"This year is 1999 right here!" Watch Slipknot break out new masks, classic songs and their brand new drummer at last night's super-intimate, 300-capacity show in Pioneertown, California

(Image credit: Youtube (Esteban_U98))

Last night (Thursday April 25), Slipknot officially kicked off their epic 25th anniversary celebrations with an incredibly intimate gig at the 300-capacity, open-air Pappy & Harriet's Place in Pioneertown, California. Donning classic red boiler suits that paid homage to The Nine's early days and with many of the band sporting brand new masks (most noticeably Corey Taylor, whose newest visage includes a return to his iconic dreadlocked look), the Iowan metal machine played a storming, 15-song set that spanned most of their career.

In footage since uploaded to social media, Slipknot can be seen slamming through classic cuts like Disasterpiece and Eyeless, with the band's brand new drummer - hotly rumoured to be ex-Sepultura man Eloy Casagrande - battering away behind the kit wearing a ghoulish white mask not totally unlike the one worn by Joey Jordison during his time with the band. Interestingly, it was Slipknot's most recent album, 2022's divisive The End, So Far that was ignored for setlist picks.

"Are you alive, from the middle of fucking nowhere?!" asked Corey Taylor at one point before the band played 2004 hit Before I Forget. "On a very, very, very special fucking night. Because tonight, it doesn't matter where you came from, it doesn't matter when you were born; this year, is Nineteen Fucking Ninety Nine right here.

"We are gonna play you some songs from beyond that year, but goddamn it, it all started in '99, and it is starting again here tonight," he added.

The surprise(ish) show marked the start of a series of concerts that will commemorate a quarter-century since the band's game-changing debut album first arrived. Slipknot will play further shows in North, Central and South America across the coming months, including Sick New World festival in Las Vegas this weekend, before hitting Europe and the UK this winter.

Watch footage from last night's historic Slipknot show below, and check out the setlist from the gig just below that.

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Slipknot revive red jumpsuits for small intimate California show (2024) pic.twitter.com/gpQ9cd4eQCApril 26, 2024

Slipknot Pappy & Harriet's Palace, Pioneertown, CA setlist April 25, 2024

People = Shit
Eyeless
Disasterpiece
Before I Forget
Custer
Psychosocial
The Devil In I
The Heretic Anthem
Unsainted
Wait And Bleed
Prosthetics
Vermillion

Encore

Duality
Spit It Out
Surfacing

Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.