Yes, Kiss played a sold out show the night before at Freedom Hall, but the temperature inside Louisville Gardens on the night of July 1 was definitely hotter than hell as Pantera and White Zombie rolled through the Gardens, lavishing one of the best metal shows on Louisville that the town has seen this year.
White Zombie turned the entire floor into a giant mosh pit while warming up the crowd for headliner Pantera. Scenes from classic horror films flashed continuously throughout their performance on video screens set on each side of the stage.
"More Human Than Human," from the most recent album, Astro Creep 2000, was a real crowd-pleaser, as well as other Zombie favorites "I Am Zombie," "Welcome to Planet M. F.," and "Thunder Kiss '65." Singer Rob Zombie also told the crowd to be expecting a new album in August.
The only flaw in White Zombie's set was that the music was a little too loud and overpowered the vocals.
The break gave the crowd a only a quick chance to cool down and take a step out of that massive mosh pit before Pantera took the stage and heated the place back up again.
Doing a few new songs from their latest release, The Great Southern Trendkill, they got the pit going, then mostly stuck to songs from their previous CDs. Included were "Cowboys from Hell" and "Primal Concrete Sledge" from 1990's Cowboys from Hell, and "A New Level," "Walk," and "Primal Concrete Sledge" from 1992's Vulgar Display of Power.
I was surprised to hear the slow, trippy cover of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan," from Pantera's CD Far Beyond Driven. I wondered how this song would go over with the crowd, since it is much slower than what you usually hear at a metal show, but it seemed to get a good response.
Got to the show a little late, so I didn't get to check out the opening band, Eye Hate God, but all in all, this was one of the best shows that I've attended this year.
After the concert, I headed to the Toy Tiger for the after-show party featuring local bands Inhuman and Shattered Reality. That show got a great turnout and was the perfect ending to a night of mosh pit mania. My only complaint is that Louisville doesn't get more shows like this, but I hope that will improve in the near future.