Here's a classic video of Slipknot being introduced by Jimmy Kimmel in a Big Bird costume before playing a crushing set live on late night TV

Slipknot on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2009 — (Image credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live)

After diving into a time capsule of legendary Slipknot performances today, we stumbled upon their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2009, which was, it seems, quite the event.

Not only did the late night television show feature an appearance from Paris Hilton; it also saw Big Bird from Sesame Street introduce the Iowan Nine onto the stage. Alright, not the Big Bird, but Jimmy Kimmel dressed in a hilarious Big Bird costume.

Still, it made for brilliantly unconventional viewing, and Slipknot's performance, which was held as part of their All Hope Is Gone tour, was absolutely brutal - quite the contrast in energy to the host donning the costume of the fluorescent feathery children's entertainer moments before.

For their performance, they savagely ripped through five tracks, including (sic), Duality, Dead Memories, Snuff and Psychosocial, the latter two of which can be watched below. Although the sound quality is hardly pristine, this is Slipknot as we all know and love them: pure, ferocious and raw.

Within the crowd, punters can be spotted headbanging wildly and smashing into mosh-pits, an activity which is of course, usually missing from mainstream late night television.

Slipknot's mini concert that evening on October 30 also marked bassist Paul Gray's penultimate show, with his last ever live appearance taking place the following evening on October 31 in Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas.

It's also heartwarming to see late drummer Joey Jordison behind the kit alongside Gray, both doing what they did best: absolutely crushing it.

Check out the performance below:

In other news, Slipknot recently announced that they will be bringing their self-curated Knotfest festival to Italy. The event will take place in Bologna’s Arena Parco Nord on June 25, 2003, with a lineup of Architects, Amon Amarth, I Prevail, Lorna Shore, Nothing More, and Destrage.

Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.