Slipknot have returned to the stage. The Iowa nu-metal titans played their first show in well over a year yesterday (September 4th) at Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, and the evening was made incredibly special on multiple fronts.
For one, frontman Corey Taylor surprise-revealed a terrifying new mask that most fans didn't expect to see until the band's next album cycle. It's a freaky design with beady, soulless eyes and a stitched mouth that some Maggots are noting bears resemblance to that of Dr. Decker (played by David Cronenberg) from Clive Barker's 1990 movie Nightbreed.
Then there was the performance itself, which was monumental for Slipknot on numerous other reasons. Beyond being the band's first time playing since before the pandemic, it also seemed to solidify Taylor's recovery from COVID-19, which he came down with just over a week ago and had to cancel a solo gig in Michigan for due to nasty symptoms.
Thankfully, it seems like he's back on the saddle, as the band played a ripping 14-song set that mostly leaned on classic Knot hits save for a few songs from their 2019 album, We Are Not Your Kind. Slipknot opened with "Unsainted" and placed "Nero Forte" in the No. 3 slot, but then they dove into a lengthy run of fan favorites that included "Before I Forget," "Psychosocial," "Wait and Bleed," "Left Behind," "Eyeless" and more.
They encored with "People=Shit," "(sic)" and "Surfacing" and played with a fiery energy the whole way through — just as fans expected from the Iowa maniacs. See fan-captured footage of the set above and below via YouTube and check out the full set list below.
However, seemingly absent from the night was any reference to their former drummer/co-founder Joey Jordison, who unexpectedly passed away back in July, making this the first Slipknot show since his death. Jordison left the band in 2013, but was memorialized by Slipknot in a social media post earlier this summer.
Slipknot's Rocklahoma 2021 set list:
"Unsainted"
"Disasterpiece"
"Nero Forte"
"Before I Forget"
"Psychosocial"
"Wait and Bleed"
"Vermilion"
"Eyeless"
"Left Behind"
"All Out Life"
"Duality"
"(515)"
"People = Shit"
"(sic)"
"Surfacing"
