Review: Here’s why the big Korn show felt so anti-climactic on Sunday

It was Korn’s party. But Gojira most definitely stole the show.

Korn came to Shoreline Amphitheatre on Sunday night in celebration of a major anniversary.

“Tonight, we celebrate 30 years of Korn,” vocalist Jonathan Davis told the massive crowd of some 18,000 fans assembled at the Mountain View venue. “We’ve had ups, we’ve had downs. But that is life.

“If it wasn’t for y’all, we wouldn’t be here. So, thank you so (expletive) much.”

And thank you very much to Gojira — who in setting the table for Korn — delivered, by far, the best reason for turning out to see the show on this scorching hot night.

While the offering from the Bakersfield nu-metal headliners could be generously called “nostalgic” — and probably more bluntly labeled as dated and well past its prime — what Gojira put forth felt so very fresh and exciting, illustrating all the reasons why the French quartet is one of the very best in the metal business right now.

Sure, the Bakersfield bunch has earned the right to headline by selling millions more records than France’s fantastic four. In terms of basically every other metric, however, Korn had no business trying to follow Korn on the live stage.

And my guess is that we won’t be seeing Gojira in the support act role much longer.

Having operated outside of the mainstream since forming in the mid-’90s — with only hardcore metalheads really appreciating its charms — Gojira issued a major wakeup call to the rest of the world with its monster performance during the opening ceremony of this past summer’s Paris Olympics. The result was that millions of people were suddenly talking about — and Googling — the band.

Of course, this tour was booked well before that Olympics coming out party, otherwise Gojira’s name might be sitting atop the marquee at major sheds across North America in 2024. But now fans will have to wait a bit longer for that to happen.

The band — which consists of Joe Duplantier on vocals and guitar, his brother Mario Duplantier on drums, Christian Andreu on guitar and Jean-Michel Labadie on bass — was absolutely masterful during its Shoreline spin, grinding through a dozen massive metal tunes during the course of one spellbinding hour.

Gojira opened the set with “Born for One Thing” and the band made it obvious what that one thing is as it continued through such powerhouse rockers as “The Axe,” “Backbone” and “Stranded.”

The music moved like a Humvee doing donuts in an ice rink, smashing and crashing its way through changes and obliterating all that was in its path. Yet, the Gojira sound is anything but one-dimensional — see Korn if you want some of that — but rather a complex and very hard-hitting hybrid of prog, groove and death metal forms.

Joe Duplantier can roar with the best of them on the microphone, yet he’s also the rare metal vocalist who brings moments of nuance and — dare I say it? — intimacy to the music. It has a lot to do with the lyrics, which cover fantastical Ronnie James Dio-esque ground and concepts of one’s own mortality, but shine the brightest when they are taking stock on the world we live in.

The group ranks as one of the modern music’s great ecological and environmental champions, routinely tackling such issues as marine pollution, climate change and deforestation through Joe Duplantier’s impassioned lyrics. That’s incredibly refreshing to find in the metal world, especially in direct comparison to all the numbing F-bomb-for-F-bomb’s sake lyrics that would follow with Korn.

That side of Gojira definitely came out in concert, with the group dedicated the epic “Flying Whales” — from 2005’s “From Mars to Sirius” — to anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who is currently being held in captivity in Denmark. Showing perfect timing, one audience member used the moment to toss up a large inflatable whale, which would then be passed around above fans’ heads throughout the song (and then some).

The Gojira stage show was every bit as thrilling as the music, with plenty of cool effects and enough (literal) fire power to make you think you might be actually watching pyro-happy Rammstein onstage.

The group closed their set with a punishing take on “Amazonia” — from its most recent full-length, 2021’s “Fortitude” — which vocalist Duplantier dedicated to indigenous people in the Amazon Rainforest and around the globe.

Korn followed with its own 18-song set, which was certainly appreciated by the large crowd — but still felt very anti-climactic after what we’d just witnessed with Gojira.

The sound system was really booming as the group took the stage with “Here to Stay,” with the bass cranked up to nearly nausea-inducing levels, but the loudness couldn’t mask the mediocrity of the material as the band continued through “Dead Bodies Everywhere,” “Got the Life” and “A.D.I.D.A.S.” (Speaking of Adidas, the musicians were basically billboards for the shoe/sports wear brand, proudly sporting the logo — with vocalist Davis showing up in a very un-metal red Adidas track suit that absolutely didn’t make sense given the weather.)

Although the crowd was really into the music during the early stages of the Korn set, fans seemed to lose a bit of interest as the night progressed — and even Davis’ profanity-laden cheerleader efforts didn’t help matters.

Tossing a bit of Metallica’s mighty “One” into “Shoots and Ladders” initially seemed like a good idea — especially in the Bay Area. But was it really? In the end, it only underscored that Korn’s brand of nu-metal isn’t all that interesting on its own merits.

The headliners brought the main set to a close by rolling through “Make Me Bad” and “Y’All Want a Single,” before returning for an encore. Then fans were turned lose on the night, with many of them probably intent on streaming some more Gojira on the drive home.

Gojira setlist:1. “Born for One Thing”2. “The Axe”3. “Backbone”4. “Stranded”5. “The Cell”6. “Flying Whales”7. “Grind”8. “Another World”9. “L’enfant sauvage”10. “Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)”11. “Silvera”12. “Amazonia”

Korn setlist:1. “Here to Stay”2. “Dead Bodies Everywhere”3. “Got the Life”4. “A.D.I.D.A.S.”5. “It’s On!”6. “Good God”7. “Start the Healing”8. “Michael & Geri”9. “Blind”10. “Ball Tongue”11. “Clown”12. “Shoots and Ladders”13. “Twist”14. “Make Me Bad”15. “Y’All Want a Single”Encore:16. “Falling Away From Me”17. “Oildale (Leave Me Alone)”18. “Freak on a Leash”