A Night To Remember

His name has, in recent years, become synonymous with horror films, such as The Devil's Rejects and the 2006 remake of Halloween and it is this inherent showmanship that makes Rob Zombie one of the best live rock/ metal acts there is. Massachusetts born, Zombie is currently touring the US to promote his forthcoming album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2. Having last seen him perform in London on the original Hellbilly Deluxe tour, eleven years ago (he's not performed in the UK since), it was with eager anticipation that I headed to Boston last Wednesday to see him play at the infamous House of Blues.

Security for gigs is much tighter in the US than the UK - perhaps due to incidents like the shooting that killed Dimebag Darrell five years ago - and before entering the venue we had to show ID (my Welsh driving licence required the verification of 'The Expert' - a fellow Brit), remove all items from our pockets and be patted down. Cameras were strictly forebidden. Once the gauntlet had been run, I (quite literally) bounced my way into the venue, only to discover that our tickets were for the mezzanine level on the second floor (I hadn't booked them). This was disappointing as that level offered limited views of the stage; indeed, aside from Scott, who's six foot three, we couldn't see a thing. I was, however, accompanied by no less than two Scotts that night, the other of which discovered we could get down to the ground floor level by expressing the desire to purchase merchandise. So that's exactly what we did.

We were then able to procure ourselves a prime spot near enough the front to have both a good view of the stage and elbow room. The atmosphere was super-charged, despite the lack-lustre performances by the support acts; the fictional (they featured in Zombie's Halloween II) Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures and Necromantix.

The headline act opened with a clip from Zombie's recently-released animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. The band took to the stage to the rather eerie What Lurks on Channel X? and then launched straight into Superbeast, which sent the crowd into a frenzy. Zombie worked the crowd, playing on the rivalry Boston has with New York (Sox vs Yankees), as he'd played there earlier in the week. We were treated to a veritable aural banquet, including Living Dead Girl, Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy), American Witch and Demon Speeding, along with White Zombie classics, such as Super-Charger Heaven and More Human Than Human (at which point a giant robot with glowing eyes took to the stage). To ensure that our eyes were equally happy, immense screens projected a plethora of horror-related images from old films and manga cartoons.

Half way through his set, Zombie left the stage to focus the audience on Tommy Clufetos' impressive drum solo and during a rendition of ThunderKiss '65 (which he made the audience beg him to play), he walked right through the crowd, from the back of the venue to the stage, accompanied by John 5's epic guitar solo. Sadly, he turned to head back to the ailse two people away from Scott and I, so I didn't get to high five him but I did get closer than I ever thought I would!

Only two songs from the forthcoming album found their way into the set and Zombie cleverly ensured that these were well received. "This isn't a gig, it's a party," he told the crowd, "and nobody likes a party when they don't know what's going on." Dividing the crowd by gender, he allocated key words from the chorus to Sick Bubble-Gum and engineered a competition (females got the word with the most syllables!); thus the crowd were able to sing this yet-to-be-released song along with the band. For the second number, What?, Zombie ordered all males to vacate the mosh pit to allow an all-girl - 'safe' - mosh pit to ensue.

Despite two encores, ninety minutes of Zombie-action just wasn't enough: the crowd lingered long after plecrums and drumsticks had been scattered amongst us (I was lucky enough to procure myself one of the former). Despite having to be up incredibly early the next morning, Scott and I lingered too - it was a phenomenal show. For me, seeing Rob Zombie play on home turf was the experience of a lifetime and is a definite highlight of this exchange.