After an OzzFest performance that ranked somewhere between boring and dull, Rob Zombie redeemed himself in a big way with an 80 minute performance that had the right mix of Zombie’s campy horror imagery and more of his new stripped down approach.

The sold out crowd of 3,000 pushed and shoved their away around the floor as the hard rocker turned horror director turned hard rocker once again tore through his hits, as well as new tunes from his “Educated Horses” album.

Along with former Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5 and bassist Blasko, Zombie opened with the opening track off “Horses”, “American Witch”. “Witch” is one of the few songs on the new album that are reminiscent of old Zombie material. Complete with a large, 20 foot robot early on, Zombie roared through old tunes such as “Demon Speeding”, and “Living Dead Girl”. The usual images of 50’s noir and camp littered the video screen throughout the show, including images of 50’s pin up queen Bettie Page (which seemed to linger through the last half of the show).

White Zombie material was covered, though not as much as this reviewer would like. Zombie ran through souped up (and almost too fast) versions of major hits “More Human Than Human”, and “Thunder Kiss ’65”. He also dove into some of the music from the movies he directed, such as the limp title track from his “House of 1,000 Corpses” movies. He could have replaced that song with the classic old school Zombie track “Black Sunshine”, and made this reviewer happy.

Even with the minor missteps, most of the material was strong, and Zombie seems to be coming into his own with his new, stripped down image. Zombie is not relying on the bombast of the dancers and stage shows of the past, and relying more on his music and entertaining tunes to get him through the set.

The ecstatic reaction from the crowd showed that Zombie can take the fire and brimstone out of his set, and still keep the crowds happy.