Opening the show was In This Moment, fronted by mermaid-haired singer Maria Brink, flanked by her famous dancers known as the Blood Girls. The band puts on a show involving drama and theatrics reaching cinematic levels, which matches the heavy music they play. Drummer Kent Diimmel is on board now, replacing prior drummer Tom Hane, and seems to fit in with the rest of the lineup including guitarists Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel, and Travis Johnson on bass. With wind machines, butcher knives, lots of smoke and creepy masks, the experience of seeing In This Moment live is almost like walking into a horror film, with Brink as their reigning Scream Queen. Literally; her screams in "Burn" and "Blood" are pretty impressive. And, although she looks intimidating with her sharp-clawed gloves, bondage-influenced wardrobe and corpse paint, her lyrics are about struggling to overcome a tumultuous past and coming out stronger, showing that she is still a human underneath her superhero gear.
Zombie and Korn have been switching headlining spots over the course of the tour. Last night, Korn was second on the bill. Their set was filled with lots of fan favorites including opener "Right Now", "Here to Stay", "Make Me Bad", "Blind", "Falling Away From Me", and closer "Freak On A Leash." They also covered "One" by Metallica during "Shoots and Ladders", prompting a huge reaction from the metalhead crowd. It doesn't seem like it, but Korn have been around for over 20 years. The performance of two new songs, "Insane" and "Rotting In Vain" from their new album "The Serenity of Suffering" showed that they can still put out heavy material and show no signs of slowing down.
As if the two intense sets from In This Moment and Korn weren't enough, there was still one more to go with Rob Zombie closing down the night. Taking the stage in a costume loaded with metallic fringe, Rob Zombie has been on the Rock Block even longer at 30 years. As the case was with his tourmates, his show is as heavy as ever. His stage set had a psycho-funhouse vibe, with walls of blacklit monsters, and even included an actual dancing monster joining him on stage, as background graphics displayed clips of campy horror films, topless go-go dancers and even the most loveable monster of all, Herman Munster.
Noticing that the crowd was slowing down energy-wise around his set's halfway point, Zombie took a walk through the crowd to wake everyone up while guitarist John 5 played a solo on stage. When he returned to the front to start "Thunder Kiss '65", he stopped the band from playing and teased the crowd about their cell phone obsession affecting the energy of the house, theorizing that if Rock is dead, people and their cell phones killed it. But Zombie didn't give up. His attempt at commanding the audience to put their cell phones down for the song actually worked. People actually gladly got involved in the show, clapping and raising fists and bringing the energy back to "Old School Metal Show" level, as Zombie put it, allowing the band to finish up on a high note with "Dragula."
The Return of the Dreads tour has two more dates in Camden, NJ tonight, and Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, VA on Saturday.
