See Slipknot Party Like It’s 1999 With Rarely Performed Songs From Their First Album
The masked nonet kicked off its Here Comes the Pain Tour in Indiana with renditions of songs it hadn’t played since 2000
Corey Taylor of Slipknot performs during Sonic Temple Art and Music Festival on Sunday, May 19, 2024. Amy Harris/Invision/AP
To commemorate a quarter century since the release of their self-titled breakthrough album, Slipknot performed all but one song off Slipknot in Noblesville, Indiana on Tuesday night. The concert marked the first performances of “No Life” and “Scissors” since 2000. The concert, which kicked off their Here Comes the Pain Tour, included performances of fan favorites like “Wait and Bleed” and “(sic),” as well as the bonus tracks “Me Inside” and “Get This,” as well as the hidden track “Eeyore”; the only song they didn’t perform was “Diluted,” which the nonet has never performed live.
“The last time we played this song [‘Scissors’] was in 2000,” frontman Corey Taylor told the crowd in fan-shot video (via Blabbermouth). “This is dedicated to every maggot who has stuck by us for 25 years. We’re gonna take you someplace fucking dark.” Then in came the guitar riffs and the nuclear canister percussion. Each member of the band is dressed in a red jumpsuit that recalls the band’s look when it broke mainstream.
For “No Life,” the band kicked things off with no introduction. Taylor just launched right into his rap: “My freedom is best/Whole country’s on house arrest/And everyone’s a suspect/You can’t feel the flow because you died,” and continued the song name-checking Chuck D and LL Cool J.
After the concert, the group posted a photo of the set list to its Instagram with the caption, “Welcome to 1999.” The group has booked two U.S. summer legs of the tour, which include stops in New York, Austin, Los Angeles, and Austin, among other cities all commemorating Slipknot, which originally came out on June 29 of that year.
In a Rolling Stone profile of the band from 2000, percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, who co-founded the group, explained that its mission was clear. “Everyone is trying to push the envelope,” he said. “Slipknot is the envelope, and now it’s up to other people to push it.”
He also recalled meeting a band that attempted to steal Slipknot’s mojo. “We can be copied, but we cannot be duplicated,” he said. “I met a kid in New Orleans, and he told me all about his band. They had nine members, OK. Then he tells me they wear masks, too — all right. Then he says that he wears a clown mask. I kinda had to control myself. I got this killer instinct for a minute, like, ‘Clown … must … destroy other Clown.’”
From Rolling Stone US.
