Last-minute concert road trips are always a blast. Especially when it involves getting to see four amazing bands. The Freaks on Parade co-headlining tour featured two legendary shock rockers, Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. To complete this awesome lineup, Ministry and Filter were added to the bill to warm up the diverse, all age crowd.
The Budweiser stage is a nice venue on its own little island, that Montreal should have brought their version of it to Ile St-Helene. Instead, we have a giant slab of concrete that doesn’t help the sound or heat whatsoever with no shade and noise complaints. At least at this venue we were mostly protected from the surprise storm that passed by. Luckily, it was brief and cooled things down a bit.
First to hit the Stage was Filter. Singer Richard Patrick appeared from the excessive amount of smoke billowing from the front of the stage. After a long touring hiatus, they were back to promote a new album, The Algorithm. Released only two weeks prior, you could tell they were working out the kinks of the live performance. After twenty years and a stint in rehab, Patrick needed the lyrics printed to follow along.
They still had that spark, and Patrick’s voice was just as sharp as ever. I was super excited to see them. They were that earworm band that 99.9 the Buzz radio station would play every hour. Take a Picture, Welcome to the Fold, and Hey Man Nice Shot were the band’s most popular songs performed back to back. Patrick taunted the audience a little, exclaiming “Hey man, now you guys finally recognized who the fuck Filter is, all from that one song, Take a Picture.”
It also dawned on me that I had seen his brother tell stories about him live at Comiccon just over a year ago. Robert Patrick is an actor famous for his roles in Terminator and special agent Doggett in the X-Files. Pretty cool having heard anecdotes from the older brother not knowing I’d ever see Filter live. It was a short but sweet set but worth travelling to see, and that was only the first band.
It was time to get heavy with some industrial metal. Ministry were here to wake everyone up out of their seats, starting with one of their big hits, Thieves. Singer Al Jourgensen is the only original member of the band, he has lasted through the heavy rock and roll lifestyle. A true pioneer in the eighties of industrial metal, they haven’t thrown the towel in yet, though there have been talks of the end. With a new album out in 2024, they look as invigorated as ever onstage. At sixty-four years old Jourgensen was making the most of the space.
Musically it was probably a little abrasive for the older folks. But not the guy next tome who asked me who the band was and started headbanging along. It was the first time being in the seats at this venue, there was a lot of reverb where I was sitting.
They kept the pace, playing their massive hits from one album back to back. The Missing, Deity and Stigmata. Then pulled off a nice cover of Black Sabbath’s Supernaut. Finishing off the set with a couple more deep cuts and the Song God Damn White Trash.
It was finally time for the man of the hour, Alice Cooper. I had only seen him once at Montebello’s Rockest but wasn’t close enough to the stage to properly see all the antics. A larger-than-life newspaper banner was revealed with the words: Banned in Canada Alice Cooper. The band began playing Lock Me Up as Alice appeared from behind said banner. He changed the lyrics, including Canada in it, which was pretty cool.
The fans sang every word of the hit parade of No More Mr Nice Guy, I’m Eighteen and Under My Wheels. At seventy-five years old, Cooper is still rocking it hard. With multiple outfit changes and stage props he was able to do more than most younger acts who barely play an hour set. This tour also saw the return of world-famous female powerhouse guitarist Nita Strauss, completing an already solid lineup. Also joining him was guitarist Tommy Henriksen from Alice’s other musical project Hollywood Vampires, featuring Johnny Depp and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.
During the song Snakebite Cooper paraded around the stage with ease with a boa constrictor snake around his neck. I’m not sure if it was his pet this time or not, as he has had troubles in the past getting it over the border. Speaking of animals, there was an incident back 1969 in Toronto that will be forever known as the chicken throw. Being a pioneer of shock rock, Alice was determined to give the audience their money’s worth. Bringing a chicken onstage and letting it go in the audience, thinking it would just fly away. Lets just say said chicken did not survive. I’m sure Peta is not a big fan of his antics to this day.
One of my favorite songs of Cooper is Poison and he didn’t disappoint; he even extended the chorus. For the song The Battle of Dwight Fry, Cooper appeared under an ominous green spotlight wearing a straight jacket. Leading into an instrumental version of I Love the Dead and Killer, Cooper’s ex-wife appeared onstage with a large guillotine. Proceeding to “chop” Cooper’s head off and parade around with it.
Poking fun at politics and the general circus that comes with it is what the next song Elected was all about. Cooper stood on a podium and made a promise to Canada to fix its problems with the “Wild Party” if he were elected by doing absolutely nothing. Sounds about right.
This was the first of two final songs. The encore was of course School’s Out with a mash-up medley of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall. He followed it up with a full introduction to his band members as they did some solos. After seventeen songs, they took a bow and left the stage. Fans waited patiently for another encore but that was it. I heard all I wanted to hear and more so I was satisfied.
Up next another more modern shock rocker and director, Rob Zombie. With another epic stage setup, he came out on his zombie skull podium. The drums were on a riser and the rest of the stage was covered in multiple screens playing old horror movie clips for enhanced visuals. Flamboyantly dressed in glitter bell bottoms and a tasselled jacket, Zombie began with a new song. Then quickly went into fan favourite Feel So Numb. Next up was a funny song called Well Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O, with visuals of cows being abducted in the background.
The drums were then lowered back down to the stage and the giant demon robots, made famous by their music videos, joined them onstage. There were flames shooting up on either side of Zombie as he played Superbeast and Demonoid Phenomenon.
He then asked everyone if they truly wanted to party cause he wasn’t happy with the reaction he was getting, even though he had just spoke about how much he loved playing in Toronto. He also made a speech about filming or selfie-taking saying enough is enough. “Take your last selfie and put your phones down; all of you complain about the good old times but yet you can’t put it down for three fucking minutes,” he exclaimed. He got everyone to clap along now that they had their hands free. Apparently, that didn’t apply to the annoying girl in front of me who said – “I can film because I’m not from here.” I hate that this has become the new normal, and it shows how rude people can be. I kept having to look at the screens because she was obstructing my view. Even public shaming wasn’t enough to stop her.
He then did two songs from his original band White Zombie, More Human Than Human and Thunder Kiss 65. Playing on the screens were clips from Rob Zombie’s movie House of a 1000 Corpses. The best was saved for last, the most known song from the band, Dragula, It was pretty rushed and not well sung, the crowd was singing louder than him. He led the crowd in a final chant of the word Zombie and left the stage.
I’ve been to a handful of shows in Toronto; one observation is the crowds are definitely the opposite of Montreal. For one, they don’t cheer as much; they clap. I noticed all four bands had to almost demand a better reaction. Not to say they weren’t enjoying it; they just weren’t very emotive I guess. That’s why the Montreal crowds will always be the best. It’s too bad this tour didn’t come here. I had heard a lot of Quebecers travelled there for the show. I am so grateful to have witnessed another moment in Canadian rock and roll history.
Review – Sam Morris
Photos – Kieron Yates
