Slipknot.
Alexandria Crahan-Conway*Slipknot are extending their busy fall plans with another installment of Knotfest, dubbed Knotfest Los Angeles, which they’ll headline at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium on November 5th. Bring Me the Horizon, Killswitch Engage, Fever 333, Code Orange, and Vended will also perform, along with the aerial dance troupe Cherry Bombs. The general on sale will begin Friday at KnotfestLosAngeles.com, while presales start Tuesday.
The event follows the announcements of Knotfest Iowa, which kicks off the band’s concert activities on September 25th, and the touring Knotfest Roadshow, which stretches across the States from September 28th to November 2nd. The Roadshow dates all feature support from Knotfest Los Angeles performers Killswitch Engage, Fever 333, and Code Orange. (The band has also announced the postponments of planned 2021 Knotfest events in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia to next year.)
Slipknot intends to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their commercial breakthrough, Iowa, which made it up to Number Three on Billboard when it came out. Each of the Knotfest events will feature a museum with memorabilia and artifacts from around the release of Iowa. At Knotfest Iowa, the band will also offer tastings of its small-batch Iowa whiskies, No. 9 Iowa Whiskey and No. 9 Reserve, and band-branded beers.
Prior to the band’s live events, the group is currently recording a follow-up to their 2019 album We Are Not Your Kind.
The group’s frontman, Corey Taylor, recently embarked on a solo tour, which he chronicled in a three-part tour diary for Rolling Stone. In the final installment, he paid tribute to Knotfest Los Angeles performers the Cherry Bombs, which features his wife Alicia. “This is no ordinary revue; hell, there isn’t even an easy way to describe it,” he wrote. “It’s more than just a dance troupe. It’s dance, and fire performance, and aerial performance, and pole performance, coupled with storytelling and angle grinding for good measure. Now even an expanded mind needs a minute to take that all in.”
Fontaines D.C. have teamed up with Rosalía for their new collaboration, Where Is Gone?.
The song features on the Irish rock band's forthcoming album, Dopamine Chamber, which arrives on Friday (16.10.26). For guitarist Carlos O’Connell, working with the Spanish superstar is particularly special because of his own Spanish roots.
He explained: “I’ve admired Rosalía ever since her debut album, which I thought was absolutely beautiful.
“What excited me most was the way she continued to preserve Spain's musical traditions, something that felt spiritually connected to what we've been trying to achieve with Irish music. Having roots in both countries, it's been really special to witness. "She's an artist who has continued to amaze me at every point in her career.”
Frontman Grian Chatten has also described the collaboration with Rosalía as one of the most memorable achievements of his career.
He revealed that he felt "humbled" when she agreed to lend her voice to the band's album.
Speaking to NPR, Grian said: “I've always felt there's something almost like a single big idea that I'm personally trying to communicate to the world before I get old and die, if that makes sense. There's one thing I think I'll spend my life trying to express. I have a feeling she has a similar outlook. … I mean, she's an amazing arranger, composer and lyricist. It means so much that she wanted to sing on something we'd put together. It's definitely one of the highlights of my career.”
Rosalía's links to Irish rock music extend beyond Fontaines D.C. She also offered inspiration and helped develop the Spanish lyrics for U2's The Mirror Maker (Rosalía), a track from their forthcoming album, Carnaval de Luz.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, she spoke about frontman Bono, saying: “I don't know him personally, but he sent me a text explaining that he was working on a new project and had written a song called The Mirror Maker."
Rosalía joked that Bono had invented a few words of his own.
She recalled telling him: “I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I told him he could create his own language if he wanted to.”
She described the opportunity to collaborate with the 66 year old music veteran as a real privilege.
She added: “Bono is a legend.
“It's amazing.”
Bono recently revealed that he was worried about seeming like a stalker when he reached out to Rosalía to ask whether he could name the song after her.
