Monster Mash

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Apparently, the moon was blue Friday night at the Tucson Convention Center as heavy-metal acts KORN and Rob Zombie teamed up to burst some ear drums and mosh some people into the ground.

This weekend's show was Tucson's largest concert since last year's appearance by Neil Diamond, with an estimated 10,000 people in attendance, though sizeable crowds are likely the only thing that good old Neil shares with KORN and Rob Zombie.

Zombie, who split from his band White Zombie for one CD, "Hellbilly Deluxe," came on after Videodrome, a KORN-sponsored opening act. He played before a stage that resembled the villain's lair from an old "Star Trek" or "Power Rangers" episode, only a tad more evil. Despite the Castle Greyskull appearance, Zombie put on quite a show, aided the ample amount of strobe lights and fiery explosions.

Nicholas A. Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Jonathan Davis, lead singer of KORN, sings during their show Friday night at Tucson Convention Center. KORN and Zombie started off their U.S. tour in Tucson.

In addition to the plethora of death and fire on stage, there were also two female dancers in skimpy clothing bumping and grinding to a slew of tunes from Hellbilly, like "Dragula," "Living Dead Girl," "Return of the Phantom Stranger" and a bunch of other songs which blurred together over time. Zombie also performed some older White Zombie tracks like "More Human Than Human" to "Thunder Kiss '65."

The latter brought on quite a rage from the massive crowd on the TCC floor, which turned an area usually occupied by the Icecats' hockey rink into one big, mean mosh pit. With the combination of rampant crowd surfing, no less than 12 unsuspecting metal-heads were taken to local hospitals the night of the show.

Zombie bowed out with "Living Dead Girl," after requesting the traditional 'have-all-the-women-in-the-audience-take-their-shirts-off moment.' This pseudo-Mardi Gras affair was followed by a half-hour timeout prior to KORN taking the to the stage, now remade to look like a prison.

A few dozen lucky fans that won KLPX's radio contest could be seen watching KORN in their musical element from behind the prison bars on the stage itself.

KORN played multiple hits from their first CD, including "Sublime," "Faget," "Divine" and "Shoots and Ladders." Let's just say that Jonathan's decision to play the bagpipes for the last of those four songs was not a good one.

Nevertheless, KORN inspired the moshers to really get nuts, as it seemed that most of the people there, especially the teen-agers, were there to see KORN do what they do best.

Chris Jackson can be reached at Chris.Jackson@wildcat.arizona.edu. and Steven Saggoo can be reached at Steven.Saggoo@wildcat.arizona.edu.