The Return of the Dreads Tour with Korn, Rob Zombie, and In This Moment, Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, Virginia, USA, September 3, 2016

The Return of the Dreads Tour. It was the name given to the North American co-headlining tour for Korn and Rob Zombie. I just wasn’t sure where they were returning from, as neither act has been off the grid for any significant length of time. Both acts have been steadily touring and releasing albums, to the delight of their fans, since their formation in the 1990s. Well, whatever they wanted to call it, it seemed like a great excuse to get two very popular musical acts together for a massive summer tour. In This Moment was added as a support act which was not only a great musical choice, but kept to the dread hair theme as well.

In This Moment

The most local show to me was at the Jiffy Lube Live Amphitheater in Bristow, Virginia on the outskirts of Washington DC. The venue has a capacity of 10,000 within the amphitheater and space for an additional 15,000 on the lawn area. I don’t think the show was sold out, but the amphitheater appeared so. In This Moment opened the show with all of the spectacle that fans expect from their headlining tours. This included elaborate stage setups, multiple costume changes, and an over the top fog and light production. Their set was shorter than for their headlining shows (7 songs instead of 10), but the elaborate stage set up and theatrical production that is classic In This Moment remained. The band opened with the video hit “Sick Like Me” from their most recent album “Black Widow”. Additional songs played included “Black Widow”, “Adrenalize”, “Burn”, “Sex Metal Barbie”, and the crowd favorite, “Whore”. The show ended when the lead vocalist, Maria, got the crowd into a frenzy and calling for “Blood”… not in the literal sense… but for the song of the same name. And the band gave the audience what they craved before saying their goodbyes. Every time I’ve seen In This Moment, they’ve put on an awesome show… and tonight was no exception. But we still had the headliners to come.

Rob Zombie

Throughout the course of this tour, Rob Zombie’s band and Korn have taken turns in regard to which band played before the other. Tonight it was Rob’s turn to take the stage first. Zombie’s stage was elaborate, with larger than life props and huge video screens that seemed to dwarf the band in the eyes of the audience unless they were one of the lucky few to be in the pit up front. There were ghoulish mic stands, a massive retro boom box, some sort of giant creepy monster thing, and many other over the top visual elements. As always, Rob is an amazing frontman, that takes the stage with great energy and flourish. The headbanging and running back and forth across the three elevated platforms up front was constant throughout the set.

Rob Zombie

Rob’s set opened up with “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown” from the album “Venomous Rat Regenerator”. The main set included thirteen songs which were fairly evenly spread across his albums as well as several cover tunes. Three songs were played from this year’s release “The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser” (where does he get these album titles anyway?!?). Look them up if you want to see which songs… the titles are too long to include here. Rob’s debut album, “Hellbilly Deluxe”, was represented by “Superbeast”, while “Never Gonna Stop” and “House of 1000 Corpses” were played from “The Sinister Urge” To the fan’s delight, two White Zombie covers were played, including “More Human Than Human”, and “Thunder Kiss ‘65”. Tone Loc’s version of “Wild Thing” was included as well as a version of “The Star Spangled Banner” with some impressive guitar work from John 5.

The final song of the regular set was an awesome rendition of the Grand Funk Railroad classic, “We’re an American Band”. Prior to the encore there was a screening of the trailer to Rob’s new movie, “31”. The only encore was the song that jump started Rob’s solo career: “Dragula”. It has been almost a decade and a half since I saw my last Rob Zombie show… but this incredible frontman still seems to have all the talent and energy that he had back in the day. He and his band put on a fantastic show, and I hope I won’t have to wait 15 years to see them perform again.

Korn

After a brief recess to breakdown and reconstruct the stage, it was time for Korn to entertain us. With the return of guitarist Brian “Head” Welch to the band in 2013, this was close to the original version of the band… with all of the original members except the drummer. Korn’s stage lacked the giant props that Rob Zombie’s had… But it was still an elaborate set up with risers in the back to elevate the drums and allow the musicians to move back and forth from the risers to the front of the stage. Lead vocalist Jonathan Davis was very active running back and forth across the stage when he wasn’t headbanging like a demon behind his classic elaborate mic stand.

Like Zombie, it has been over a decade since I last Korn perform live, and their ability to entertain an audience and deliver an incredible set of music hasn’t diminished one bit! Jonathan’s vocals are just as massive and versatile as they have always been. The great guitar riffs from “Head” and James “Munky” Shaffer were still as cool as I remember, buoyed by the intense driving rhythm of bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu and drummer Ray Luzier. Addition live melody and backing vocals were provided by keyboardist Zac Baird, who had not been a part of the touring band the last time I saw them.

Korn

Korn has been a very prolific band, having released 11 studio albums with a 12th one due out next month. They played a 14 song set with the songs being spread out over 8 of their 12 albums. The songs were definitely weighted toward their early career as no songs were played from the albums released in the last 10 years. They first hit the stage with “Right Now”, which was followed up by the crowd sing-a-long favorite, “Here to Stay”. Two new songs were played from their upcoming release: “The Serenity of Suffering” including “Rotting in Vain” and “Insane”. The 1999 album, “Issues” was the most visited with three songs: “Somebody, Someone”, “Make Me Bad”, and “Falling Away From Me”. Korn’s debut album was represented with “Shoots and Ladders” and “Blind”. Additional songs included “Y’all want a Single”, “Coming Undone”, “Got the Life” and “Twist”. The band closed the show with the ever classic: “Freak on a Leash”.

I left that night exhausted, yet energized… with a big smile on my face. Which is just the way you want to leave a concert. It was an incredible night, with three incredible bands delivering three incredible sets. If you were one of the lucky ones that were able to catch this tour… you know what I mean! For those of you that didn’t… well… you missed it, as the Bristow show was the last date of the tour! But, never fear… all three of these bands are still riding a huge wave of popularity… and will likely be around to entertain the fans for many more years to come!

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