On September 11, 2024, Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper performed at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC, with special guests Filter and Ministry on the Freaks on Parade tour! This night was unforgettable and such an amazing opportunity because It has always been my dream to see Rob Zombie live and I finally got the chance to! And I was allowed to photograph which made the experience even more intense for me!
Opening the tour was Filter! And I never listened to this band as well, but their performance set the tone for the rest of the night! And I was able to enjoy photographing them because natural light was hitting the stage with the mixture of the fog machine which made the whole performance amazing!
Keep Up With Filter Online: Website
Up next on the Freaks on Parade Tour was the band Ministry! I have never personally listened to them before, but a few people I talked to that day knew exactly who they were and they told me they put on an awesome show!
Before the show, I received an email explaining about the band a little bit and I didn’t realize this band has been around since the 80’s! Ministry is a six-time GRAMMY Award-nominated band and they just released their 16th album “HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES” on March 1, 2024, with songs such as “Goddamn White Trash” and “B.D.E” which I believe Ministry opened the set with “B.D.E” and I laughed so hard because I was not expecting the band having a song like that.
The vocalist, Al Jourgensen, reminds of someone that belongs in the movie “Dusk Till Dawn” because he looks like a vampire in that movie which caused me to like this band! I also turned around at the perfect time to see an attendee taking off his shirt and holding it up which the shirt stated “White Trash Lives Matter” and the attendee was smiling so hard! You can see the photo below with the other photos!
Here is the link for “HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES“
Here is the video for “New Religion“
Keep Up With Ministry Online: Website
Alice Cooper was next! And the opening was INSANE! There were two individuals dressed in the plague doctor outfits ringing bells from one side of the stage to the other and that instantly caught my attention because I love anything that has to do with the plague. The performance was BRIGHT and in your face. During the performance, I was standing next to a young kid and Cooper threw his wand in the crowd and the kid caught it! I have never seen a kid cry in a instant before. Like his facial expression was shocked, but also joyful!
You can’t forget about Nita Strauss with her long blonde hair! I tried to capture moments with the hair swoosh and she didn’t disappoint! The 76 year old entered the stage with a newspaper back drop stating “Banned in North Carolina” and he came ripping through it! What an entrance! The best part about the whole set is when Cooper loses his head at the guillotine because who doesn’t love seeing someone get their head cut off in such a medieval way! The band opened up with “Lock Me Up” and performed other songs such as “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Feed My Frankenstein,” and ending the set with “Schools Out.“
Keep Up With Alice Cooper Online: Website
Closing the night was the legendary Rob Zombie! I have always been a fan of this man when it came to his music and especially as a movie producer as well! My favorite movies he produced are House of 1000 Corpses, Halloween, and The Devils Rejects! His movies are the reason why I love horror so much and gore.
The stage production for his set was out of this world. He started his performance on a very tall platform that at first was so HARD to get photos of him and due to the stage being very high and having visuals in front of us on a small platform; it was difficult for the first two songs to get good photos! But it was worth it!
He had sparklers coming down from the ceiling which honestly kept landing on my skin, but I didn’t care. And then he had pyro during his third song I believe and it got HOT. I was not expecting so much pyro everywhere. I have never seen such production in my life at a show. Between huge video screens playing serial killers and alien encounters to the elevated platform that the drummer was on. Amazing! When you watched this performance, I felt like I was in one of Rob Zombies movies and that is a feeling I wish I could feel everyday. Zombie performed songs such as; “Demon Speeding,” “The Lords of Salem,” and “Feel So Numb.“
Some of these songs I didn’t personally know, but a few people told me what the songs were called! And let’s not forget the huge robotic monster that was on stage! I think that was one of the most memorable moments because that is something you don’t see at a show! But you will at a Rob Zombie show!
Keep Up With Rob Zombie Online: Website
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