In this era of music, it seems that some
of these newer bands lack a great stage show. If an artist is going to perform
live, they got to give their fans a show. This is something that Alice Cooper
would muss about. The godfather of shock rock, now 65, gave his fans in Wilkes
Barre, PA a show on October 18, 2013 in a sold-out concert at the FM Kirby
Center.
The
show began a little after 8 pm to the sounds of screaming fans. The lights went
out and the curtain dropped, ushering in a mushroom of smoke. Out the smoke
came the one and only, Alice Cooper. The audiences roared with applause as
Alice and his band went into “Hello Hooray”, a perfect song to open the show as
it opened the Billion Dollar Babies album
40 years ago. Next came “House of Fire”
from 1989’s Trash and then came the
hits- “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Under My Wheels”. During the former, Alice
led the crowd in singing the chorus- conducting the high notes with the lift of
his cane.
Props
came out during songs such as “Billion Dollar Babies” and “Caffeine”, in which
Alice came out with a sword stuffed with big dollar bills and a large white mug
respectively. One thing to note about
Alice Cooper is that when he is on stage, he is in character (that is also
named Alice Cooper). Some might note that Alice doesn’t talk in between songs. His
is because he’s in character. This show was no different: during “Dirty Diamonds”
in which Alice threw out necklaces into the crowd, he made eye contact with one
of the audience members as if he was going to give this person one. But no:
Alice gleefully threw the necklace elsewhere.
The
band Alice had with him was great throughout the show. Of the people in Alice’s
band, Australian guitarist Orianthi stands out the most. She might sound
familiar as she was the guitarist for Michael Jackson for his ill-fated This Is It concerts in 2009. She won the
crowd over with her impressive guitar solos. She was dressed in a black coat
and hat, as if she were a female Ritchie Blackmore.
Fan
favorites such as “Welcome to My Nightmare”, “Go to Hell” and “Feed My
Frankenstein” came next. Much to my surprise, Alice and the band played “He’s
Back”- the song he made for Friday the 13th
Part VI. One of Alice’s actors came out as Jason Voorhees during the song. More
theatrics came into play during “Feed My Frankenstein”, in which Alice was put
into a contraption to disappear and turn into a tall Frankenstein looking
monster that took up nearly the entire stage! Alice came back, decked out in a straitjacket for “Ballad of Dwight Fry” which was followed by Alice’s traditional
death by guillotine.
After
the beheading, Alice was rolled back in on a hospital stretcher for the next
part of his show: cover tunes. While many may roll their eyes at this, I
actually found the concept for this part of the show to be clever. When Alice
came back on stage, a voiceover explained how Alice has cheated death and has
now joined his dead rock star friends- the Hollywood Vampires. Alice then
covered “Break On Through” (for Jim Morrison), “Revolution” (for John Lennon), “Foxy
Lady” (for Jimi Hendrix) and “My Generation” (for Keith Moon). The covers were
all pretty good and fun to hear. Alice is actually planning for his next album
to be all covers. I wasn’t crazy about the idea when I first heard it but after
seeing this, I’ll be interested in what Alice comes up with.
The
covers were followed by “I’m Eighteen” and “Poison”, both of which were crowd
pleasers and had the audience singing along. For the encore, the band went into
“School’s Out”. A bubble machine was on during the performance, much like the
original Alice Cooper band had when they were on Top of the Pops performing the song. Alice led the audience in
singing the song’s famous chorus before yelling “It’s party time!” Alice was
not kidding: confetti and streamers went off and fell onto the audience while
big balloons were thrown into the audience, which Alice popped with his cane. Alice
then introduced his band before saying,
“Thank you, Wilkes Barre! Happy
Halloween!”
Seeing
Alice Cooper in concert was amazing. Even at his age, he still knows how to put
on a show. This was my second time seeing him, the first time being in 2006. I
think I preferred this show because of the setlist and location. With this
being my senior year at King’s College, I’m glad I was able to see at least one
of my favorite artists while here in Wilkes Barre. I guess I am worthy. Thanks,
Alice!
Setlist
1. Hello
Hooray
2. House
of Fire
3. No
More Mr. Nice Guy
4. Under
My Wheels
5. I’ll
Bite Your Face Off
6. Billion
Dollar Babies
7. Caffeine
8. Department
of Youth
9. Hey
Stoopid
10. Dirty
Diamonds (with drum and guitar solo)
11. Welcome
to My Nightmare
12. Go
To Hell
13. He’s
Back (The Man Behind the Mask)
14. Feed
My Frankenstein
15. Ballad
of Dwight Fry (with excerpt of Killer)
16. I
Love The Dead
17. Break
On Through
18. Revolution
19. Foxy
Lady
20. My
Generation
21. I’m
Eighteen
22. Poison
Encore
23. School’s
Out (with Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment