RETURN OF THE DREADS

IN THIS MOMENT | KORN | ROB ZOMBIE

September 1, 2016
Xfinity Theater
Hartford, Connecticut

I love a great Rock Show, but it has to be a show. I am a huge fan of Alice Cooper, 80’s W.A.S.P., Kiss, Marilyn Manson, King Diamond and Rob Zombie. A theatrical production, I feel it makes the show that much more memorable and I was excited to get to see the latest Rob Zombie tour with Korn and opening for them was a band I have seen at a couple of festivals, but from far away, and that band is In This Moment. It isn’t often you get to see an opening band with a slick production like this.

The crowd started getting antsy as the band slowly took to the stage, Chris Howorth, Lead Guitar, on the left side side of the stage with Drummer Kent Diimmel, Travis Johnson on Bass with Randy Weitzel on Guitar taking up the right side. Everyone erupted as the Blood Girls came out to the stage shortly followed by Maria Brink in a cloud of fog and started into “Sick Like Me” the first song of a short 7 song set. The rest of the night’s set list included, “Black Widow”, “Adrenalize”, “Burn”, “Sex Metal Barbie”, “Whore” and “Blood” with multiple costume changes between Maria and the Blood Girls. The band sounded fantastic as they all lurked on their sides of the stage, away from the center of attention in the middle of the stage with the gun, knives, severed head and choreography being brandished at various times by Maria and the Blood Girls.

A stage show worthy of Alice Cooper…

My only complaint, the frequent costume changes made me think I was at a Cher concert. She would disappear into the dark doorway behind her on stage and the music would stop while she changed. A complaint echoed by a few concert goers afterwards, time wasted in silence when another song or two could have been added to the set list, or solo’s or instrumentals between the songs, something to keep our attention. Otherwise, a very entertaining show, can’t wait to see a full set by this band.

Over the last year or so, Korn has been touring in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their first album, playing that in its entirety. Knowing that they have a new album (The Serenity of Suffering) coming out Oct. 21st, I was pretty confident that this show would not be repeat of those shows. I wasn’t disappointed.

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Ray Luzier, drummer for Korn came out to his drum set first and proceeded to get the crowd further into their frenzy as bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu strolled out and started into the bass line for “Right Now”, Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer both slowly emerged from the dark and claimed their territory on the stage as Jonathan Davis In his trademark black kilt came bouncing out to the roar of a very exuberant crowd. “Here to Stay” was next up and the first song of the night in which the crowd was singing along to every word, this lead into the first of the new songs coming off their new album due out in Oct., “Rotting in Vain”, a great tune, hearkening back to the old sound of Korn.

The rest of the set was like listening to my playlist on my phone, my favorite songs one after another, “Somebody Someone”, “Coming Undone”, “Y’All Want a Single”, “Make Me Bad” another new track “Insane” and then the one song everybody was waiting for, “Shoots and Ladders” which made even better and brought a bit more fervor into the crowd with a touch of Metallica’s “One” thrown into it, “Blind”, and then a song I don’t remember hearing live before and that is “Twist” followed by “Got the Life”, “Falling Away From Me” and then closed the set out with “Freak on a Leash”.

I have seen Korn a number of times over the last few years and this show seemed to have an energy to it that I have not seen over the last five or six years, almost like they have been reborn.

Rob Zombie… Rob Mother F’N Zombie…

The lights go down and an audio track starts playing. “The Last of The Demons Defeated”, this is short tune that leads off his latest album “The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser”. It lead right into the opening song of the set, another one off of the latest album, “Dead City Radio and The New Gods of Supertown”; classic Rob Zombie, catchy chorus, pounding drums and a riff that that gets the people playing air guitar. A staple of the Zombie set list was next, “Superbeast” and then once again a trip into the new album with “In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High”.

Rob was all over the stage jumping from riser to riser at the front of the stage then the surprise of the night came, a cover tune, I haven’t heard him do before, Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing”. Followed up by another crowd favorite “Living Dead Girl”. The next song was another new one and besides a catchy title a great tune, “Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a UFO”. A trip into history with “More Human Than Human” from his White Zombie days, then ‘Never Gonna Stop” another track off of his latest kept the reason why he was in Hartford. “The Hideous Exhibitions of a Dedicated Gore Whore” another crowd pleaser started and the people started swaying back and forth to “House of a 1000 Corpses” then the spotlight is off of Rob and put on John 5 for an amazing guitar solo during which Rob is out walking about in the crowd, at the end of the solo Rob is back on the stage ranting about how cell phones are killing Rock n Roll, and asking for people to put them down for three minutes.

Then the unmistakable intro into “Thunder Kiss 65” starts and the crowd erupts. This is one of my favorite White Zombie songs and intertwined with a bit of Diamond Head’s ‘Am I Evil” made for a great crowd sing along. John 5 had another moment to shine as he played “The Star Spangled Banner” leading into another cover tune, Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band” another crowd pleaser that had everyone once again singing along and that was the end of the set. Or was it?

A trailer for Rob Zombie’s new movie “31” was played on the screens and then the band came back out on the stage, with Rob climbing to the top of a podium and starting into the night’s encore, “Dragula.” Then it was over.

All in all, this was a fantastic night for fans of theatrical rock, or psychodrama rock, or whatever it is called these days.