Photos and Review by Dave Kasiorek
It was a shock rocking night when The Freaks on Parade Tour featuring Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson with special guests The HU and ORGY came to entertain a sold out crowd at Starlake.
ORGY and The HU kicked things off with their thunderous live energy that featured multiple singers for both acts and multiple drummers for The HU.
At sunset it was time for the shock rocker himself, Marilyn Manson to take the stage. Opening his set with his new single “Exit Wound” from his new recently released album (One Assassination Under God: Chapter 2). Manson continued on playing classics like “Disposable Teens”, “Angle with the Scabbed Wings”, and “Great Big White World”, which saw the crowd of 22,000 people with their phone lights in the air. It was a pretty insane moment considering how much Manson has gone through, but I would say that he has had one of the best comebacks in music history. Manson has been sober for the last several years and it’s great to see because he’s back to sounding as good as he has since the early 2000s. A focused Manson and a great backing band makes for an awesome show. You Couldn’t have a Manson show without songs like “Sweet Dreams”, “The Dope Show”, “The Beautiful People” and “Tourniquet” where Manson was hoisted 20ft in the air as he powered through the vocals. Marilyn Manson is killing it in 2026 both in the studio and on the stage. The crowd seemed to feel the same way as they roared for a revived Manson from start to finish.
Rob Zombie came out of the darkness to unleash his consistently great live show to a sea of eager horror fanatics. Opening his set with a new song as well, “F.T.W 84” off of 2026s The Great Satan with the signature Zombie chants through out the chorus that gets the crowds going. Rob Zombie shows are just incredible for the use of props, fire, lights and the hundreds of screens displaying horror movie clips and animations. Most of the props come out on classics like “More Human Than Human”, “Scum of the Earth”, “Living Dead Girl”, and “House of 1000 Corpses”.The timeless Thunder Kiss ’65 rocked the house with several occasions of crowd interaction leading the way to show closer “Dragula”. What an amazing show Rob Zombie always gives the audience. If you want someone that gives 110% then go to a Zombie show! The only disappointment of the night was that the duet with Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson singing Helter Skelter by the Beatles was cut from the set due to sound curfew. I was really looking forward to that one and it was a bummer it had to be stripped.
It’s 2026 and both Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson are still shocking the world with their music and their performance. If you have a chance to take part in the Freaks on Parade Tour in your town go and be entertained by some of the best to ever do it.
Rob Zombie
Marilyn Manson