Live Music Experience: Gojira

Fortitude US Tour 2021
Diamond Ballroom, OKC
with Alien Weaponry, Knocked Loose

This concert was a little extra sweet for my brother (Sonny Reza, from IUF) and I, because just two days before, we were involved in an accident where we were struck by a truck while walking to our car. We were lucky to escape with only minor injuries, but it really put some things into perspective.

I wonder if that’s how we all feel, though. 18+ months of a global pandemic, if we’re paying attention to the right things, should have taught us all how precious a gift life is and how miraculous and beautiful it is to have the opportunity to gather together. As a nation, we were all hit by a moving truck, going by the name of COVID-19, and those of us who survived were fortunate to make it out with only minor injuries. As life slowly returns to normalcy, the things we used to take for granted ought to not simply trickle back into our day-to-day, but instead return with fanfare and triumph.

Friends, live music has made its triumphant return, and its name is Gojira.

Alien Weaponry, if you aren’t hip to them, is a heavy-hitting power trio from New Zealand. I would lean toward categorizing them as folk metal, simply because they openly celebrate their heritage and often include vocals in the New Zealand native tongue of Maori. They mentioned, through thick Kiwi accents, how thankful they were to finally be on tour in the states, having been postponing for nearly two years. Many audience members seemed to be new to Alien Weaponry, but they were easily won over by the blazing riffs, fresh sound, intense stage presence, and the fact that they were, in fact, a real live band.

Kentucky hardcore trendsetters Knocked Loose is a band I would recommend to be added to any tour that needs real, genuine hype. Gojira wants an audience amped up? Add Knocked Loose to the bill. Metallica needs some help getting the crowd on their feet? Get Knocked Loose. Taylor Swift? Knocked Loose. Honestly, I don’t know what they do when they headline tours. If the point of an opening act is to generate excitement for the headliner, then Knocked Loose will be out of luck – nobody does it better than them right now.

Gojira’s live show, at the moment, is truly a celebration of live music. From the first note to the last, through gritted teeth and the depth of severity we have come to know Gojira for, a singular posture was loud and clear that night: gratitude. The four men in the band were clearly grateful to be back in front of fans. The fans were incontestably grateful to have Gojira in front of them. Even in the middle of a cross-country tour, in the middle of America, at a venue in the middle of nowhere – gratitude. Thankfulness to be in one place, together with complete strangers who, through music, are like family.

These are Gojira’s first live shows in America since the release of their much anticipated seventh studio album, Fortitude. The evening’s set list included notable tracks from Fortitude interlaced with classics from their back catalog. The introduction to every song was met with thunderous cheering. To the audience, every song was a gift, every riff was a blessing, and every chantable chorus was an embrace.

Highlights from the evening included the time Joe Duplantier stopped a song intro to ask the audience to put their phones away and to just “be together here in this place and in this moment,” and when he led the audience in singing the wordless chorus to “The Chant.” Since there are no real words in this chorus, Duplantier encouraged the audience to find their own meaning and put it behind their singing. “Put something behind it. Something spiritual or something emotional, and let’s all sing together.” I don’t think the audience needed to dig very deep to find something meaningful, having been locked away from other humans for so long.

Gojira is already well known for their live shows. This tour, however, carries with it the banner of a live music culture fighting its way back to relevance and normalcy. The sound of Gojira’s fall 2021 tour is the battle cry, calling out to all live music enthusiasts to shake the dust off from the last year and a half, gather together, and chant along once more.