My first meeting with the musical insanity of Robert Bartleh Cummings, a.k.a. Rob Zombie, was with the release of the 1995 White Zombie album Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs Of Love, Destruction And Other Synthetic Delusions Of The Electric Head (often shortened to just Astro-Creep: 2000).
With that in mind (and yes, I really liked that album), it’s strange how it has taken me some 20 years to actually see the man live for the first time!

“Are there enough people in here tonight for a fucking rock show? Are there enough people in here for a fucking party?!”
- Rob Zombie (vocals)

Rob Zombie, the band, has a reputation for putting on some extravagant and theatrical shows, and seeing the stage décor with the King Kong backdrop, the Wolfman and Phantom Of The Opera side drops, and yet another horror classic (which I sadly cannot place right now) decorating the drum podium, there was a clear mental image of this show leading into the beloved classic horror land that Zombie so often frequents. The fact that Matt ‘Piggy D.’ Montgomery played a Frankenstein’s Monster shaped bass with glowing, red eyes, and that John ‘5’ William Lowery came in wearing a raggedy trench coat and a gasmask with red lights in the eyes and the mouth piece only supported this theory. Drummer Kenneth Robert ‘Ginger Fish’ Wilson was a bit more low-key, as he only wore a painted face, with an inverted cross beginning between his eyes, stretching down to his chin.
This was not to be however. Rob Zombie entered with his signature hat and fringe jacket, and took Vega by storm as he danced around like a black belt yoga instructor with bugs in his undergarments. He rocked. The band rocked. The show rocked. And guess what; Vega rocked!

The setlist was a nice combination of old, new, and borrowed, however, there wasn’t really anything blue.
The show began, not surprisingly, with Teenage Nosferatu Pussy, which is the opener of the band’s latest album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor.
From here on out, we got songs spanning Zombie’s entire solo career, a couple of tracks from White Zombie, and a few more covers from such diverse artists as James Brown, Kiss, and Ramones. Heck, we even got a snippet of Metallica’s Enter Sandman thrown at us by John 5 and Ginger Fish as we moved into the second encore!
A couple of solo’s also made their way into the set, the first of which was played by Ginger Fish, who had added his own backing track, and thankfully kept it nice and short.
The second turn went to John 5, who got to shine in an extended version of the White Zombie track Thunder Kiss ’65. The entire story to this was explained by Zombie himself before the song, where he reminisced back to 25 years earlier, where White Zombie played support for Danzig. Apparently, people of the time hadn’t liked what they heard and had shouted for Danzig to come on, so with that in mind, Rob Zombie was going to give us a very long version of the song this night. Well, there was the guitar solo, then there was God Of Thunder, after which Blitzkrieg Bop was played, before the band returned to Thunder Kiss ’65, to finish off the last few seconds of that song. This gives an entirely new meaning to extended!

Throughout it all, Vega was on fire! The heat was one clear indication of course, but that probably came as much from all the metalheads who were pressed in the hall as it did from something else.
Not only were we pressed closely together, but there was a lot of action going on. The first song had gotten a nice welcome in the form of shouts and cheers, but when the classic Superbeast came on as the second track, the floor really came alive with headbanging and moshing!
Rob Zombie was of course a master of directing the audience, giving us a shout contest between the people on the floor and those seated or standing on the balcony. The ones seated were teased a bit, but it was all in good form, and the band was rewarded by a girl flashing her breasts at them, proving that even though you were on the balcony, you could still participate in the party.
A lot of fun was also had with the large balloons that were released during Sick Bubblegum, although John 5 managed to pop a few of these after a while – I suppose it got annoying after a while of constant bumping into his guitar.

While the show featured numerous wardrobe and instrument changes, the coolest of which must be the wooden cross bass that Piggy D. used in Pussy Liquor, although John 5’s TV guitar used in More Human Than Human was also pretty entertaining, I wouldn’t go as far as calling this show theatrical. At the very heart of it, this was a pure bread rock show. Great atmosphere, lively and positive band, and a rocking crowd. And honestly, that’s all it needs to be, when it’s done right, like here. I loved every minute of it, and pray that it won’t take as long a time to see the band live again.

Setlist:

Teenage Nosferatu Pussy
Superbeast
Scum Of The Earth
Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine (James Brown cover)
Living Dead Girl
Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown
Solo (Ginger Fish)
More Human Than Human (White Zombie cover)
Sick Bubblegum
Pussy Liquor
Meet The Creeper
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
Thunder Kiss ’65 (White Zombie cover)
Solo (John 5)
God Of Thunder (Kiss cover)
Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones cover)
Dragula
Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga
The Lords Of Salem