Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie’s Freaks On Parade Tour Was a Haunted House Onstage

Fort Worth was treated to the final North American stop of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie’s Freaks On Parade co-headlining tour Wednesday night. It’s far from the first time the two have hit the road together, including 2010’s Gruesome Twosome tour and a run of Halloween Hootenanny shows in 2023.

Freaks On Parade featured support from Ministry and Filter, the latter of which dropped out of the Texas tour dates due to illness. Fans at Dickies Arena saw a short Ministry set before Alice Cooper took the stage around 8 p.m.

“TRIAL SET: FOR DEEDS AGAINST HUMANITY” was written like a headline across two massive curtains that raised to the air as the intro to “Lock Me Up” started to swell. A spotlight from behind the curtains showed Cooper’s top-hatted silhouette before he burst through to start the show.

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” followed, one of Cooper’s oldest hits (from 1973) that Paul McCartney once said made him feel “threatened for a month.”  The first two songs of Cooper’s set were the only two that resembled a typical rock show. After that, each song played with an injection of campy horror. That included cameos from Marie Antoinette, played by Cooper’s wife, Sheryl Goddard, chopping off her husband’s head with a guillotine and a revolving cast of 22-foot-tall monsters that pranced behind the band.

Cooper has been doing this theater-rock routine for nearly 50 years now. Although it’s lost all of the provocation and shock value that once propelled him, its appeal has shifted into a charming sort of Halloween ride. No thrills, all frills: such as the live snake Cooper fastened around his neck during “Snakebite,” or the “photographer” who rushed on stage and started to harass members of the band, only to have her throat slit by Jason Vorhees himself as Cooper played “He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)” from Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. It was the second of three on-stage murders, including another “photographer” that Cooper impaled and the classic guillotine act during “The Ballad Of Dwight Fry."

Sparing the schlock, even the nitty-gritty of Cooper’s act remains over the top. His band features three guitarists: Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henrikson and Nita Strauss, all of whom play the same notes simultaneously, creating a thunderous rocking hum, before trading solos three ways.

The set was a sprint, stuffing in those horror vignettes between 14 of the band’s signature tracks, all in about an hour. Cooper closed with “School’s Out,” of course, interpolating the chorus of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2.”

“Halloween is coming up and remember who owns Halloween,” Cooper said after introducing the band. “I hope your nightmares are horrific.”

About 30 minutes later, Rob Zombie took the stage backed by massive curved screens that blasted clips from classic monster movies and his music videos and shot pyro from the tops.

He began with “Demon Speeding,” performing while perched about 40 feet in the air on an elevated platform. It was nerve-wracking to watch Zombie writhe and gyrate, the way he always does, while being so high in the air on an unsupported stand. He came down for the rest of the set, and seemed to leave no part of the stage untouched.

It might be a bit puzzling to some that Zombie would be the closer for the Freaks On Parade tour. Cooper is more of a household name and has the bigger hits and an instantly recognizable look.

That said, it was clear why Zombie was closing as soon as he hit the stage. For all the merits of Cooper’s show, the energy difference from a 59-year-old Zombie to the 76-year-old Cooper was staggering. Zombie moved like he was 19, and made his adoring fans feel like they were teenagers again too. When you talk about brand, it’s harder to find an artist that’s been able to hone in on exactly what they are and who their demographic is better than Zombie. The tour’s headliners both play a character, but Cooper’s is a little more transparent. We’ve seen him break, and even poke fun at it in his more recent work. It can give the impression that this is a schtick that works for Cooper, but he’d fall in line with another character if that one worked better. He’s a theater performer at heart.

Rob Zombie thrives off the sheer force of being so Rob Zombie at all turns. Off stage, he’s been a prolific film director of pulpy horror/sci-fi since the early 2000s. Visually, he’s always clad with a degree of dinge and grime. In 2024, he hasn’t changed one bit.

Zombie’s band was extremely tight, especially on “Superbeast” and “More Human Than Human,” as they replicated a career of breakneck industrial metal dating back to his White Zombie days.

“Living Dead Girl” was a particular crowd pleaser, which Zombie followed with a request to the crowd.

“We usually have seats all the way to the front at these shows,” he said to the open pit of a couple hundred in front of him. “Let’s do something a little different tonight. Everyone put your phones down and let’s really have a rock show.”

The intro riff to “Thunder Kiss ‘65” started to wallop as an incensed Zombie brought the crowd to a frenzy, sparking a few modest mosh pits. The band closed the night with their biggest hit, “Dragula,” an unexpectedly fun singalong that sent the Fort Worth fans home happy.

Cooper and Zombie delivered exactly as promised to their fans. As Freaks On Parade comes to a close, it appears that we are still not worthy.