Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare was billed as the ultimate Halloween music and horror event that was set to run every Thursday through Sunday from October 10th to November 2nd at the Fairplex (redubbed FEARplex) in Pomona. Each night featured music performances and the grand finale on closing night was Rob Zombie headlining with Powerman 5000 and Eagles of Death Metal opening. Each ticket also came with access to three haunted house attractions based on Zombie’s films.
Bob drove Marvin, Ken, and I to meet up with Jason at the shithole Pomona motel fairly close to the Fairplex grounds that we were staying at. This was one of those classy places where the person checking us in was behind bulletproof glass. They must have had party problems in the past because we were grilled about partying and there were prominent “No Parties” signs everywhere. We argued a loophole since were technically just pre-gaming…
Immediately upon entry we were spit out into The Great American Nightmare’s “Blood Boulevard” that lead to the haunted houses and was laced with food and beverage vendors, a DJ, classic horror films being played and freak show characters roaming about. It was nice that the haunted houses were included with admission but the lines were so long that we would have had to miss one of the bands to enter.
A few beers later and we were in to see Powerman 5000. This was only my third time seeing them and the last time ironically enough was on Halloween of 2003. Spider was the only band member left from those days, which definitely contributed to me not seeing them since 2003. They were good and thankfully for the most part stuck to “older” stuff since I was unfamiliar with anything after Transform.
It was about four songs deep into Powerman’s set that Jason and Ken got into a scuffle. We were hugged up against a wall to our right and the next thing I know some chaos started to my left. I did not think twice about it until five minutes later I looked over and saw Ken flying through the air with fists of fury. Everything quickly dissipated but another five minutes after that Ken came up to me and said, “Dude Jason got popped good. They kicked him out, won’t let him back in and he possibly needs medical attention.” I walked to the back of the venue to see Jason pleading his case to be let back in even though he had this look about him like he did not quite know where he was. Apparently someone was fucking with Marvin so Ken grabbed a guy by the neck and Jason was in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter the amount of pleading they were not letting Jason back in so Ken joined him outside since he felt partially responsible.
Eagles of Death Metal were on next. I was excited to see them again because the only other time I saw them was the partial set I saw at Street Scene in 2008. Still no Homme on the drums but these guys were a perfect in-between for Powerman 5000 and Rob Zombie because they are more of a feel good brand of rock and roll.
Before this concert I saw Rob Zombie twice with White Zombie and three times after he went solo, but the last time had been 11 years prior to this at Ozzfest 2002 so this was my first time seeing with John 5. John 5 is one of my favorite guitarists from his stint in Marilyn Manson so I was pretty excited for this. Irony struck again because Ginger Fish also used to play with John 5 in Marilyn Manson but was now the full-time drummer for Zombie. Rob Zombie was the only one out of the night’s lineup that actually had newer music to pedal, having released the excellent Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor album six months before this. Getting to see “I, Zombie” live again was the shit. After we somehow all made it out alive and un-arrested we reconvened at a nearby 24-hour breakfast joint to celebrate another “successful” outing.
SETLIST: Teenage Nosferatu Pussy, Superbeast, Meet the Creeper, I, Zombie, Living Dead Girl, The Star-Spangled Banner, We’re An American Band, More Human Than Human, Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, House of 1000 Corpses, American Witch, Scum of the Earth, Enter Sandman, Thunder Kiss ’65, The Lords of Salem, Dragula
