POP MUSIC REVIEW : Ghosts of Rock Past Haunt Meadows

Halloween descended on Irvine Meadows with a metallic clank Saturday night. Oingo Boingo, the quirky new wave pop outfit that had made Halloween at the Meadows an annual tradition, declined the gig, so in came a triple bill of heavy metal bands: Danzig, White Zombie and Kyuss. For the occasion, Glenn Danzig, leader of the headlining band, came as Jim Morrison. Or was it Elvis Presley? Or maybe it was Ozzy Osbourne.

Throughout the band’s 1 1/2-hour set, Danzig borrowed from so many of rock’s pioneers that it seemed he was trying to re-create the history of rock ‘n’ roll in a single evening.

He punctuated the thundering riffs churned out by his band mates--guitarist John Christ, bassist Eerie Von and drummer Chuck Biscuits--with the kind of frantic pelvic thrusts that got Elvis’ lower half banned from the Ed Sullivan show. Taking a leaf from punk godfather Iggy Pop’s book, he leaned dangerously into the frantic crowd’s slam pit. The group’s songs, meanwhile, recalled the plodding grandeur and satanic imagery of Black Sabbath. At times, Danzig even crooned like Roy Orbison and howled like Howlin’ Wolf. Still, with his bare-chested poses and his explorations of the dark side, his most obvious reference was to Morrison.

Somehow Danzig managed to weave all these cliched appropriations into his own personal vision, resulting in a show that paradoxically was derivative and unique.

His great strength is that, in contrast to most one-trick-pony metal gods, his talent stretches out in unlikely directions. Danzig (who once wrote a song for Orbison) was able to shift into low gear after the fast and furious “Dirty Black Summer” and actually croon the tender ballad “Sistinas.” And--probably because he got his start fronting the Misfits, a hard-core punk band--he was right at home with the unruly crowd in the slam pit. When an overzealous fan would dry to drag him into the pit, he would break the youngster’s grip with a black belt holder’s finesse (he also deftly caught all the various items thrown at him during the evening, and hurled each one back into the crowd).

During the 18-song set, the band drew almost equally from its three albums. Though the leader never shared the spotlight with his bandmates, Christ, Von and Biscuits built a powerful, pulsating wall of sound that bolstered the dark lyrics (as did the satanic stage set: The stone gargoyles and multiple images of Danzig’s horned skull logo seemed more suited to a medieval All Hallow’s Eve than to the comic book carnival Halloween has become). An absence of customary guitar, bass and drum solos helped keep the show tight and coherent.

In contrast to the brooding intensity of Danzig, the second-billed White Zombie seemed to explode onto the stage directly from the pages of “Tales from the Crypt.” Spawned on the same mutagenic streets of New York City that also gave the world the Cramps and the Ninja Turtles, the Zombies combined furious thrash metal and B movie kitsch in a 35-minute set that could have been subtitled “The Living Dead Meet Faster Pussycat.”

To give their set a truly Russ Meyer-esque atmosphere, the Zombies added a pair of writhing go-go dancers. One had platinum blond hair and a spangled G string right out of a ‘50s strip joint; the other sported the black leather mini-skirted look of the ‘60s.

Kyuss got the evening off to a ponderous start with 30 minutes of unremarkable sludge metal. The foursome from Palm Desert is said to have developed its sound by playing generator parties out there. Judging from its lack of showmanship Saturday, the group might just as well have been playing for the cholla and the prickly pear as for a crowd of more than 10,000.

Guitarist Josh Homme had his back to the audience for most of the set. The only time singer John Garcia addressed the crowd was when he screamed expletives. You’d have thought the concert-goers had interrupted Kyuss’ private jam session. Kyuss may not have added much at Irvine Meadows, but it is kind of nice to know that out in the desert, the coyotes and the kit foxes enjoyed a quiet evening.