Having not been to a recent concert at the glorified cow palace known as Tingley Coliseum, I was a bit nostalgic to know that I'd be seeing the Merry Mayhem Tour there, which featured Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie along with relative newcomers Mudvayne.
The nostalgia arose from the times of cheap concerts when you could see major touring bands for around 10 bucks, not the 40 bucks that the Ozzman and company were asking of head-banging maniacs.
I remember seeing AC/DC on their "Flick of the Switch" tour, Metallica opening for Ozzy way back when and the little demon that scared the crap out of me when I caught Black Sabbath on their "Born Again" tour - all at Tingley.
But before I reveal too much about my age, let me say that once the curtain went down to reveal Rob Zombie's stage setup, nostalgia gave way to a bombardment of the senses.
Zombie's stage featured a more-comical-than-scary devil head, which also served as the support for the drum riser, and on either side of drummer John Tempesta were ghouls who added to the fright.
Two huge screens flanked the ghouls and another sat high above Tempesta so that the entire crowd could see Zombie, bassist Blasko and guitarist Riggs flail about the stage. The screens also alternately flashed scenes of curvaceous women, pictures of Charles Manson and Bettie Page, demonic animation, spiraling pentagrams and generally scenes that would make Jerry Falwell cringe. Similarly, a couple of go-go dancers gyrated to select Zombie numbers, and no less than three giant robots stalked the stage at different times.
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Musically, the band served up heavy slabs of the grinding techno metal that Zombie has been known for in recent years. Zombie ripped out a slamming version of "Superbeast," touchingly dedicated "Living Dead Girl" to the females in the crowd and also played the wildly popular song "Dragula," as scenes from The Munsters - whose black car/hearse Zombie used for the song title - flashed on the screen.
The out of breath Zombie fessed up to forgetting the words to the White Zombie song, "More Human Than Human," but he redeemed himself with a rousing version of "Thunder Kiss '65" - the song and video that broke the band on MTV.
Zombie also included material from his upcoming release, "The Sinister Urge," and music and scenes from a movie he directed called "Night of 1000 Corpses," which will apparently see the light of day in theaters, according to Zombie. And he brought out a wrestler, The Edge - who I know nothing about - to announce his Zombie-penned theme song and to strut about the stage.
In all, the 70-minute set was enthralling, especially on a visual level.
I did not go expecting a masterful musical experience, not with the acoustics at Tingley set at one dynamic - ear- bleeding loud. And Rob Zombie's act has never been about musical proficiency.
But for the time Zombie and his band mates were on stage, I was able to suspend rational thought and just be sucked in to the experience, which I'm sure is the effect Zombie hopes to have on his fans. And even though Zombie may have been a little out of shape, with the tour only on its second date and his lengthy absence from touring, he more than made up for it with energy and the visual spectacle.
