Pantera Plays a Sold Out Show at The Kia Forum

Heather Vandemark
Aug 31, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Sep 3, 2025

Pantera played a SOLD OUT show at the Kia Forum on August 27th with special guests Amon Amarth and King Parrot!

King Parrot got the party started. They are a grindcore band from Australia that started in 2010 with four studio albums and their latest release A Young Person's Guide to King Parrot. I haven’t heard of them before but they were an intense high energy fun band.

Amon Amarth blew my mind. Although they started in 1992 and have twelve studio albums, I’ve never seen them live! One of my daughter’s softball coaches always talked about them and since I’m not too into viking death metal, I regretfully didn’t pay attention. Watching the stage setup, now I get what he was talking about, this is theatric viking metal. The drum kit is on a huge beautiful viking helmet with flames in the eyes. The stage is flanked with two inflatable statues, and if you didn’t see them inflating, you would think they are legit concrete statues. Then lead singer Johan Hegg took the stage and I’m in total awe of the viking energy. They opened with “The Guardians of Asgaard” and during the next song "Shield Wall” there were gladiators. I finally got to see the infamous row pit where the entire floor sits down to row to the song “Put Your Back Into the Oar”. One of these days I need to get in that! It was absolutely amazing and I will definitely catch their headline tour.

Pantera has been on my photographer bucket list forever. I thought it would stay there unchecked, but I finally got my shot! While this was my first Pantera photo pit, I was always in the circle pit back in the day. In 1994 I got my first black eyes with a hard head butt from that one dude that goes against the circle. I wore them like a badge of honor for the next week. My coworkers almost gave my boyfriend at the time a blanket party. I had to intervene, that he’s a Dead Head, I promise he didn’t punch me, it was a stranger in a mosh pit. They were so confused that I went in on purpose and said it was fun. Funny, nobody fucked with me at work after that. I was fortunate enough to see Pantera with the Abbott brothers many times in those days.I even have a Dimebag guitar pick that he threw to me in the third row at a San Diego show in 1994.

In 2022, Pantera reunited after not performing for over 20 years, with Charlie Benante (drums, Anthrax) and Zakk Wylde (guitar/vocalist, Zakk Sabbath, Black Label Society, Ozzy). At first there was some controversy that it’s not the same without Dimebag and Vinnie Paul and why are they doing this. Of course, it’s not the same, but Pantera had a huge influence on a lot of musicians and fans. Charlie and Zakk did not replace the Abbott brothers, they are honoring their legacy by performing their songs live for the fans. One of the things I noticed throughout their set is that Charlie and Zakk seem to be respectfully low key. They are very much a part of the band but respectfully giving the spotlight to original members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown.

Maybe that’s not the case at all, but just my observation since I’ve seen them perform many times with their own bands, they seemed respectfully lowkey.

As we were walking into the photo pit, a blur ran past me and jumped on the rail. It was Zakk with a doll and a phone, the fans loved it. He ran back and jumped on the stage behind the Pantera curtain. Funny guy. The first thing I notice is the drum kit honoring the Abbott brothers with Dimebag and Vinnie Paul faces on the bass drum heads.

They started with “Suicide Note Pt 1” and on the jumbo screens was band montage from the 90s, of course, a lot of Vinnie and Dime. It was awesome to see their smiling, goofy faces living their best lives. They went into “Suicide Note Pt 2” and the circle pit was going strong. When I went up to my seat later, I had a perfect view and there’s always that one guy that goes the opposite way, elbows up. Someone is showing up at work with black eyes!

There were more videos during the show and at one point Phil said “We are here because of Vinnie and Paul. And Ozzy fucking Osbourne!” I found out later Jack Osbourne was in attendance, sitting not too far away from us.

The 16 song setlist was amazing with “Cowboys From Hell”, “I’m Broken”, “This Love”, and of course “Walk”. The SOLD OUT arena was LOUD! During the chorus King Parrot and Rita Haney, Dimebag’s longtime girlfriend, ran out on stage to sing the chorus. It happened to be Rita’s Birthday week, cheers! They closed it out with “Fucking Hostile”. That is the first Pantera show, I walked out completely intact, nothing bruised or broken haha. Amazing line up and energy! There’s a couple weeks left on this summer tour.