ROB ZOMBIE // O2 ACADEMY, GLASGOW
Rob Zombie plays one-off show at Glasgow’s O2 Academy prior to his appearance at Download Festival 2019.
ROB ZOMBIE PERFORMING AT GLASGOW’S O2 ACADEMY - 13.06.2019
PICTURE BY: STUART WESTWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY
★★★★★ (5/5)
At The Academy in Glasgow tonight to see Rob Zombie and I’m not sure what to expect, I don’t know the music but I’m a fan of his films. The queue to get in is long and the once in the hall fills up quite a bit prior to the opening act, which is quite unusual.
I didn’t catch the name of the opening act which is unfortunate, although not really my kind of thing, they were a hit with the Glasgow crowd though. Initially I thought they were a three piece, comprise Bass/ Keyboardist, Drummer and lead singer but there was also another member towards the back of the stage who i think was triggering the samples in their set.
Each song started and ended with a spoken word sample of what i thought were descriptions of crimes, like serial killing but I couldn’t be sure. The music was hard rock with overpowering bass and drums. The singers vocals were a bit like Bjork and I could really catch any hooks. The stage performance was energetic with the band in black mask and the female singer had her face painted white. That gave here a really intense look in the uplighting they used.
They ended their set with the singer walking off toward the end of the last track leaving the band playing a frantic outro. All really dramatic but it had the crowd hyped up for the main event.
The stage turn around was like something from going to see a play as they really had a mountain of gear. There was a a riser towards the front of the stage giving the band another 3 or 4 feet over the crowd and video wall screens on every front facing surface.
The Video wall sparked to life and spelled out in individual letters, Z, O, M, B, I, E over and over with some images of Rob.
The band came out on stage and the main man looked like a zombie cowboy with the bass player and guitarist in creepy masks and the drummers face painted white.
They got right into the music, and the opening track, Meet The Creeper, the video wall had all sorts of images mostly creepy. The name of the song came up at the choruses and John 5, the guitarist removed his mask to show his trademark white face. I hadn’t realised that Rob guitarist was John 5 before seeing him.
As the gig moved on there were a few make changes and the bass player seemed to remove a few different jackets and had a couple of different masks to wear too. The whole thing was really energetic….considering Robs advancing years.
Rob had a really great rapport with the crowd and and got everybody jumping to Well, Everybody’s Fucking In A U.F.O. A couple of tracks later he lead a chant of ‘Do you want to fucking party?’ which everybody seemed only to happy to raise the roof to.
Lots of cool guitar changes both from John 5 with different iterations of his signature telecaster style axe, including an LED one which was very cool and the bass player had a few too. John 5 and the bass player were really involved with the crowd too which really helped to stir things up and keep the energy hight throughout, with Rob also getting down into the front row with the crowd.
John 5 also a guitar solo slot which was somewhat upstaged by Rob taking a tour of the hall climbing through the crowd and waling over the bars. This caused most of the crowd to be turn with their backs to the stage whilst the solo was being played.
Rob had a bit of chat before the band played Thunder Kiss ’65, to ask everyone to put away their phones and just get with the moment for 3 mins. I liked this as it is one of my pet hates about modern concerts, hands in the air photoing or videoing blocking the view.
The second half of the gig was cover heavy from the Guitar solo’s sojourn into Led Zep riffs, to Blitzkrieg Bop and School’s Out bring ing the main set to a close.
The crowd struck up the standard Glasgow chant of Here we, here we, here we fucking go! to being the band back in to the stage for the encore. Rob asked what the chant was and encouraged a more. Then they broke into a rather strange cover, Helter Skelter…..a bit unexpected but done like a heavy version of U2’s cover of the same track.
Then Get Your Boots ON! That’s The End Of Rock And Roll, once they have finished playing that track the band went off again and there was what seemed like an advert for Rob’s next movie a 3rd instalment of House Of 1000 Corpses.
Then the whole night ended with a sing along to Dragula. Overall, a great night of hard rock and energetic theatrics. The opening act were a bit under par but still in keeping with the whole. The sound quality was great and the light show was pretty awesome.
SETLIST: | ROB ZOMBIE : O2 ACADEMY, GLASGOW - 13.06.2019
Meet the Creeper
Superbeast
Well, Everybody’s Fucking a U.F.O.
Living Dead Girl
More Human Than Human - (White Zombie song)
In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High
Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
The Hideous Exhibitions of a Dedicated Gore Whore
House of 1000 Corpses
Guitar Solo
Thunder Kiss '65 - (White Zombie song)
Blitzkrieg Pop - (Ramones cover)
School’s Out - (Alice Cooper cover)
ENCORE:
Helter Skelter - (The Beatles cover)
Get Your Boots On! That’s the End of Rock and Roll
Dragula