Rob Zombie Live At The Brixton Academy 16th February 2011 Review

Considering it has been 16 years since Rob Zombie last played on these shores (with White Zombie), I think its a bit of an understatement to suggest a) it was overdue and b) there were a lot of rather excited people in Brixton Academy for this one.

We missed opening band Revoker but were in with plenty of time to catch the always excellent live Skindred, or should I say usually excellent live Skindred. Something tonight was just not quite right and it's hard to put my finger on what it was. The sound quality for them was definitely not great, but I've heard far worse in Brixton (in particular the near-ear bleeding experience last time Machine Head played there) and whether the band picked up on that and were frustrated by it or whether they were annoyed about something else, they did not seem happy to say the least.

Benji definitely did not seem his usual self, the energy in the performance just wasn't at its usual high levels and his banter with the crowd that forms an important part of their set was just not up to its usual standard. They still had a couple of good moments, the always popular Pressure getting a good crowd reaction along with Destroy The Dancefloor, which turned out to be the set closer. "We usually play nobody at this point, but tonight we're not going to" announced Benji before the band went off. It looked like they'd been told by a stage hand/roadie that they'd overrun, but that pretty much summed it up. For whatever reason, a very off night for Skindred. 4/10. I'm sure they'll be back to their usual excellent selves at The Forum in May.

Now, nothing annoys me more than headline acts take forever to take the stage. The elaborate set seemed ready to go by 9 O'Clock, yet Mr Zombie was nowhere to be seen. After about 7 false starts and numerous appearances of stage hands to check the robot (see the pictures), the lights went properly down finally at 9.40, 40 minutes after they were supposed to (according to Brixton Academy's twitter page, hardly the fountain of 100% knowledge I know but by this point the crowd was deservedly very restless).

Fortunately, within seconds of John 5 and bassist Piggy D taking the stage in their ghoulish get up, everyone forgot about that, and when the robot opened to reveal Rob Zombie himself, the place went understandibly batshit. Kicking things off with a booming rendition of Jesus Frankenstein, we were soon into old favourites territory. Superbeast was first up and that sounded amazing, indeed the sound quality for Rob and his band was absolutely perfect, in total contrast to Skindred's somewhat muddy sound earlier in the evening. "It's been a long, long, long time. I don't know what took so long really, it's all John 5's fault, he had to get over his fear of flying" was Rob Z's initial hello to the crowd.

The huge singalong from Superbeast did not stop with Superbeast as Scum Of The Earth kept the pace flowing nicely. Next up it was one for the ladies. "Have we got any Zombie girls in the house?" I think we all knew that Living Dead Girl was up next and it duly was. Our first foray into White Zombie territory was next with the somewhat expected More Human Than Human. Virtually the whole downstairs of Brixton Academy was bouncing by this point and it was just an awesome experience to take in and sing along with.

Rob Zombie: Fiendishly Impressive

There was a small amount of debate between myself and Matt as to whether it was Joey Jordison behind the kit with the Murderdolls tour having been in the UK as recently as last week and I wasn't sure when it finished. A trademark drum solo and a shout from Rob of "Heyyy Joey!" somewhat settled that one, proving once again JJ is the man for all things and bands metal. After looking it up it turns out he finished the Murderdolls tour Monday night and was behind the kit for Rob Z on Wednesday, top effort.

Unfortunately, due to the wonderful trains, combined with Mr Zombie's somewhat tardy timekeeping, we had to leave early. Before we left though, I got to hear one of the first songs that got me properly into metal, the wonderful Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy). "Scream If You Want, Cos I Want More" indeed.

On that note, we did a runner to Brixton tube station, missing the double encore that I heard about via Twitter the next day (thanks to the likes of @RafaDavies and @Kat_From_Earth). It was a shame to miss the epic Dragula in the first encore, but aside from that we definitely got our money's worth.

Rob Zombie's full setlist was:

Jesus Frankenstein
Superbeast
Scum of The Earth
Living Dead Girl
More Human Than Human
Sick Bubblegum
Demon Speeding
Joey Jordison Drum Solo
Mars Needs Women
Pussy Liquor
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
Thunder Kiss 65
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Werewolf Women of the SS
Dragula
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The House of 1000 Corpses
Lords of Salem

Basically, if you're going to Download, go and see Rob Zombie. Who knows when the UK will have another chance. You'll regret it if you don't. The sound was awesome, the staging was fantastic with robots and ghosts and and god knows what else, a total package. 8/10 (only marked down for coming on so late and making me not be able to see more).