CONCERT REVIEW/PHOTOS - KORN/GOJIRA

I was looking forward to checking out Spiritbox for the first time as this band has had major hype ever since being nominated for a Grammy award for their 2024 album Jaded. I caught half a song when they played at Wacken on my way to shoot another band and saw quite the crowd for an afternoon timeslot so figured they’d delivered a good show! So of course I was disappointed when I showed up extra early to be told that Spiritbox was not approving any photographers to shoot their set. Boooo.. or so I thought. Because then I was pulled aside to be told I was the ONLY photographer allowed to shoot, out of a dozen pros with way more experience than me AND I could shoot their entire set! Fucking awesome.

This band is extremely tight and know how to get a crowd warmed up. I wasn’t too familiar with them at all to be honest and was going in without any prior listening and quite enjoyed their set. Front woman Courtney LaPlante knows how to BELT when it comes to vocal delivery and the band rocked alongside her. A short set for sure, but not one anyone could complain about!

When I saw Gojira announce a summer show opening for Korn at Budweiser Stage it became not only my show of the summer but also the goal of the year as a photographer. I realllllllly wanted to shoot this band, as they are in my top three favourites (Rammstein and Black Sabbath rounding out Rae’s best band trio). So when I got my approval email to shoot this show I was fucking ecstatic to say the least.

I have seen Gojira several times in multiple countries and they have never disappointed me in the slightest, except perhaps that in recent years Canada can’t seem to get a damn headline show from these guys. But aside that, holy shit, is this band SO GOOD.

Unfortunately in order to get a photo pass for KoRn I had to sign a pretty intense contract with a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo basically saying I could only use my photos for the main publication I was approved to shoot for, in this case, Metal Injection. So I can’t technically post photos on this site HOWEVER, I CAN link to the Metal Injection coverage I provided. SO CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT MY KORN PHOTOS FROM THIS SHOW. It’s worth it.