Alice Cooper Live Review
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 12:01AM On Sunday, July 18 I was fortunate enough to see Alice Cooper live at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio. I went to the show with my husband and friends Rob (form Hard Rock Hideout) and JT (from Hard Rock Nights). So yeah, I was with famous people.
Alice is always great live. He's definitely worth the ticket price so if you notice him coming through your town - just go to the show. He - and his beautiful band - never phone it in. Ever. Oh, and I say "beautiful" band because - good grief - the musicians playing with Alice are truly gorgeous men. Seriously. My male readers can stop rolling their collective eyes now.
The show opened with "School's Out" -- and that was the ending, too! I've never seen this before, but that's okay because it worked and everyone seemed to love it. "Elected" was right before "School's Out" in the encore, another one of my favorites. I always love when Alice comes trotting out with the American flag and acts like a politician. I'd vote for Alice for president!
There were other favorites too, including "Poison" -- which was very early in the set. Then there was my beloved "Vengence is Mine" in which Alice climbed atop a staircase dressed like a big spider. There was "Dirty Diamonds," "Billion Dollar Babies,""I'm Eighteen" and lots of death. Well, the tour is called "Theatre of Death" so Alice has to die a few times, right?
Keri Kelli is one of my favorite guitarists. The guy is amazing live and when I see Alice, I make it a point to sit on Keri's side of the stage. So, there I was about five rows in, watching Keri play it down. Man, it was muggy Sunday night and it didn't take long for the entire band to become a sweaty mess. They kept right on - at one time Keri was so sweaty I couldn't believe he could even see well enough to walk around stage, let alone play, but it was all good.
I was totally bummed because I wanted to catch Alice's cane (who doesn't?) but I was on the side and he threw the prop to the fans in the direct middle of the stage. Same for the dirty diamond necklaces and money. Someday I have big plans for catching an Alice cane and mounting it on my wall.
In case you're wondering, Fraze Pavilion is super small - probably 4500 seats - and a totally great place to see a big show like Alice. The staging all worked nicely and I felt super close. The sound was also perfect - no distortion, thanks in part to super strict sound regulations instituted by the city. Alice's curtain couldn't drop on its own, but his ghoulish stage hands pulled it down just fine. Glittery letters spelled out "Alice" across the stage and the band had to weave in and out of the letters to move. There was also a semi-slutty nurse that pranced around the stage and tormented Alice. All in all, it was a good time. I just wish I'd hear "It's Hot Tonight" live someday. Oh well I guess.
Reader Comments (9)
Tesla opened and were solid as usual. I'm not a big Tesla fan but they do seem to give it their all when they play. They had a nice crowd to play for. They had the courtesy to thank Alice for having them open for him. Got to like that attitude.
To top off my weekend, Saturday I saw Dream Theatre and Iron Maiden. Holy hell, that was awesome! Unfortunately, DT played for only 47 minutes. What a great live band. Iron Maiden played 2 hours. They played a ton of their newer material, which I'm not familiar with. They saved some of the classics for the encore. Seeing Eddie "play the guitar" was great. Bruce has a ton of energy and you can see he loves doing this still. He paid homeage to Ronnie James Dio and the crowd loved it. Chants of "Dio" filled the air. It was a great moment.
I had such a killer weekend!
And Dustin is only half right. Alice's daughter, Calico, was in the show for nearly 10 years. However, she's NOT currently in it, and hasn't been for over a year. The current "slutty nurse" is Calico's friend, Tiffany Lowe, who also performs with the Genitorturers.