Tinley Park, IL – 01 Sep 2023
Multiple generations of hard rock converge on a grassy hill.
I fell in love with live music sitting in the cheap seats on grassy hills in outdoor amphitheaters, but I hadn’t been to a show like that in more than 20 years. (Most of the bands I grew to prefer stick to the dingy clubs.) A couple of years ago I started to get the nostalgic itch for that experience. The time finally seemed right to give it another try when the unlikely lineup of Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ministry, and Filter rolled into the Chicago suburbs on Friday, September 1st. Our generous, not at all evil overlords at Ticketmaster/Livenation offered four lawn seats for $80, including fees.
I was still at least a half mile from the venue when I started to remember the negatives of these monster shows. Traffic heading into the parking lot was at a virtual standstill when Filter went on about six. Fortunately, I was able to plant my ass in the grass in time to see their three big hits, which constituted half of their brief, six song set. Filter were the only band on the bill that I had never seen, and “Take a Picture”, “Welcome to the Fold” and show stopper “Hey Man Nice Shot” left me feeling really good about the experience.
My companions for the show were my sons, ages 24 and 19. I thought it would be a fun and unlikely chance for them to see the most dangerous live act of 1972 (Alice Cooper), and the most dangerous live act of 1992 (Ministry) in one convenient setting. (At least the most dangerous in the mainstream context.) It’s not really their thing, but once in a while they humor the old man. Unfortunately, traffic caused them to miss MInistry.
It’s really too bad. I’ve seen Ministry maybe 15 times, and this was one of my all time favorite sets. Every song but one was from 1992 or earlier. Check it out – “Thieves”, “The Missing”, “Deity”, “Stigmata”, “Supernaut” (a Black Sabbath cover originally done by 1000 Homo DJs in 1990), “Burning Inside”, “New World Order” and “Just One Fix”. It was an old school Ministry fan’s wet dream, even if it wasn’t nearly as terrifying as Lollapalooza ‘92 when the sky grew dark with flying turf during their set.
Rather than showing the band performing on the big screens, Ministry ran arresting pseudo propaganda films that were song appropriate. I had to go to the very front of the grass to catch a distant glimpse of Uncle Al and the rest doing their thing. They finished up with a new song called “Goddamn White Trash”, which will be on their upcoming, spring 2024 release Hopiumforthemasses. I’m not sure what the older crowd there to see Alice Cooper thought, but I loved every minute of it.
The first of the Freaks on Parade, Alice Cooper, came on a few minutes after eight. He managed to cram a lot of hits and showmanship into his 65 minutes. All the usual suspects were there – “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “I’m Eighteen”, “Under My Wheels”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Hey Stoopid”, “Poison” and “Elected”. A little bit of “Black Widow” turned into an extended guitar solo from guitar virtuoso Nita Straus. A small piece of “Killer” accompanied Alice’s decapitation then morphed into “I Love the Dead”.
The new stage set up was cool, even from the cheap seats. A fair amount of props also contributed to the visual entertainment. My personal highlight was a straightjacketed Alice singing “Ballad of Dwight Fry”. “School’s Out” was the encore, and included a bit of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”. I’ve seen the aging shock rocker a handful of times over the last 30 years, and he’s consistently good. At 75, Cooper probably doesn’t keep fretful mothers awake at night anymore, but he still puts on a great show.
The second of the Freaks on Parade was noted horror movie director Rob Zombie. At least that’s how my kids know him. At some point House of 1000 Corpses the movie became a bigger cultural touchstone than White Zombie the band. I saw White Zombie a couple of times back in the day, (once with Ramones opening), and I saw Rob Zombie a couple times a couple decades ago. (One of those times The Damned were supposed to open, but canceled all their US dates.) While I’m not really into his solo stuff, it’s always a great visual show.
Zombie assaults you visually as well as sonically. His band is great, and the heavy metal-meets-disco sound is surprisingly infectious. He still has that homeless cowboy from hell look that has served him so well over the years, and is a charismatic frontman. We had a long drive home, so we left a bit early to avoid traffic. The bummer was that we were gone by the time he played his biggest hits. (“Living Dead Girl”, “More Human Than Human”, “Thunder Kiss ‘65” and “Dragula” close the set.) Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable night on the hill with the boys. That being said, I may just wait another 20 years to do it again.
Confessions of a merch whore: T-shirts were $50 and things went up from there. No thanks. I also passed on the $15 beers and even the $12 tacos.
Part-time punk writer, suburban dad and angry old man. Follow my adventures on the Punk Till I Die podcast!
