CONCERT REVIEW: Korn, Gojira and Spiritbox perform at the Tacoma Dome

Metal bands Korn, Gojira, and Spiritbox performed at the Tacoma Dome as part of their 2024 North America Tour.

On Oct. 10, Grammy Award-winning band Korn returned to the Tacoma Dome for their first concert since 2006, performing their hard-hitting catalog for passionate fans across the Pacific Northwest. The band was accompanied by Canadian metal band Spiritbox and French metal band Gojira, both making their first appearance at the venue.

Spiritbox were the first opener of the show, performing six songs. This was my first time listening to the band, which is fronted by singer Courtney LaPlante.

I was immediately impressed by the band’s music, which incorporated heavy metal guitar riffs with aggressive but pleasant vocals from LaPlante. As a fan of alternative genres of music, female vocalists in metal-adjacent genres are few and far between, with many of the popular female-led bands coming from older generations. LaPlante’s talent and screams fit in perfectly with singers such as Morgan Lander of Kittie and Lacey Sturm of Flyleaf and I would love to see Spiritbox continue to grow to the heights of those bands.

Despite the short setlist, Spiritbox immediately set the tone for the rest of the concert. Switching between heavier and softer songs, Spiritbox showcased their versatility and skills. My favorite song they performed was their opener “Cellar Door.” It immediately set the tone for the concert with its piercing drums and LaPlante’s ferocious vocals.

Touring with world-renowned artists should help Spiritbox continue to rise in popularity and I would enjoy seeing them again.

Following Spiritbox was the award-winning metal band Gojira, who performed 12 songs. This was my second time seeing Gojira after first watching them open for alternative metal band Deftones in 2022, where I was highly impressed by their skill and energy. Gojira recently attracted heavy attention earlier this year when they performed at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in France, making them the first metal band to perform at the Olympics. With heavy metal instrumentals fronted by lyrics that discuss spirituality, philosophy and the environment, Gojira is a band that contrasts from many people’s perceptions of metal lyricism.

Gojira were even better live than my previous time seeing them, topped off with lots of pyrotechnics, timed lighting and video screens transforming the show into a beautiful visual experience. Through the 12 song setlist, Gojira performed their popular hits such as “Stranded,” “Flying Whales” and “L’efant Sauvage.”

Prior to the beginning of “Flying Whales,” singer Joe Duplantier dedicated the song to renowned environmental and animal rights activist Paul Watson who has been detained internationally. The dedication to Watson displays the values that the band continues to support nearly 30 years into their career.

My favorite songs that Gojira played were “Flying Whales” and “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!).” “Flying Whales” is seven-minutes long and slowly and eerily builds up into a heavy breakdown and has a creepy yet beautiful sound to it. “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” is the song Gojira performed at the Olympics this past summer. The performance was highlighted by an introduction of a decapitated model head of the former Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, who was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. The display resulted in some critics calling the band Satanic, to which Duplantier responded, “It’s none of that, it’s French History,” to Rolling Stone. I was jumping out of my seat for the song, as it is an intricate part of the biggest stage the band has ever played on.

After Gojira’s performance, Korn began their setlist. The band are pioneers of nu-metal, a genre that combines genres such as rap, metal and funk that rose in popularity from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The concert took place on the eve of Korn’s debut album of 1994 called “Korn,” which went platinum within three years and reached the top of Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.

I had not seen Korn live but have been a fan of them for nearly 10 years. The band has had the same members since 1993 with the exception of drummer Ray Luzier who joined the band in 2008, so it was very nice seeing the original members.

The setlist immediately started with one of their biggest hits, opening with “Here to Stay.” 13 of the 17 songs performed were album singles, showcasing the deep discography of the band and the high quality of the set. Despite the members of the band now in their 50s, they still excel at maintaining the high energy and tenacity of their sound.

Despite playing so many of their greatest hits, Korn still maintained a versatile and diverse sound that kept the audience standing and singing along. The band shows diversity in their sound with singer Jonathan Davis opening by playing the bagpipes in “Shoots and Ladders,” or in “Twist,” a short song featuring Davis singing nonsensical noises. These songs received some of the loudest reactions from the crowd who love the innovative and unique sound of the nu-metal pioneers.

During the intro to “Blind,” Davis acknowledged the band’s debut album turning 30 years old. Following the breakdown of the song, the crowd erupted and a large mosh pit broke out with crowd-surfers moving on top of concertgoers, moving with the music.

Following their song “Y’all Want a Single,” the band left the stage and asked the crowd to make some noise through the video screen before coming out for an encore. They performed “Falling Away From Me,” “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)” and their biggest hit “Freak On a Leash,” which featured a large confetti explosion during the breakdown of the song.

My favorite songs performed were “Shoots and Ladders” and “Freak On a Leash.” An artist playing the bagpipes like Davis did for “Shoots and Ladders” was something I have never experienced at any show. “Freak On a Leash” was the first Korn song I had ever heard when I was 13 years old, and the crowd enjoyed those two songs as much as I did.

Spiritbox, Gojira and Korn all put together an incredible show that felt much shorter than the four hours it took up. Spiritbox never felt out of place on a tour with world renowned artists, Gojira sounded even better than when I first saw them in 2022.

Korn lived up to my expectations of them as one of the biggest and most influential bands of the late 1990s. Getting to experience the concert from behind the pit was an experience that I will certainly never forget.