Return Of The Dreads Tour

It's been too long. About 10 years since I last saw Rob Zombie.  The first time I had ever seen Rob Zombie was a one off show in at the Long Beach convention center in Long Beach, CA known as 'Priest Feast'. It consisted of Rob Zombie, Anthrax and Judas Priest. There should be a little written about that show in my 'Dan Goes To Judas Priest Concerts' post.

Priest Feast was on the floor of an indoor arena -- now here I was on lawn at Irvine Meadows amphitheater in Irvine, CA for round two with Rob Zombie. July 24th, 2016 I was once again faced with the hippie/cowboy/filmmaker/zombie that is Rob Zombie. First and foremost let me emphasize his work as a filmmaker, as this facet of Rob Zombie makes his show's unique. Known for his films ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ and ‘The Devil’s Rejects, as well as directing two movies in the ‘Halloween’ franchise. He is no slouch in the film industry, so naturally that's heavily incorporated in his live concert performance. It's like having a music video playing in the background. Interesting note, this was the first concert ever in which I witnessed a movie trailer in the middle of it. The trailer was for his recently released film titled '31'; check out the trailer here.

Rob Zombie, not only a successful film director,  he is also someone who's been around in the music industry for a long time now. Naturally he comes in with an impressive crew; Ginger Fish joined on drums, and John 5 alongside on guitar for this show. Marilyn Manson fans should be excited here, as Ginger Fish is a prolific contributor to early Manson albums, and John 5 has had the privilege of working alongside acts like David Lee Roth, Paul Stanley, and Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Rob Zombie controls the stage, and excites the audience --this show was so full of energy, the bands demanded it out of us. Rob Zombie pounded out hit after hit, not only his solo work but digging into material back when he was with White Zombie. He also played my favorite track off of his last album Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown.  The sound was great, not just for Zombie’s set but for the whole night in general. Although I did find it interesting that Rob Zombie spoke through his vocal effects; they usually get turned off when the artist is talking to the audience, but he had a crazy layering affect the whole night. It sounded fine, it was just unusual, then again... so was the movie trailer.

The great thing about this concert was not only getting to re-visit Rob Zombie, but also seeing KoЯn for a third time now. Compared to the first two times I saw KoЯn, this time was special in the way that it was them headlining with just one other group, In This Moment. The other two times I saw KoЯn were at festivals, leaving for a slightly condensed set. Rob Zombie's performance was unique in this way too, being that I had only seen him in a bit of a festival setting.

For this night, just having these two giants KoЯn and Rob Zombie together the bands had control over the energy of the audience in a special way, it was more focused. At large festivals you get a lot of grouping.  It can sometimes lead to a lack of unity at a concert. I've been to concerts with hodge podge lineups. But KoЯn and Rob Zombie really fit together. Similar to when I saw Kiss and Motley Crue, or Judas Priest with Heaven and Hell.

This was my  first time seeing KoЯn since they had stopped celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first self titled album 'KoЯn'. I don't want to even begin to complain about seeing them play that album in full TWICE. It was nice to see a "normal" KoЯn show with a cavalcade of hits throughout their entire catalogue. Well, for any "old-school" KoЯn fans, fear not, they played a great deal of older classics. Getting hit with tracks like;  Got The Life, Twist, Blind, Y'all Want A Single, Right now. Again with that audience energy, it was fun to sing along with a chorus of fans, again with that audience energy.

Seeing them play the first album is heavy. Jonathan Davis let out a lot of childhood anger and frustration out on that album. Performing the song Daddy, which he couldn't handle performing live for nearly two decades. But this night, he felt more like the multi platinum recording artist. Because when life hands you lemons, you pick up a mic and you scream into it. Jon was very talkative throughout the night, and very interactive with the audience. At one point all of their children came out onto the stage and danced around for a few songs!

I'm glad I got to see this show, and I'm glad I have at least one more show lined up for Irvine Meadows this summer, because after this season... Poof! it's gone. That's right, the Irvine Company wants to pave over my dreams and put up residential and multi family apartment communities. Just what we need, more people, less music... wrong. Let's just hope what I've read is true, and we get a brand new amphitheater at the great park. My closest outdoor amphitheater is about to become another 20 minutes away, sad panda.