Shock rock and heavy metal were on the agenda for tonight’s concert at the Xfinity Theater in Hartford, Connecticut. Four bands ventured to the capital of the state for tonight’s show. Filter and Ministry supported Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie on their co-headlining Freaks on Parade Tour. It was a great night for rock and metal fans alike. Cooper and Zombie have identical showmanship despite their genres of rock differing from each other in the slightest. Besides wowing the crowd, what they have in common is that they make sure that their fans get their money’s worth every night.

Prior to Zombie and Cooper’s set, the Cleveland, Ohio, native band, Filter, opened up the show. Fronted by former Nine Inch Nails guitarist and brother of actor Robert Patrick, Richard Patrick and the rest of the band graced the stage a little past 6:00 p.m. Filter did a great job opening up and preparing the crowd for the rest of the evening. Patrick’s vocals were great and the rest of the band, which is made up of Bobby Miller on bass guitar, Jonny Radtke on guitar, and Elias Mallin all played well.

Filter’s setlist went like this:

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

Following Filter a little before 7:00 p.m., was the heavy metal band Ministry. Ministry has been around since the early 1980s and brought a harder sound to the show than Filter. Considered to be one of the pioneers of industrial metal, they brought their wall of sound and completely blew the crowd away. Ministry is made up of lead singer, Al Jourgensen, John Bechdel on keyboards, Monte Pittman on guitars, Cesar Soto on guitar, Roy Mayorga on drums, and Paul D’Amour. 

Ministry was a great addition to the bill. They were a little different from Filter and did a great job playing the middle band slot and being different from the other three bands on the bill. From the lead singer, Jourgensen, running around the stage, interacting with the audience, and even playing guitar, Ministry powered through the cool Sunday evening night to make sure the audience was ready for the main event.

Ministry’s setlist went as follows:

1. Theveies
2. The Missing
3. Deity
4. Stigmata
5. Supernaut (Black Sabbath cover)
6. Burning Inside
7. N.W.O
8. Just One Fix
9. Goddamn White Trash

After Ministry’s heavy set about a half hour later, the house lights went dim and a giant newspaper banner that read “Banned in Connecticut” was raised as Alice Cooper was ready to make his appearance.

Dressed in a blue overcoat, top hat, and a sword, Cooper and the rest of his band jumped right into “Lock Me Up” off of 1987s “Raise Your Fist and Yell.”

Throughout Cooper’s set, he brought out all the stops throughout the 15-song set. Being thrown in straight jackets, giant monsters running around the stage and Cooper’s wife, Sheryl Cooper, throwing Alice in a guillotine, straight jackets, and giant monsters running around the stage, the theatrics were well on display.

To further add to his impressive list of on-stage theatrics, during “Snakebite” off of 1991’s “Hey Stoopid,” Cooper brought out a snake to slither across his head and neck while singing. Everyone in the audience took out their phones to see the serpent slither across his body. Cooper played all the hits like “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” and of course “School’s Out.”

Throughout the entire show, the one thing that was extremely consistent throughout was the tightness of his band and how much fun they had on stage. In Alice Cooper’s band, there is Tommy Henriksen, Ryan Roxie, and the kickass Nita Strauss on guitars, Chuck Garric on bass, and Glen Sobel on the drums. The entire band was smiling, laughing, and interacting with the crowd which made them all the more enjoyable.

Alice Cooper knows what his fans want to see and he definitely delivers no matter where on the bill he is.

Alice Cooper’s setlist went like this:

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. Black Widow Jam
12. Ballad of Dwight Fry
13. Killer
14. I Love the Dead
15. Elected
16. School’s Out

Following Alice Cooper at 9:45, the lights again dimmed, the black curtain fell, and perched atop a riser with “Zombie” written across the front, the man himself, Rob Zombie blasted into his set.

Like Alice Cooper’s set, Rob Zombie absolutely blew the crowd way in the theatrics department. With bubbles falling from the ceiling, giant monsters roaming the stage and fire shooting out of small towers on the sides of the stage, Zombie knew how to follow Alice Cooper’s amazing set. While Zombie is more on the metal side with Ministry than with Cooper, the fans in the packed theater, were head-banging, singing along, and raising their fist throughout the entire set.

Zombie, whose backing band consists of Piggy D who donned clown makeup and put his hair up in pigtails on bass guitar, Ginger Fish on drums, and Mike Riggs who is replacing long-time member and new guitarist of Motley Crue, John 5 on guitar. On top of the theatrics, Zombie himself is a true performer. There was not one minute of his 13-song set where he was not running around the stage. For his entire set, Zombie was dancing, albeit more like Mick Jagger than a ballroom dancer, and running around the stage from side to side.

I applaud Zombie’s set. It was full of energy, the crowd was always curious as to what theatric was next, pulled out their phone to record said theatric, and was on their feet the entire time. From the general admission pit to the lawn in the back, there was not one concertgoer sitting down.

Zombie’s setlist:

1. The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)
2. Dead City Radio
3. Feel So Numb
4. Well, Everybody’s F*cking in a U.F.O.
5. What Lurks on Channel X?
6. Superbeasr
7. Demonoid Phenomenon
8. The Lords of Salem
9. House of 1000 Corpses
10. Living Dead Girl
11. More Human Than Human
12. Thunder Kiss ‘65
13. Dragula

The great thing about tours like this is that it introduces fans to other music. If you are a classic rock fan and went for Alice Cooper and stayed for Rob Zombie, then maybe you were introduced to Zombie’s newer metal shock rock. The same could be said if you were a Zombie fan and didn’t really listen to Alice Cooper’s classic rock sound.

Despite the tour being named the Freaks on Parade tour, it really was an energetic night of theatrical rock. It was a perfect way to close out the summer and start the fall season. As Halloween approaches, this tour is the perfect tour for that.