Video: Corey Taylor’s First Show with Slipknot

Happy anniversary to Corey Taylor and Slipknot, who played their first show together at the Safari Club in Des Moines, Iowa on August 24, 1997 — twenty years ago today. Taylor was all of twenty-three years old.

To celebrate the occasion, MFKR1.com, a site entirely dedicated to the band’s pre-Roadrunner Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. era, has now released footage from that performance. Needless to say, if you’re a Slipknot fan, it’s fascinating. Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., featuring original vocalist Anders Colsefni, had been released ten months earlier; Colsefni actually remained in the band for Taylor’s first two gigs. So the music is much more experimental than the Slipknot most of the world would come to know.

Furthermore, the band’s beloved masks were clearly still in a state of flux. Taylor, for example, wore latex face paint, and Mick Thomson appears to be wearing a Jason Voorhees-esque hockey mask, not the dungeon mask he wears now. Only Clown’s look is really recognizable, which makes sense, because, y’know. Clown is a clown and there’s only so much you can do with that design.

Like I said — really interesting stuff! Check it out:

https://youtu.be/n8bBgV-6J0o

Thanks: Carmen U.