Rob Zombie's punch for hair-pulling should be a lesson to idiot concertgoers

Though I sometime crave it in horror movies, I'm not a violent person. Heck, apart from ice-hockey I haven't been in a fight since grade one, and even then I won with a fluke punch. Getting jumped by a bouncer at the Commodore, slugged in the head, and tossed down those steep steps in the early '80s doesn't count.

So even though I'm not into actual violence, I've gotta admit that I appreciated what Rob Zombie did at the Pacific Coliseum on Saturday (May 2). A few songs into the show, during the White Zombie hit "More Human Than Human", he was striding along the stagefront barricade, getting up close and personal with his hardcore fans, when one of them reached out and grabbed him by his mop of filthy hair. Without waiting for the nearby security to come to his rescue, Zombie laid a knuckle sandwich on the overzealous jackass, then carried on with the show. A little later he apologized, saying it was a "muscle reflex" that caused him to lash out, but I say he did the right thing. It's about time concertgoers starting paying for their idiotic actions.

I've seen too many jerks pull stunts like that at concerts. I remember being particularly disgusted by what I saw at a Beat Farmers concert at the 86 Street Music Hall back in the early '90s or thereabouts. The band had just started, which means that drummer, singer, and emcee Country Dick Montana—who would tragically die of a heart attack a few years later during a show in Whistler—had donned his leather raincoat and goggles and invited the audience to douse him with beer. That was his opening schtick back then ("Let the games begin!"), and it was awesome.

But one loser in the crowd took it upon himself to start throwing ice cubes as hard as possible at the stage, and one of them caught guitarist Joey Harris right in the eye. "Fuck you you Canuck fuck!" he hollered in pain and shock, wiping at his peepers to check for damage. He ended up finishing the song, though. That was the Beat Farmer way.

Hopefully Rob Zombie's act of instant retribution has set an example, and stupid people will think twice about trying to inflict damage on the rockers they pay good money to see. As for Zombie's hair-puller, I hope he realizes that he got off easy, whether he lost a tooth or not. Zombie could have sicked the trio of sadistic nasties from his movie The Devil's Rejects on him. They didn't actually die in that climactic shootout, ya know: