CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY: Evan J. Thomas covered Korn and Staind at Hollywood Casino Ampitheater in Tinley Park, IL this past Friday, check out his photos and review. - READ IT HERE

8/31/2021

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KORN

One of the more highly anticipated tours came stumbling into Tinley Park, IL at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater on a very humid evening this past Friday. Disturbed originally was supposed to be headlining but they had cancelled their 2021 tour and festival dates due to the Covid-19 pandemic. C-19 was at the forefront for both these bands in various ways.

Staind led by vocalist Aaron Lewis heated up the crowd as they had brought their over 20 years of "Nu-Metal" to the masses. Lewis donned a t-shirt stating "My Freedoms Are Given By God Not The Government", taking a shot at the government mandated vaccinations. Let's get to the music, Staind put it all on the table as they killed it flowing through their massive catalog as Lewis had the masses singing word for word with him with hit after hit like "Outside", "It's Been A While", "So Far Away" "Mudshovel" and others. Staind's hour plus set brought those who are old enough back to the "Family Values" tour years from the late 90's and early 2000's. There was a moment in the set where guitarist Mike Mushok's guitar went out during "Crawl" so the band stopped, recollected themselves and started the song over. Lewis can belt it out with the best in the business and also can get down and gritty with his growl. I'm hoping we will get new Staind music but time will tell if that happens.

Nu-Metal pioneers Korn took the stage around 9:30pm and from the get go those in the crowd new something was a bit off. After cancelling a few shows the previous week due to Jonathan Davis contacting Covid-19 this was the bands first show back. Davis got emotional and told the audience after the first song that he didn't want to cancel this show and would do his best and needed help from the masses to get through the set. After song two I noticed Davis was sucking air through an oxygen mask and he had a throne set up so he could sit and gather himself if needed. He grinded through the one and a half hour set with "Shoots and Ladders", "Coming Undone", "Blind" and a dozen others. JD was not in his usual self on stage as he is usually thrashing around and whipping his famous dreads but he made it through.

I'll have to say I've seen both Korn and Staind various times over the past 25 years and even though tonight both bands sets were solid this show didn't move the needle for me. If you haven't seen both bands or if you haven't been to a show since the pandemic started you would probably would be star struck and have loved this show. Maybe if it wasn't 100 degrees out with 90 percent humidity, maybe if Davis wasn't struggling with the effects of having Covid things might have been different. Maybe if was shooting the show from the pit rather than the soundboard or if I hadn't seen some bad ass, high energy bands and shows in recent months I'd have a different perspective on this show. Rock On!