Concert preview: Rob Zombie at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas (November 13)

by Justin Press of Justin Press: Dallas Rock Music Examiner

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The focus is again back on the stage show -- part horror film, part 1970s desert biker/Charles Manson imagery.

Rob Zombie w/ Captain Clegg and Nekromantix -- Friday, November 13 at the Palladium Ballroom

Only fitting that Mr. Zombie and his chamber of musical horrors would visit Dallas on Friday the 13th, so take heed and bring your crucifixes and rosaries -- you’re in for a bumpy night. Touring on the soon-to-be-released (in 2010) Hellbilly 2 record, Rob Zombie brings his blood and thunder act back -- as his hiatus to make movies, including this year’s overlooked Halloween II (a gory masterwork), ends and now resumes his throne as heir apparent to Alice Cooper. If newly released tracks like "Sick Bubble-Gun" and "Burn" are any indication, then Zombie and his band have not lost their attraction to the death disco beats and over-driven riffs they helped create over 10 years prior.

The new delay on Hellbilly 2 has been a stalemate of sorts but now Zombie has signed with Loud & Proud Records, a Roadrunner imprint, and the wheels are back in motion. So the focus is again back on the stage show -- part horror film, part 1970s desert biker/Charles Manson imagery; think a Russ Meyer film but with Universal Monsters as the lead roles. The mere mention of a White Zombie reunion is laughable at this point with Zombie waist deep in movies, his own band and creations, Blasko now at the bass helm with Ozzy, and the others off in the netherworld. No matter because Zombie’s band that includes John 5 on guitar and former Cooper drummer Tommy Clufetos is still top-notch and play the Igors to Zombie’s Dr. Frankenstein perfectly.

Openers Captain Clegg are the graveyard rockabilly unit that haunted Zombie’s Halloween II movie during a very violent period of the movie and fit in with ethos of the Rob Zombie experience, ghoulishly vamped up hillbilly rocker numbers that creepy crawl like our own Rev. Horton Heat. Nekromantix play their own version of rockabilly, but this time it’s injected with adrenaline as it teeters between surf guitars and punk’s bruising rhythms. Rob Zombie proves that no matter how many times you stake him in the heart, shoot him full of silver bullets, or burn him near the river, he always comes back more sinister than before.

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