ROB ZOMBIE
MONSTER MAGNET
FEAR FACTORY
Orange Pavilion, San Bernardino, 11/25/98
It was a bitch getting to the Rob Zombie show
on November 25th. It was the day before Thanksgiving and the freeways were packed with
folks on their way to their families. A journey that normally takes less than an hour on
any other day took over three this day. The freeways were a parking lot and there were no
valets available.
Fortunately, the show was worth every minute of the wait.
Rob Zombie headlined, and his set was one of the most visually appealing and
theatrically involving shows I've ever seen. Loaded with supporting players, including
robots, gogo dancers (including a topless one behind the drum set), and a special
appearance by the Goatman, Zombie's set was a perfect combination of hard rocking, heavy
metal music and theatrics.
The stage was nothing short of phenomenal, looking as though it were created for some 50s
horror flick. On each side of the drum riser were giant video screens that constantly
played clips from classic horror movies and witchcraft films. Flashpots, smoke, make-up
and blood (fake, we hope) were used to their fullest effects. Zombie and his band were
decked out in complete zombie makeup - even to a dusting of grave dirt on their clothing.
The band played a combination of classic WHITE ZOMBIE tunes, including "Thunder
Kiss" "More Human Than Human," and "I, Zombie" as well as about
half the songs from Rob's new solo album, including "Drag-U-La," and
"Living Dead Woman."
The band's energy overflowed into the audience,
bringing the crowd to a frothy frenzy and the musicianship was nothing short of amazing,
especially considering the complexity of the theatrics.
And - unlike every other Zombie show I've ever seen - Rob didn't complain once about the
heat.
MONSTER MAGNET were in the middle spot and delivered an electrifying
performance. The band played a nitty-gritty, down'n'dirty set - no special effects, no
gimmicks, just good old hard rock music. Lead vocalist Dave Wyndorf was so charismatic
that he easily pulled the audience into the performance - and easily convinced a lot of
women to bare their cleavage. Audience favorites seemed to be "Crop Circle,"
"Power Trip," and "Space Land."
FEAR FACTORY opened that evening with their usual, above-average industrial
sounds. The crowd seemed to eat up the material from their latest album,
"Obsolete," and were further frenzied when the band began tossing out CD
singles. As the band indicated, Fear Factory have come a long way without any help from
MTV - their incredible combination of electronics and guitar - along with a spectacular
light show - starting the evening out with a bang.
Click here to see photos from this show
Back to roughedge.com Home Page
Copyright © 1999 by R. Scott Bolton. All rights
reserved.
Revised: 06 Oct 2019 11:48:56 -0400.
