{"id":52183,"date":"2023-09-07T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=52183"},"modified":"2023-09-06T23:02:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T04:02:51","slug":"horror-spookshow-spectacular-freaks-on-parade-reunites-shock-rockers-rob-zombie-and-alice-cooper-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=52183","title":{"rendered":"Horror Spookshow Spectacular, Freaks On Parade, Reunites Shock Rockers Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Christopher David<\/p>\n

The Freaks on Parade tour arrived in Chicago this week, bringing with it two of the biggest shock-rockers on the planet for a night of monsters, music, and mayhem.<\/p>\n

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Alice Cooper.\u00a0 What else need be said?\u00a0 Fifty years after turning glam rock on its head and \u2018driving a stake through the heart of the flower power generation\u2019 (his words), the Coop is still going strong, unleashing onstage executions, snakes, and monstrous entities of all sorts on a nightly basis.\u00a0 And when you throw at stellar band with Nita Strauss as the nucleus?\u00a0 A foolproof recipe for arena-shaking renditions of classics like \u201cUnder My Wheels\u201d and \u201cNo More Mister Nice Guy\u201d alongside deeper cuts like \u201cSnakebite\u201d (which saw the aforementioned python wrapped around Alice and studying the rowdy crowd) and \u201cLost in America.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, no Alice Cooper show would be complete without the coda of \u201cI Love the Dead\u201d to celebrate his onstage beheading by guillotine, and when he returned to the stage atop a flag-draped platform for \u201cElected,\u201d it sounded as fresh as ever.\u00a0 Cooper\u2019s show may be decades-old, but the quality and overall presence of those tunes keeps them feeling renewed with each tour.\u00a0 While nothing was played from his brand-new album \u201cRoad,\u201d it hardly mattered to a capacity crowd that comprised just about every demographic imaginable – a testament to the much deserved longevity he\u2019s been able to enjoy.\u00a0 (Also, there is no more entertaining guitarist on earth than Nita Strauss.\u00a0 She embodies the term \u2018rock star\u2019 and is perfection in every way.\u00a0 Period.)<\/p>\n

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The crowd\u2019s enthusiasm hadn\u2019t diminished in the slightest by the time Rob Zombie and Co. hit the stage, and while Zombie\u2019s set was a visual extravaganza, it was significantly shorter than Cooper\u2019s, leaving one to wonder a bit about the order of the bill.\u00a0 No matter: Zombie\u2019s energized stage persona as he interacted with giant devils, demons during \u201cLords of Salem,\u201d and a gigantic Phantom Creep presiding over \u201cWhat Lurks on Channel X?\u201d and \u201cSuperbeast\u201d makes for a horror fan\u2019s perfect set of music.\u00a0 Bassist Piggy D and drummer Ginger Fish remain one of the strongest and time-tested rhythm sections in rock, and to that end, it was tough to ignore the elephant in the room (or on the stage, as the case may be): the absence of longtime guitarist and virtuoso John 5, who left the band in 2022 to join Motley Crue and has been replaced by Hellbilly Deluxe<\/em>-era guitarist Mike Riggs.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tough spot to fill, though the hit-packed if predictable setlist was enough to keep the diehards engaged and the new fans likely on board for the rest of what we can only hope will continue to be a fruitful career delivering horror-rock to the masses.<\/p>\n

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In an era of over-sensitivity and an obsession with political correctness, Cooper and Zombie\u2019s tours remain excessive, over-the-top creature-features and a much needed oasis of go-go boots, \u201860s hedonism, a whole lot of blood and guts in the current landscape of rock music.<\/p>\n

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Industrial metal gods Ministry opened the night with a set that shook the rafters with its volume and a crushing cover of Black Sabbath\u2019s \u201cHole in the Sky,\u201d and \u201890s alt-rockers Filter warmed things up with a short set highlighting some of their best tunes, including the contemplative \u201cTake My Picture,\u201d which has aged into one of the finest songs of that era.<\/p>\n

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For more on Alice Cooper, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

For more on Rob Zombie, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

For photos from Alice Cooper set, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

For photos from Rob Zombies set, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Alice Cooper – Tinley Park, IL, Sept. 1, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lock Me Up (intro)<\/p>\n

No More Mister Nice Guy<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Eighteen<\/p>\n

Under My Wheels<\/p>\n

Billion Dollar Babies<\/p>\n

Hey Stoopid<\/p>\n

Lost in America<\/p>\n

Snakebite<\/p>\n

Feed My Frankenstein<\/p>\n

Poison<\/p>\n

*guitar solo* (Nita) \/ Black Widow jam<\/p>\n

Ballad of Dwight Frye<\/p>\n

Killer (outro, Alice decapitated)<\/p>\n

I Love the Dead<\/p>\n

Elected<\/p>\n

School\u2019s Out<\/p>\n

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Rob Zombie – Tinley Park, IL, Sept. 1, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Triumph of King Freak<\/p>\n

Dead City Radio<\/p>\n

Feel So Numb<\/p>\n

Well, Everybody\u2019s Fucking in a U.F.O.<\/p>\n

What Lurks on Channel X?<\/p>\n

Superbeast<\/p>\n

Demonoid Phenomenon<\/p>\n

The Lords of Salem<\/p>\n

House of 1000 Corpses<\/p>\n

*drum solo*<\/p>\n

Living Dead Girl<\/p>\n

More Human Than Human<\/p>\n

Thunder Kiss \u201865<\/p>\n

Dragula<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christopher David The Freaks on Parade tour arrived in Chicago this week, bringing with it two of the biggest shock-rockers on the planet for a night of monsters, music, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-features","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}