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Live: Rob Zombie Out-Rocks Ozzy
Tuesday January 22, 2008 @ 04:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
January 21, 2008
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, ON
By Liisa Ladouceur
This is the tale of two madmen.
Neither Ozzy Osbourne nor Rob Zombie have put a new record out recently, but the farewell night of their tour together Monday at Toronto's Air Canada Centre proved that no matter what, people still love a freak show.
Most had come to witness the grandmaster freak himself, The Ozzman, while they still had the chance. There are plenty of rumours about his retirement or imminent death, after all. But by far the biggest, falsest rumour must be that he's 59 years old. The artist formerly known as the Prince of Darkness (or more recently, Shuffalupagus) had all the energy — and maturity — of a six year old. He mooned the crowd, did gleeful jumping jacks, doused the front rows with buckets of water and foam, all while admitting, "It's good to be fucking craaazy!" And for the first few songs at least, it really was. But really, when you frontload the set with such classics as "Crazy Train" and "Suicide Solution," it's kind of hard to fuck it up. Too soon though, it became apparent that Osbourne isn't long for this stadium show world. By the time he delivered "Bark At The Moon," it was quite apparent that he was reading lyrics from a teleprompter and his crack band (even guitar hero Zakk Wydle and former Faith No More drummer Michael Bordin, who's normally beyond reproach) were going off the rails trying to find rhythm in his ramblings. Sure, the three-storey "OZZY" iron cross that burst into flame was something to behold, and most of the 15,000-plus faithful seemed happy enough just partying in the general vicinity with the man not to care about the rapidly deteriorating performance. But surely some level of musicianship should be required for the amount of cash this tour is pulling in, non?
Opener Zombie, on the other hand, can't be accused of slacking. From the day-glo go-go-ghouls to the giant robot, multiple screens showing vintage horror clips and non-stop pyro, the man could have let the production values do the talking. But then he wouldn't get to run around and growl "yeah! and "yeeeeaaaaah!" for an hour. Not content to let people warm up gradually in their comfy seats, Zombie jumped into the stands and whipped them up, later proclaiming, "I recognized a problem and I solved it." From sleazy versions of "Living Dead Girl" and "More Human Than Human" to the enduring fury of White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss 1965," Zombie was large and in charge.
Two songs stuck out from the set lists: Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop" and Ozzy's "I Don't Wanna Stop." Both rockers may wish for immortality, but while I hope Zombie eventually leads our undead army (or at least a zombie band), Ozzy is starting to seem better suited for a wax museum.
 
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