Spend the Night with Alice Cooper
August 10, 2016
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Hall
Before I started this review, I literally had to take a moment and count how many times I have seen Alice Cooper live. Since 1990, I have seen Alice Cooper nine times. To me, seeing Alice Cooper live is like Christmas every time. No matter how old you get or how many times you do it, it never gets old and it’s always just as exciting and memorable as the previous one. While many artists seem to slow down and maybe even lose their touch with age, Alice Cooper remains virtually untouched and unaffected by time.
Hitting the stage with his now signature “Black Widow” opener, Alice ascended up a flight of stairs wrapped in a cape as the audience roared appropriately to welcome this timeless icon of hard rock music. From there, Alice and his minions launched into “No More Mr. Nice Guy” which again brought a huge roar from the crowd. Alice’s band was on fire and you can feel the chemistry between the band members and between them and Alice himself. I’ll even go as far as to say that this line up is hands down his best (and my favorite) since the classic Alice Cooper Group.
The set list was full of all the hits such as “Under My Wheels”, “Billion Dollar Babies” and “Only Women Bleed” but it was the deeper cuts such as “Halo of Flies”, “Guilty”, and “Woman of Mass Distraction” that really caught me off guard proving that Alice still has plenty of tricks and surprises up his sleeve. Getting to hear “Public Animal #9” was a highlight for me as I had never heard that one done live and it’s been one of my favorites for years. As much as I hate solos, what I love about the Alice Cooper Band is that they do them very tastefully, almost as intros/outros of songs. Nita Strauss’ solo just before “Poison” was absolutely stellar and totally set the mood for that song while Glen Sobel’s drum solo in “Halo of Flies” seemed perfectly built into the song like it was already there.
After the ceremonial beheading of Alice during “I Love The Dead”, they wheeled out a gurney and Alice sat up out of it and staggered around the stage. As he wondered the stage which was now littered with tombstones, a voice over the PA said , “Alice Cooper, you’re living on borrowed time. what are you going to do now? Raise the dead?” The band then kicked into Alice’s “My Dead Friends” medley. With each friend, a new tombstone backdrop was revealed and they kicked off the medley with The Who’s “Pinball Wizard.” Then it was “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix, “Suffragette City” by David Bowie but when a backdrop was revealed depicting Lemmy Killmister’s tombstone, the crowd went absolutely nuts as Alice and Co stormed into “Ace of Spades” which had bassist Chuck Garric and Alice trading off vocals. While this medley absolutely brought the house down but they weren’t done yet.
The band gave Atlanta the ol’ one two punch with “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out” and the crowd reacted as if it was the first time they were hearing these songs. How can two songs that we’ve heard a zillion times never get old and still be every bit as exciting as the first time we saw them live? Easy. It’s because it’s Alice fucking Cooper and these songs are the prime example of timeless classics. Alice & Co. returned for an encore of “Elected” which was so appropriate being in the time that were in and even had Hillary and Drumph out on stage duking it out and eventually making out and making up. As the band took their final bow, I couldn’t help but feel so happy and feel like I had seen hands down the best Alice show I’ve seen to date.
While the performance itself was absolutely perfect in so many ways, one thing that did bug me about this show was the number of empty seats. How is an iconic legend who is still on top of his game not selling out every fucking show? It makes me wonder if it’ll be just how it was when Dio passed when Alice passes. Will everyone all of the sudden be a huge Alice Cooper fan and wish that they were able to see him one more time? People, Alice Cooper is alive and well. Don’t take it for granted that he will always be around because, as we’ve seen, our heroes are dropping like flies and we just don’t know how much longer we’ll have Alice. Go to the shows and see him while you still can or trust me, you’ll live to regret it.
In 2016, Alice Cooper is still on top of his game. How he does it, I have no fucking clue but Alice Cooper continues to defy age, time, and all the odds that are normally going against a guy his age. Alice looked and sounded amazing sounded amazing and at 68 years young, Alice Cooper is in his prime and delivering some of the best shows of his career. He continues to take the young kids to school to show ’em how it’s really done. Trust me, at the end of the day, nobody does it better than Alice.
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