Suicide Silence was the second band to play before Korn at the House of Blues on October 23rd. The stage was set up for Korn so there was not a lot of space to be had for the fairly large band but that did not stop them from keeping up a high energy. The band all moved all over the small HOB stage with the many amps that had accompanied the stage. They played a fairly large selections of songs from their discography including new ones like “You Can't Stop Me”. Probably the most energetic on stage was lead singer Eddie Hermida. He moved around everywhere and it some times it seemed rather spastic but not in a negative way, more in the sense that he was correlating how he felt with the music.
Death Metal has some of the best riffs and to see the various guitarists play them and hear it in person is quite amazing. During song “Inherit the Crown”, these plays were very apparent. It is always nice to hear things in person because it demonstrates the technical skill that is require for such bands. Some people get held up by how hard it is to hear what the band is singing and they forget to listen to the music. Death Metal has such a technical play that is listening to the music is as important as listening to the lyrics. As a standard theme of the night was how low the bass player could get onto the ground before they were simply laying there playing. It is amazing how far a player can get and still play. That in itself is some skill. This was a sold out show on the bottom so it was wall to wall people who were excited to be there and the band was equally excited to be playing on stage.
After Suicide Silence had finished there set, Korn came on to play. This was not some ordinary tour, this was the celebration of the 20th anniversary of their first album so for their main set it was just 15 songs that made us love Korn. It was amazing to see play. There was a lot of excitement from the crowd and despite the dumb ass next to me who came only to hear hits, Korn was playing to a very happy crowd. The walls literally vibrated with their set. Since it was a packed show it was hard for me to see much of the set since I am 5'4 and I hate being in the middle of a crowd. (which seems odd being a concert journalist). Despite that the little things I could see inbetween people shoulders were that of a band that was playing an album in pure gratitude of the fans that had gotten them to this 20th land mark.
The song that seemed to have every railed up, myself included was when Jonathon Davis came out playing the bag pipes for “Shoots and Ladders”. This was a song that I was wondering how it was going to be done, was he going to come out and play? What was going to happen? Once Davis hit the stage with the first notes of the bag pipes, the crowd went completely wild. Everyone around was freaking out because this was one of those moments that we all knew would be a rarity. This is the first time I have seen Korn so I don't know how often he plays this song but it does not matter, the fact is that is a hard instrument to play and we all got to be a witness to it.
After the amazing full length album set, Korn came out for their encore and played some of their hits which people want to see when they hear Korn is playing. It is appreciative that they added these songs on to an already long set list. There was no slacking when these songs played but rather the same amount of love and consideration was given to these songs much like the ones that had gotten them this far. Over all it was a great show for the bands that had taken the stage that night.