Freaks on Parade Tour 2023
Starring Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper
with Guests Ministry and Filter
Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, Virginia
August 30, 2023

On a rained-filled Wednesday evening, shock rockers Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper brought their Freaks on Parade tour to Virginia Beach, Virginia, with special guests Ministry and Filter.

Filter

At Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater on August 30, Cleveland, Ohio’s own Filter, led by founder and singer Richard Patrick, started the first set of the rainy evening with “The Drowning” and ran through a truncated batch of six songs from their catalog, including one of their biggest hits, “Take a Picture.” They even included a new song, “Obliteration” from their newest album, The Algorithm.

Filter closed their set with the lead single from their debut album, the mournful “Hey Man, Nice Shot” inspired by the live on air suicide of politician R. Budd Dwyer.

Watch the official music video for “Hey Man, Nice Shot” by Filter on YouTube:

Setlist

1. The Drowning
2. For the Beaten
3. Obliteration
4. Take a Picture
5. Welcome to the Fold
6. Hey Man, Nice Shot

Here are some pictures of Filter performing at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater on August 30, 2023. All photos copyright and courtesy of Mike Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography.

Ministry

Following Filter, Al Jourgensen and the industrial metal maniacs of Ministry played a short, brutal and powerful set during the soggy early evening in Virginia Beach.

The intense vocalist prowled the stage and fixed the front rows with his steely glare while the band behind him ripped through the set list that included Ministry originals, like “Stigmata,” the junkies lament of “Just One Fix” and the rapid fire “NWO” along with a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut.”

The band finished their nine-song set with their latest harrowing single, “Goddamn White Trash” from their upcoming album, HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES.

Watch the official music video for “Goddamn White Trash” by Ministry on YouTube:

Setlist

1. Thieves
2. The Missing
3. Deity
4. Stigmata
5. Supernaut
6. Burning Inside
7. NWO
8. Just One Fix
9. Goddamn White Trash

Here are some pictures of Ministry performing at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater on August 30, 2023. All photos copyright and courtesy of Mike Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography.

Alice Cooper

The spotlights shone on a giant mock front page of a newspaper announcing “Alice Cooper Banned in Virginia Beach,” illuminating a top hatted shadow standing on the other side of the curtain. With a swift flourish, Alice Cooper sliced through the curtain with a sword and strode onstage to begin the audio onslaught that is his show.

The band, consisting of hot shot guitarist Nita Strauss, drummer Glen Sobel, bassist Chuck Garrick, and the axeslinging duo of Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie joined Alice in the spotlight and ripped into the classic song heavy set.

Opening with “Lock Me Up,” the show kicked into gear and, ever the rock n’ roll villain, black-eyed Alice informed the crowd there would be “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”

These songs were followed by 15 more tracks from across his long storied career, filled with guillotines and a dancing, evil Marie Antoinette (played by Alice’s wife, Sheryl) and even a boa constrictor, while four giant video screens behind the drum kit provided visual accompaniment to the songs throughout the dreary, rainy evening.

Then the fun and entertaining spectacle that is an Alice Cooper show concluded with a balloon filled performance of one of his biggest songs, “School’s Out,” with a smattering of “Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd mixed in.

Watch a live performance of “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper on YouTube:

Alice Cooper may be 75 years old, but he has the energy and enthusiasm of a guy decades younger and he always puts on a entertaining and high energy show. Not to be missed!

Setlist

1. Lock Me Up
2. No More Mr. Nice Guy
3. I’m Eighteen
4. Under My Wheels
5. Billion Dollar Babies
6. Hey Stoopid
7. Lost in America
8. Snakebite
9. Feed My Frankenstein
10. Poison
11. Guitar Solo – Nita Strauss
12. Black Widow Jam
13. Ballad of Dwight Fry
14. Killer
15. I Love the Dead
16. Elected

Encore
17. School’s Out

Here are some pictures of Alice Cooper performing at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater on August 30, 2023. All photos copyright and courtesy of Mike Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography.

Rob Zombie

It was time for the headliner. The black curtain that hung across the front of the stage dropped and a massive stylized podium was revealed, with the word ZOMBIE emblazoned across the front. Front man Rob Zombie stood at the top and tore into the set’s first song, “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition).”

Down below, evil clown bassist Piggy D hammered his bass, shaped like the head of Frankenstein’s monster, while grinning insanely through his greasepaint. Returning guitarist, Mike Riggs, shredded on his guitar and whipped his dreadlocked head all the while. The hatted, fringed jacket wearing Zombie came down from the giant skull podium and continued singing in front of it.

With near maniacal energy, a growling Rob strode back and forth across the video screen fronted stage risers, extorting the crowd to get up on their feet and sing along.

Tracks like “Feel So Numb” and “Everybody’s Fucking in a UFO” soon led into the musical horror of “The Lords of Salem” and “House of 1000 Corpses,” songs that can be found in Zombie’s films of the same names, with scenes from the related movies played on the multiple video screens onstage.

At one point, early in the night, Rob momentarily forget where he was, thanking the West Virginia audience, quickly correcting himself with a wry, “Sometimes I don’t know where I am, Virginia Beach!” A massive dancing devil, a giant Krampus and a randy robot man stalked the stage behind Zombie throughout the night, adding to the creepy, over the top sci-fi spectacle that is a Rob Zombie show, while his excited fans screamed in hoarse throat delirium.

The last third of the rocking set consisted of the necrophiliacs delight, “Living Dead Girl,” followed by the White Zombie rockers “More Human Than Human” and “Thunder Kiss ‘65.”

Then the opening strains of the track “Dragula” filled the air with its campy fun music video playing on the giant screens, and then all too soon the evening of musical horrors came to an end, leaving the adoring crowd exhausted but happy.

Watch the official music video for “Dragula” by Rob Zombie on YouTube:

Setlist

1. The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)
2. Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown
3. Feel So Numb
4. Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a UFO
5. What Lurks on Channel X?
6. Superbeast
7. Demonoid Phenomenon
8. The Lords of Salem
9. House of 1000 Corpses
10. Drum Solo
11. Living Dead Girl
12. More Human Than Human
13. Thunder Kiss ‘65
14. Dragula

Here are some pictures of Rob Zombie performing at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater on August 30, 2023. All photos copyright and courtesy of Mike Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography.