TACOMA, Wash. — The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony was a vivid, theatrical show featuring the very first heavy metal band to ever play at the Olympics.
Gojira, a French heavy metal band, was introduced on the world stage while playing from balconies of a former palace and prison along the River Seine on July 26. Band members wore all black, alongside windows of beheaded Marie Antoinettes, with Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti.
The former prison and courthouse-turned-museum is named the Conciergerie, and was famously where Queen Marie Antoinette was imprisoned in 1793 before her execution.
In a few months, you could catch these Olympic performers in Washington and Oregon.
The Grammy award-nominated band is opening for rock band Korn at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Two days later, Gojira opens for Korn at the Tacoma Dome Thursday, Oct. 10.
Tickets for the shows are still available on Ticketmaster, ranging from $37 to $169.
Founded in 1993, rockers Joe and Mario Duplantier, Christian Andreu and Jean-Michel Labadie debuted as “Godzilla” before changing the band’s name to “Gojira” – a loose translation of Godzilla – in 2001.
Gojira was nominated for Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2017 and nominated for Best Metal Performance again in 2022.
