Devil Music

Last night, Sunday January 6th, my husband and I paid a visit to Rob Zombie at the NorVa in Norfolk.

What a show! I consider Zombie to be quite a Renaissance man, what with his music career, comic art and stories, and his filmmaking. Having watched a lot of interviews with Zombie regarding his films, I understand him to a creative, intelligent and well spoken gentleman. In his live show, he turns into quite the showman. He's a redneck carnival barker in his artfully tattered jeans and cowboy hat. His stage persona is quite a distance from the concise, easygoing and natural guy we see in 30 Days in Hell: The Making of the Devil's Rejects. Being such a film buff, I had all but forgotten that Rob Zombie is as much a metal icon as he is a respected filmmaker.

With his guttural growl, Zombie led the sold out crowd to metalhead heaven. The modest NorVa stage was decked out like an arena with 5 video screens simultaneously bombarding the audience with graphic imagery from films and comics. There was enough onscreen blood and naked boobies to satisfy the horror film fans alone. The music was loud and pumping, and fifteen hundred happy fans threw fists in the air (yours truly included) as Zombie played hits like "Living Dead Girl" as well as White Zombie classics like "More Human than Human". Two nearly identical dancing girls flanked the stage on top of huge platforms while grinding along to the throbs of songs like "American Witch" and "House of 1000 Corpses". Clips from Zombie's films as well as horror classics like Murnau's Nosferatu and a bevy of explicit anime films played on the video screens. It was a veritable smorgasbord of heavy metal delights.

I'm a rather reserved person and I prefer my concerts to be like The Dresden Dolls show a the the Sixth and I Synagogue. I like an early start time, a nice show, and maybe some seats. However, I make exceptions from time to time. Rob Zombie may not be the most sophisticated act I've seen before, but he sure does put on a helluva show. I don't think there was a disappointed redneck among us.

*The pictures you see were taken by my husband with his cellphone camera, so pardon the quality. Hopefully you can get a sense of what was going on. Check out the dancing girl on the platform!