Frontman for alt-Metal heavyweights Slipknot and Stone Sour, Corey Taylor hits the road for his fall 2023 solo tour, hitting 28 cities across the US in just over a month, beginning on August 25th and ending on October 5th. Smack in the middle of the tour, on September 15th, Taylor and his group of misfits took over the Dome at the Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT.
Corey Taylor
The Dome at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford
15 September 2023
Words and Photography: Shannon Wilk
For headliner Corey Taylor, this show was very special as it was album release day for him and his band, “CMF2 day” as Taylor described it.
“An album to play on repeat” was how MetalTalk’s Paul Monkhouse described CMF2. “Savouring each chapter, CMF2 confirms all that we knew about Taylor’s creativity in style and then some.”
White lights strobe on the stage as the band, followed by Corey Taylor himself, take the stage with an iron fist. They opened the set with the album’s second single, Post Traumatic Blues, which is most certainly not a blues song, to be clear.
Taylor, who is a Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum singer-songwriter, actor and New York Times best-selling author, of course, had to include many of the songs from his other bands that got him to where he is now. 
From Snuff to Duality, from Slipknot to Absolute Zero and more from Stone Sour, tonight had the lot. Being album release day, the band also played several songs from their fresh release and just one tune from their debut record. 
With die-hard fans like these, Taylor playing new music is precisely the move to please the audience, many of whom already had lyrics memorized from the album released just that morning.
“I’m so happy to return to the lobby of one of my favourite venues,” says the Slipknot frontman, remarking on the Toyota Oakdale Theater’s smaller venue, The Dome. 
One of the heaviest songs of the set, Slipknot’s Before I Forget, was followed by Taylor taking a seat and grabbing an acoustic guitar. After messing around on the guitar and chuckling at himself for a moment, he sings, “Are you ready, kids?” beginning the SpongeBob Squarepants Theme, which has become a staple of any Corey Taylor set.
“30 years, and this is the fuckin’ song you sing to assholes,” remarks Taylor. From the theme song of SpongeBob Squarepants to the very serious Snuff, the audience remains singing with all their might. 
This continues with a call and response between the artist and the crowd, one of the classic live show moments artists over the years have adopted.
After a few more Stone Sour songs, as well as Talk Sick from CMF2, the band left the stage. The audience erupts into singing as Corey Taylor returns for Duality. To close out the evening, Taylor and his band paid homage to the legendary Lemmy Kilmister with Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades.
We described CMF2 as “one of the most compelling albums of the year. This is what genius looks like in 2023.”
Tonight, in Wallingford, Corey Taylor and his band left the audience exhilarated. 
