On This Day in History

Written By Braddon S. Williams aka “ The Concert Critic”

On this date in history, 10/1/2021, Slipknot brought their Knotfest traveling metal collective to Deer Creek (Ruoff Music Center if you prefer) for an evening of cathartic noise therapy.

In addition to the masked marauders from Iowa, this year’s lineup featured Killswitch Engage, Fever 333, and Code Orange. Due to a combination of work schedules and traffic conditions, we completely missed the two opening acts. I had done a little research and was tentatively looking forward to Code Orange, but missing Fever 333 was no big loss in my opinion.

It had been awhile since I had last seen Killswitch Engage, and Howard Jones had been their singer every time previously, so I was a bit curious to see how Jesse Leach would compare. Honestly, I prefer Howard as a vocalist, but Killswitch gathered momentum as their set progressed and I enjoyed their energy.

Slipknot basically brought out the same staging and lights from their 2019 tour, but like the Alice Cooper show we attended two nights before, Slipknot seems to have been reinvigorated from the extended time off. Their mix was superior this time around, but I missed the much stronger support bands from the ‘19 event.

On a side note, since it was the beginning of “Halloween” month and in solidarity with Slipknot’s masks, I decided to attend the show wearing a Devil mask and a Blackcraft Cult shirt that may or may not have said some Satanic stuff. Needless to say, I had a seemingly endless line of people coming up and asking to take selfies with me! There were some truly hilarious comments made, like the woman who said “I’ve always wanted to meet you!”

A number of friends actually saw me and didn’t discover my true identity until the next day. I’m glad I made the decision to start my Halloween celebration at a Slipknot show, and it gave me a sliver of understanding of just how much those guys suffer for their art. My face was sweating bullets and I was basically standing still. Love them or hate them, but Slipknot is not phoning it in.