Toon's Tunes : Aftershock 2019: Korn

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Aftershock 2019: Korn

Korn, Aftershock 2019

There was something magical about seeing Korn from within a huge crowd in Northern California, at Aftershock festival 2019 - locals, and people from all around the state, country, and world: to be amidst a mass of fans, dancing, singing along, headbanging. Being part of a twenty-five year celebration of Korn's music; more a retrospective of those years and not, as we might have expected, the tour-of-the-new-album The Nothing - indeed, they played just one song from the latest release, "You'll Never Find Me" - but rather the show was a happiness of friendship and fellowship and following of this band, a family of tens of thousands, all in Discovery Park Sacramento, watching the guys from Bakersfield, just down the road from Sacramento.

Jonathan Davis, Korn, Aftershock 2019

That's an assessment of proximity in USA terms. It's around four hours drive from the state capital to Korn's hometown down highway 99, down through the Central Valley: almost an identical distance as from London to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK. I will happily drive that kind of distance to see them, again and again. I'll even get on a plane and fly halfway around the world, for that matter. There's only a few bands that generate that kind of loyalty.

Korn, Aftershock 2019, Sacramento California USA

Sacramento embraces this band like a homecoming, and it's the third time they have appeared at Aftershock festival - and Jonathan Davis brought his solo show last year, too.

You can find the Korn at Aftershock 2019 setlist here, on setlist.fm. Songs from all the way through their musical career, from Korn released in 1994 right through to Rotting In Vain from 2016's Serenitiy of Suffering and the latest album.

It was a joyful - yes, I use that word in the same sentence as "Korn" - it was a joyful performance. It made me happy. I think, at the end, I was crying. It was huge and it left many, many happy people.

Jonathan Davis, Korn, Aftershock 2019

The Nothing - such an excellent, moving, emotional, painful and yet beautiful album - absolutely deserves its own tour, if you listen to it purely for the musical value. If you know - to any degree - the story and motivation and trauma that gave birth to the lyrics, you might also expect it to be an album where a song is played here, there, not everywhere, not every show. It's musical genius and it's heartbreak and it's my favourite album of 2019 to date. And yes, there is a lot of competition.