised they played Got the Life so early–it sounded great.
It was also pretty fascinating how many times they simply filled the arena with noise–whether feedback or static or what, there was just uncompromising noise between songs. Impressively loud. Like the noise that opened the intro to the instrumental Porno Creep (a surprisingly groovy song that displays some hidden proficiencies on bass and guitar). Although I think this was played in order for Jonathan David to grab his bagpipes (yes!) and march around stage (in a sparkly skirt) playing the pipes. They weren’t miced especially well, but you could still tell he was playing them–as a wonderful intro to their absurdly delightful song Shoots and Ladders. I was especially delighted when the entire arena erupted into singing Knick Knack Paddy Whack give a dog a bone.
I was also amused that they still play A.D.I.D.A.S. which is so damned catchy. One song I hadn’t heard before was Y’all Want a Single (fuck that). It’s always amusing when a huge mass of people scream along to a chorus like that–especially a catchy one.
My son and I both agreed that Korn was so much better live than we expected. I was really impressed with Davis’ vocal range and he could growl and then sing very gently. It made me want to see them again in a smaller venue–but I don’t think they ever play the size venue I’d like to see them in. I’d have to get GA or really close seats at a bigger venue to really enjoy the show, I think.
And ending with Falling Away from Me and Freak on a Leash simply had the whole place going bananas.
When the set ended, they put the entire stadium lights on and my son and I genuinely felt like the night was over–the Korn set was great and while obviously we were really looking forward to SOAD, it felt like a full show already.
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2025 MetLife Stadium |
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Blind λ |
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Twist Ó |
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Here to Stay ∇ |
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Got the Life ‰ |
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Clown λ |
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Did My Time ¥ |
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Porno Creep Ó |
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Shoots and Ladders (Metallica
One” outro) λ |
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Cold Ø |
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Twisted Transistor ⇔ |
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Dirty ≅ |
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Somebody Someone ≅ |
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A.D.I.D.A.S. Ó |
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Y’all Want a Single ¥ |
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4U ≅ |
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Falling Away from Me ≅ |
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Freak on a Leash ‰ |
Requiem (2022)
Ø The Nothing (2019)
The Serenity of Suffering (2016)
The Paradigm Shift (2013)
The Path of Totality (2011)
Korn III: Remember Who You Are (2010)
Untitled (2007)
⇔ See You on the Other Side (2005)
¥ Take a Look in the Mirror (2003)
∇ Untouchables (2002)
≅ Issues (1999)
‰ Follow the Leader (1998)
Ó Life Is Peachy (1996)
λ Korn (1994)
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The whole reason I as thinking about attending this show was to see Animals as Leaders again. They announced on August 27, 2021
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