If you were looking for a sign that hard rock was alive and well, look no further than the near capacity crowd for the Godsmack & Rob Zombie double headed monster of a tour in Detroit.

The hard rock titans played to a feverish crowd of 14,000 as they wailed through their biggest hits, and put on the biggest stage shows of their careers. Both put on very solid sets, and left the crowd pleased and quite intoxicated with their sounds (as well as with the alcohol that fueled most of the crowd.)

After last spring’s slightly disappointing performance, Rob Zombie brought back all of the stops in his probable last tour before going back to directing horror movies (he starts filming the remake to Halloween in January). Starting with the new track “American Witch”, Zombie brought the dancing go-go girls, the pyro and theatrics that made gave his stage show the reputation of previous tours. The set list for the 60 minute set didn’t change much, with time being devoted between his work in White Zombie (“Thunder Kiss ’65", “More Human Than Human”), and his fully realized solo work (“Living Dead Girl”, “Never Gonna Stop”).

By the time Zombie ended up the super charged rock radio classic “Dragula”, the crowd looked like they couldn’t handle anymore, but they saved some energy for Godsmack. Complete with a camera that toured the band’s digs before the set, the Boston powerhouse came out with the large sounding “Straight Out Of Line” to start the 90 minute set. Much like Korn’s set from Family Values a few nights before, Godsmack played it safe and played the hits of their angry brand of hard rock.

Led by lead singer Sully Erna, the band pummeled the crowd with hits like “Awake” and the sing-along “Keep Away”. As usual, the band did show a little twist with their double drum solo, which is done quite well and adds a flare to the show that most hard rock bands stay away from.

The crowd had enough energy to get amped up for the band’s first hit “Whatever”, which sent the nighttime moshers into a rage. The band waited to play their best song for last, as the ‘Smack launched into their most anthemic song, “I Stand Alone”. This reviewer had been waiting all throughout their last show (the acoustic show at Harpos in December of 2004) to hear the song, and did not leave disappointed this time around.

Godsmack and Rob Zombie both may not save the world, but if you were looking for a good time of angry and chest pumping rock, this was your night.