Rob Zombie

July 30, 2022 – Xfinity Center (aka Great Woods!), Mansfield, MA

                I’ll keep this one short(ish). Rob Zombie is a friggin’ beast! The dude is 57 years old, he’s been rocking for forever, but he shows no signs of slowing down. I hadn’t even considered going to see him live, but when my son asked me to go, I happily said yes as this was a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT over Tyler the Creator where not an instrument was seen the entire night. But first…a quick recap of the openers.

                Powerman5000 opened the show. They’re a good solid rock band. They played their singles Bombshell, When Worlds Collide, as well as a cover of Seven Nation Army and seemingly had a good time on the stage. The singer, Spider One, is apparently Rob Zombie’s younger brother. So, it was a family affair. Static X was next. I was honestly never really a big fan of theirs, and the night didn’t change my mind. If you’re a big fan or enjoyed the set, kudos to you. Mudvayne was next. Again, I was never a fan of this band. I know all of 2 of their songs and they played them both this night. But honestly, even though I knew the songs, they were almost unrecognizable to me (aka – I thought they sucked). BUT…plenty of the crowd was into it, so maybe I just don’t get it. But they’re not my style. Also, I never understood the whole crazy face paint/mask shit some of these dudes do (Slipknot anyone?). Am I supposed to be scared? I don’t get it.

                Anyway, I wasn’t there for any of these dudes, I wanted to see Massachusetts native, Rob Zombie. He had a very cool stage set up, he had different dancing monsters parading onto the stage throughout the night, he was jumping around like a maniac, and his sound was the clearest all through the night. You could actually hear his vocals, no one instrument drowned out the others. It was a solid mix. He started off with a short preview of his upcoming Munsters movie…which does NOT look good. Sorry Rob! But maybe it’ll be a fun one. Who knows?

                His set began with King Freak which is suitable for a tour titled “Freaks on Parade.” He then moved into Superbeast you know the one: “Hey YEAH!’ Throughout the night, he actually talked to the crowd. I always enjoy this. To me, it shows the band is happy to be there and not just going through the motions. My favorite part of the banter, which I captured a video of, was him telling the crowd he was from Massachusetts. He stated that, “I don’t have an accent. But if I did, I would be wicked fucking good.” Ah, Boston!

                While there was no use of pyros, and that’s just fine by me, he had a ton of screens behind him. The screens could produce fake flames as needed and add to the already great light show. But what I liked about his act, is that each song brought different images to the screens. He’d use clips from his horror movies, his music videos, and more. It was pretty cool and added to the overall vibe. It was also a solid rock show filled with the must have guitar solo portion of the show. This was awesome because John5 is his guitar player. He’s a shredder for sure. Look him up if you don’t believe me or watch the video here.

                Clearly Rob Zombie is a showman and knows what he’s doing. I didn’t expect him to be so entertaining (in a friendly way). I hadn’t seen him live before and don’t really follow him closely, but I was pleased with his performance. At one point towards the end, people started to leave. He called them out as being the “Sensible people trying to beat the crowd out of the parking lot…so clearly they’re not from Massachusetts.” He wished them a safe trip back to Rhode Island. Dragula was his closer during the encore, and the only surprise for me was his cover of Helter Skelter. Is this a regular thing he does? Maybe, but damned if I knew this. But it was solid and I liked it! Great show overall (Rob Zombie and Powerman5000 anyway) and I’d totally see him again. Set list below:

1. King Freak
2. Superbeast
3. Meet the Creeper
4. Shake Your Ass – Smoke Your Grass
5. Living Dead Girl
6. More Huan Than Human
7. Scum of the Earth
8. Dead City Radio
9. Never Gonna Stop
10. Well Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O.
11. House of 1000 Corpses
12. Guitar Solo
13. Thunder Kiss 65
14. Helter Skelter
15. Shadow of the Cemetery Man
16. ENCORE – Dragula