WINNIPEG - Halloween came early for heavy metal fans at MTS Centre last night, where monster rockers Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne delivered a demonicdouble-bill of campy thrills and macabre chills.
The co-headliners proved a perfect match for the pre-Hallow's Eve weekend, whipping a crowd of 11,500 into a frightful frenzy with their riff-heavy head-bangers and devilish hard rock.
Out of the gate first was Zombie, the former frontman of alterna-metalact White Zombie, who's better known these days as the director of gory horror flicks.
Emerging from the mouth of a sharp-toothed beastie sitting under the drum kit, Zombie immediately kicked things into high gear by barking out the throat-shredding lyrics of American Witch while flanked by a three-piece band and two fetching burlesque dancers.
Zombie's stage set-up is a veritable freak-show of terror-inducing trappings, among them the requisite pyro blasts and sweeping strobelights, but also a giant robo-alien and massive video monitors broadcasting old Bettie Page clips and snuff-inspired footage from his own films.
And while he no longer has the musty dreadlocks that made him so recognizable back in the '90s, that didn't stop him from tossing his mane around like a man possessed while stalking the stage to the strains of Demon Speeding and Living Dead Girl.
Heck, he even took it upon himself to mix it up with the masses when he didn't feel those in the crowd were conducting themselves in amanner befitting true metal fans.
"I thought maybe the show looked lazy, so I went out in the crowd and looked back at it. It looks f---ing bad-ass," he chided. "I know we gave you a chair but that doesn't mean you have to use it."
Osbourne, meanwhile, may not have the same manic energy as Zombie, but give the guy a break -- he's almost 60.
And though the reigning Prince of Darkness hit the stage just minutes before our first deadline (check the website for more coverage), blistering versions of I Don't Wanna Stop and Crazy Train left usconfident his portion of the show would also prove to be more treat than trick.
Sun rating: 4 out of 5
