White Zombie 3/16/96

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This was another one of those shows I couldn’t believe was coming to my town. Filter was the opening band for White Zombie and I was excited to see both bands again. I think I went to this show with Marvin and Earl. I remember Richard Patrick coming out onto the stage on crutches because of some kind of leg injury. He sat on the drum riser drinking a beer but sang his ass off. He could have been a prima donna and bowed out of the show but he powered through. It was going to be tough to compete with the last time I saw them anyways but I was excited nonetheless. White Zombie was still touring for the Astro Creep 2000 album and if memory serves me correctly I think they played just about the whole album. The stage setup was more elaborate this time than the previous show but something seemed wrong. It seemed like Rob Zombie was lip syncing. This compounded with the alcohol that was coursing through my veins made me extremely unhappy. I left the show so convinced it was a fake performance that I ripped my blacklight friendly White Zombie poster off of my wall. To this day I do not know if I was correct or not.WZ

White Zombie 6/26/95

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Summer 95’. It was the summer before my senior year in high school. I had gotten fired from Dairy Queen early in the summer for being me. When I first started working there I had an earring and apparently guys were not allowed to wear them but the ladies were. The first time I met the owner he said, “next time you come to work you might want to take that out.” I didn’t because I knew he couldn’t do anything about it and I was a 17 year old male with an attitude problem. Besides this I stole sundae coins that were good for one free sundae so my friends and I could go to a different Dairy Queen across town after we were stoned to get about 3 or 4 sundaes each. I also ate a pretty good deal of their food when I worked there and never paid for it even though I was supposed to. Other than that I was a great employee but the problem was that I just didn’t give a fuck. I lived with my parents and therefore didn’t actually need to have a job. Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was able to have one last freeloader summer before having to become a man. My friends and I definitely took advantage. I got turned on to White Zombie when my friend Claude had bought the La Sexorcisto album. Marvin, Jason, James and I drove up to Seattle and stayed with our friend T-Bone. This concert was pretty memorable because of our seats. We used to have to go to the Rite Aid to get our concert tickets because the internet wasn’t really a factor yet. The tickets were in groups of 2 seats each and not together but the clerk assured us that the show was general admission. We trusted him and when we got there we found out that not only were we not allowed onto the floor section but that me and Marvin wouldn’t even be able to sit with Jason or James. This of course made us a little angry. Not only because we were lied to but also because every concert will have people that naturally want to sit in seats instead of standing on the floor. Why not let people choose once they get to the event? Anyways we sat apart and the openers were the Melvins and Babes in Toyland. They rocked but it was hard to enjoy them because I was so mad at having to sit in a seat. All I could think about was how I was going to get onto the floor. Right before Babes in Toyland were about to go off I looked to my left and there was a wave of people taking over one of the security guards. There was basically one security guard for each aisle so if one were to leave their post then the wave would have started in the vacant aisle. Without hesitation Marvin and I jumped up and were over the rail running into the mosh pit, where we knew we would be safe. The best part was that we ran into Jason and James on the floor because they were able to do the same thing. White Zombie were on tour for the recently released Astro Creep 2000 album that we had the pleasure of buying on the day it came out. They had a pretty elaborate stage setup and played their ass off that night. Or was it just the adrenaline of jumping over the rail?

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