I Was Locked In A Room For The Freaks On Parade Tour

9/24/2023

Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper with Ministry and Filter at Honda Center in Anaheim, California on September 23, 2023

This was not my first time shooting Rob Zombie or Ministry, but I will never not cover them. This was, however, my first show contributing for Highwire Magazine.

I love the Honda Center. It is my favorite stadium to shoot at and I will go back as much as I possibly can. They give me free parking.

Before the show, I found this little noodle house and had my first Vietnamese wonton noodle soup. I am hooked. It was like a combination of pho and wonton soup but 1,000 times better and more flavorful. If your pho shop sells wonton noodle soup, get it, with egg noods, and your life will be forever changed.

After my life changing wonton nood soup, I headed over to the Honda to pick up my credentials and do what I do best (after eating and sleeping)...waiting. I had plenty of entertainment in the sidewalk preacher telling us all that we are going to Hell and Alice Cooper is the devil and something derogatory about the LGBTQ+ community. I was laughing too hard at his ridiculousness to really pay close attention. Even the cops were laughing. He was very angry and I think he should get himself some Vietnamese wonton nood soup. That will calm his soul. After a little while, his friend showed up. An equally angry woman with a microphone and speaker attached to her somehow. She was so loud and walking all around the venue spreading her anger and it was just so stupid. Get some soup, lady!

The time came and the media escort walked us to the photo pit at the front of the stage. Because Filter's set was so short and there was only a 15 minute break between Filter and Ministry, there was no point in walking us back to the waiting area, so we all just hung out at the side of the backstage. I felt so important.

However, after Ministry, we were then escorted to a conference room that we weren't allowed to leave. We were trapped! There was no escape! That was our new home and we just had to accept our fates! This was the room that we were escorted from and back to after our three songs were shot. If you were hungry, too bad! If you had to use the bathroom, too bad! This was our room forever and we knew we were going to have to rebuild society inside this room. I was so worried that we were going to have a Lord of the Flies situation so I assessed my fellow prisoners and figured out who I could "take." They weren't going to hurt me trying to steal my glasses for fire!

I'm kidding. We were absolutely allowed to leave the room to watch the show if we had a ticket, grab food, or go to the bathroom, whatever we needed because we are adults and Honda Center does not keep photographers against their will, as long as we left our cameras in the room. They gave us water because they are just nice people. Our escort was fantastic and took really good care of us.

You can read my official review of the show here.

Filter