Earlier this year, nu-metal math scholars Mudvayne played their first show in 12 years at the Inkcarcertaion Festival. The show was the first of several festival reunion dates that the band had planned for 2021. However, it now appears that Mudvayne are rethinking their plans for this year, as the band have pulled out of the Louder Than Life Festival due to frontman Chad Gray testing positive for COVID-19.
“After taking every precaution to follow CDC Covid protocols during rehearsals and recent performance, Chad Gray and a few staff members have unfortunately tested positive for Covid-19,” said Mudvayne in a public statement. “The safety of our organization, fans and festival partners must come first. We are left no choice but to cancel our performance at Louder Than Life this weekend. Apologies to all the fans attending the festival this weekend. We look forward to getting everyone healthy and ready for our Aftershock and Welcome to Rockville performances later this year. We appreciate your love & support throughout these unprecedented times.”
Louder Than Life confirmed the news in a social media post, and are apparently replacing Mudvayne with Pennsylvanian hard-rock band Breaking Benjamin.
Mudvayne are also scheduled to play the Aftershock Festival from October 7th to 10th and the Welcome to Rockville festival from November 11th to 134th. As of now, those dates remain unchanged.
Fans can at least rejoice that they got to see the reunited band at Inkcarceration. The band performed a 14-song set, with Gray speaking to his audience in fine form.
“Apparently, we are back from the fucking dead,” Gray told the crowd. “What a fucking great, bunch of crazy-ass people to come back to…When the bullshit fucking COVID first happened, everything was going away, my brain was spiraling down the rabbit hole, and there was no hope for anything living or dying, or when the next show was coming, and guess what? We fucking made it.
“That’s a testament and a tribute to all the motherfucking metalheads on the fucking planet. We fucking did it. I know we’re still deep in this shit, but we are going to get through this shit together. You know that, right? As human beings, we are motherfucking resilient. The entire world — doesn’t matter the race, creed, religion — we are all fighting together, as humanity. I told myself since the beginning, we are going to get through this, and when we do, it is going to be the biggest fist-in-the-air fuck-you to everything.”
Check out Mudvayne’s full setlist and fan-shot footage of their performance below:
1. Not Falling
2. -1
3. Death Blooms
4. Internal Primates Forever
5. Silenced
6. A New Game
7. Prod
8. A Cinderella Story
9. Dull Boy
10. World So Cold
11. Determined
12. Nothing To Gein
13. Happy?
14. Dig
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Words by Chris Krovatin
