Summer concert season is winding down and the open air venues have precious few days left in the season but there are still a few gems out there. Most recently Korn visited the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey and they brought along Spiritbox and Gojira to join the fun.
The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is a Live Nation Property and sits in Camden, New Jersey on the banks of the Delaware River. Looking across the river, there is a magnificent view of the Philadelphia skyline. Seating is available for about 7000 plus another 18,500 as general admission lawn seating. Beverages of every kind are available almost anywhere in the venue, but food options can be a bit limited. Parking is available for a price and on this particular night, there was also a Jazz festival being held so parking was limited and traffic backed up considerably. It was to the point where the Ghost Cult team had difficulty catching all of Spiritbox’s set.
Founded in Victoria, BC in 2017 by guitarist Mike Stringer and vocalist Courtney LaPlante, Spiritbox has added Zev Rose on drums and most recently Josh Gilbert on bass to create a powerful female-fronted Metal band. The set opened with LaPlante dressed in black with a white satin top screaming into a microphone and immediately commanding everyone’s attention. Her delivery is more of a lyrical attack and then she switches to melodic singing with an amazingly pretty voice; which can be disconcerting if you tie the two styles together. It is like a singing version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As an opener, the Spiritbox set went quickly and those who escaped the traffic jam outside were treated to an energetic performance worthy of Korn and Gojira.
Ghost Cult was fortunate enough to review Gojira last year in Syracuse and they have been a bit busy since. Being part of the Olympic opening ceremonies in Paris this summer, has garnered some of the global attention they so richly deserve. These guys do have a few Grammy nominations after all. Gojira also has a fondness for effects and the result is a show with great music and French artistic flair. The stage constantly erupts in flames, and fog cannons are regular contributors to the show. Production like this takes a lot of support and there were at least a dozen 18-wheelers outside to carry the show from town to town.
That night the show opened with “Born For One Thing,” a song from their most recent album Fortitude (Roadrunner Records), and progressed through a mix from a large portion of their discography. “Flying Whales” is always popular and builds to a crescendo. It seems to be several songs that were tied together similar to the Beatles song “A Day In The Life.” Multiple distinct sections play off of each other to make a point. Gojira is known for its activism and involvement in environmental causes. The set closed with “Amazonia,” about the plight of indigenous people around the world. The Gojira star is quickly rising and it is easy to see why. It is also easy to see how drummer Mario Duplantier stays so thin. That guy is an animal.
The main event of the evening was Korn, and by the time they hit the stage everyone had made their way in and it looked to be a sellout crowd. To create an air of mystery a dark curtain was hung across the front of the stage masking what was to come.
Here we go. The curtain dropped exposing Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis wearing his trademark Adidas tracksuit in red while he stood behind his H.R. Giger designed microphone stand. Absolutely no one is sitting at this point as Korn begins the show with “Here To Stay.” Gojira may have used up most of the truck space as Korn performed a much more stripped-down show. There was a video screen hanging from the lighting rig that would go up and down and change angles as images flashed by but the music was mostly left to stand on its own. Some more well-known songs were mixed with a couple of deep cuts like “Hey Daddy,” which hasn’t been played in concert for years. During a brief pause, Davis took the time to thank the audience for the last thirty years and how their support has buoyed them up from nothing to where Korn is today. The audience is treated to an energetic evening, complete with bagpipes, nursery rhymes, and a bit of Metallica thrown in for good measure. By the time the show is over everyone can see why Korn is one of the biggest Metal bands around.
The tour will continue through the end of October, with their special 30th anniversary concert in Los Angeles, and then Korn will play three December dates in Australia. There are few bands that perform at this level and you do not want to miss this one.
Setlist (via setlist.fm)
Here To Stay
Dead Bodies Everywhere
Got The Life
A.D.I.D.A.S.
Hey Daddy
Good God
Start The Healing
Blind
Ball Tongue
Clown
Shoots And Ladders (with a snippet of Metallica’s “One”)
Twist
Make Me Bad
Insane
Y’All Want A Single
Encore:
Falling Away From Me
Oildale (Leave Me Alone)
Freak On A Leash
WRITTEN BY MATTHEW KOCHEK
PHOTOS BY KIM HANSEN @PHARMADIVER
Follow Kim’s work here: