Korn, Breaking Benjamin, BONES UK
Winter Tour 2020
February 18th, 2020
Pinnacle Bank Arena
Lincoln, Nebraska
Here to stay. Truer words were never spoken.
For some, tonight would be a concert experience they’ve waited their entire lives for. For others it would be a chance to let off some steam and forget about their every day lives. For me though, tonight would be more of a reunion of sorts. Reconnecting with music that has been the soundtrack to my life for nearly two decades.
For the past few years Bones UK has really felt like my band. I never thought that the band I saw a few years ago with 40 other people at The Bourbon Theater’s Front Room would now be on tour with two of the biggest names in metal. I guess I have the passing of David Bowie to thank for introducing me to this band. Howard Stern invited the band to record a cover to help memorialize the late great Bowie, and BONES chose Bowie’s duet with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, “I’m Afraid of Americans”. These amazing women really didn’t get the recognition they deserved until their 2019 full-length debut was nominated for a Grammy. Here we have this band touring the country starting a grass roots effort to gain a new fan base and their hard work is paying off. BONES UK’s opening slot proved without a doubt that girls can play guitar.
Many years of trials and tribulations have helped raise Breaking Benjamin to their current peak. Past years many fans had their doubts that the band would even be able to continue and thankfully Burnley has proved us wrong. He has managed to continue pushing through his ongoing health issues to continue making great music. This show has given them the opportunity to prove they can still make an amazing album and bring it to you live pulling together new and old fans alike.
With the introduction of the new band members Breaking Benjamin proves you can move on from the ups and downs and continue in the music industry without skipping a beat. With vocal assistance from the crowd and band members Aaron Bruch and Keith Wallen they hammered through a thirteen-song set list.
Korn never ceases to amaze me. At this point in their career they have nothing left to prove yet time and again, release after release, tour after tour they prove exactly why they’re Here to Stay. Opening the show with this exact song lets you know why Korn is a mainstay in the metal industry. The raw vocals of Jonathan Davis, even after all of the loss he has been through, still shines and with the strong backing of Brian “Head” Welch, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, James “Munky” Shaffer, and Ray Luzier makes it a rush of raw energy exploding from the stage.
Curtain drops, stage lights up, and the pit is open for business. I took the seats for this one and from my vantage point the whole floor appeared to open up and become one gigantic pit. I even witnessed some people moshing on the way to their seats. I don’t think the seats even kept asses in them. Somebody Someone had the biggest pop from the crowd. The energy they invoke was consistent from start to finish, which leads me to believe security was not ready for this show.
A set list that would make old school Korn fans bounce off each other in the pit was also energetic enough to pull in the new fans as well. When the band hits the stage you forget that they are regular people too, and they light it on fire. You can see the growth of the band come together and they seem to be sitting on a whole new level in the music world. Never in my time as a Korn fan did I ever expect to hear an arena full of people screaming “I’m just a faget”.
Here are songs that were released close to three decades ago and they still stand the test of time and fit perfectly in a live setting with newly released music. The music has evolved. Korn has evolved. After all these years they still know how to rock the roof off the place.
