Concert Review: Alice Cooper – December 12, 2011 – Atlanta, GA

I still remember my first Alice Cooper show like it was yesterday. The Fox Theater in Atlanta for The Alice Cooper Trashes America tour. I had been a fan for for about 4 years or so and getting to finally see this living legend was completely mind blowing. Since then, I have seen Alice five times with each show just always being as good if not better than the previous. It had been nearly 12 years since my last Alice Cooper Show so the anticipation and excitement of getting to see him again channeled my inner 15 year old self. I even went as far as to not even look at the setlist for this tour as I wanted to capture that excitement and mystery that has long since gone with the advent of the Internet. My wife was even with me as this was her first Alice Cooper Show. This made it even more exciting because I couldn’t wait to see her reaction to seeing Alice for the first time. I was almost envious of her.

First off, this was a crazy nice venue. It almost seemed too nice but it ended up turning out to be quite an awesome place. I was surrounded by easily 4 generations of Alice Cooper fans and it was fun to see some young folks all decked out in top hats and face paint. Alice Cooper fans are a killer group of fans. There really aren’t too many “casual” Alice fans these days and it really showed with this diehard crowd. The house lights went out as the Vincent Price intro to “The Black Widow” filled the room to a roaring crowd of Sick Things (Alice fans). A large curtain covering the stage dropped to reveal Alice perched high on a monstrous podium decked out in a jacket with spider legs coming out of both sides. I, along with everyone else, sang every word back to Alice as he commanded our presence and seemed to have almost a God like presence among his people. I kept look over at my wife throughout the show and she was all smiles, grooving out and even singing along to the songs she knew. She was having a blast. How could she not?

His band on this tour (consisting of guitarists Orianthi and Tommy Henriksen, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel) proved to be a more than worthy band to back the mighty Alice but it was the return of the legendary Steve Hunter on guitar that was such an awesome treat. Seeing and hearing the guy that actually played on such classic Alice albums as “Welcome To My Nightmare” and “Go To Hell” was a treat all in itself. I love it that Alice really puts these cats to work. The band played with a lot of energy and was the perfect compliment to Alice as he almost seemed to a puppet master commanding and directing their every move. Orianthi was without a doubt the secret weapon of sorts as she really stepped up to shine as another great addition to an already impressive roster of amazing guitarists under Alice’s belt.

The setlist feature all of the usual suspects such as “Under My Wheels”, “Be My Lover” and “I’m Eighteen” but did so without sounding tired or dated. The way the crowd reacted to these songs you’d think it was the first time they were ever hearing them. I was actually really surprised and impressed to see the addition of some really deep and obscure songs such as “Halo of Flies” from “Killer” and “Clones” from the way obscure “Flush The Fashion” album. These songs were so killer to hear and really drew a huge response from the audience. Orianthi took an amazing solo to leading right into “Poison” which in my opinion was one of the best songs of the night. They seemed to really put it all into this tune and it really wowed me.

The theatrics seemed to be dialed down a bit more than what I’ve seen in previous years but in all honesty, I really didn’t miss them that much. He did a great “monster” morph during “Feed My Frankenstein” and the classic appearance of the guillotine made was there after impaling an annoying stage photographer with his mic stand. My only gripe, if any, was that “I Love The Dead” wasn’t played in full but only partially along with the execution portion of “Killer” during the guillotine set. Again, I didn’t really worry to much about this because up to this point I was getting a musically stellar performance and I was having the time of my life.

Closing out the show in true Alice form was “School’s Out” which also featured former Alice guitarist Damon Johnson who did little to add to the performance but seemed to enjoy this reunion of sorts. The band exited the stage and returned with “Elected” which completely brought the house down with confetti/streamer canons and huge balloons filled with confetti tossed at the crowd. Alice, decked out in his stars and stripes top hat and coats demanded that we give him our votes as he was “a troubled man for troubled times.” The song was brought to a close with a roaring ovation from his sick thing 1 hour and 45 minutes later. Alice had left the building.

As I left the venue, I asked my wife what she thought. She then went on to tell me everything she liked and how she really dug the songs and the performance. It reminded me of leaving my first Alice show with my friend back in 1990 and how we talked about the show all the way home. It was such an amazing and exciting performance. Alice and his band really delivered a top notch, high energy piece of performance art. The songs are every bit as timeless as they ever were and the performance is every bit as fun and intriguing as ever. Alice Cooper is showing no signs of calling it a day anytime soon but please do yourself a favor and go see him live. It will be a show that you will talk about until the next time you see him. I know I’ll be talking about this one for a long time come.

Alice Cooper Setlist
Vincent Price Intro, The Black Widow, Brutal Planet, I’m Eighteen, Under My Wheels Billion Dollar Babies, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Hey Stoopid, Is It My Body, Halo of Flies, I’ll Bite Your Face Off,Muscle of Love, Only Women Bleed, Cold Ethyl, Feed My Frankenstein, Clones (We’re All), Poison, Wicked Young Man, Killer (“Execution” excerpt only), I Love the Dead (excerpt only), School’s Out

Encore:
Elected

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