Review by Dale Jr., Photos by Leslii Stevens
Also see our Exclusive Interview with Alice Cooper bassist Chuck Garric
“Super Duper” Alice Cooper and his band of amazing musicians treated the sold out Lynn Auditorium crowd to a tour-de-force of theatric hard rock. The show was part of his “Spend The Night With Alice Cooper” tour. Alice, who is still rocking at the age of 68, hasn’t slowed down at all. Last year, he debuted a new super group with him, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp, called the Hollywood Vampires. The group shares its name with his old celebrity drinking group. The group is a tribute to Alice’s friends that have departed, some of whom were in the original drinking group. But this show was part of his tour with his amazing group of musicians; whom Alice has the uncanny ability of always surrounding himself with.
The show opened with a very fitting Vincent Price introduction. The curtain dropped and Alice and company took the audience for a ride. They opened with some deep cuts with “The Black Widow” and “Long Way To Go” before going into some of the hits.
Not that they weren’t awake before, but the hits really brought the crowd alive, as you could hear the crowd sing along with Alice during “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Under My Wheels”. It was after that when Alice started pulling some toys out of the prop toy box on stage.
First up, Alice was handed a boa constrictor that was promptly put around his neck for his performance of “Is It My Body”. The theatrics would only rise over the course of the evening, with Alice swinging a sword speared with fake money for “Billion Dollar Babies”; my personal favorite Alice track.
The setlist rolled on with some more deep cuts and some later hits for Alice; and also included some blistering solos for both guitarist, Nita Strauss, and drummer, Glen Sobel.
Alice would come out for “Feed My Frankenstein” looking like a mad scientist. Over the course of the 90s hit, Alice was strapped in and electrocuted, and then turned into a giant Dr. Frankenstein’s monster-like creature that stood at least ten feet tall. Other props included Alice singing in a strait jacket, and being beheaded by guillotine on-stage and his head being tossed about.
Next was something that was newer to Alice’s set, and it goes back to the notion of paying tribute to his deceased pals, the “Hollywood Vampires” if you will, and that was a three song tribute. A black cover was pulled down to reveal a giant tombstone banner with Keith Moon’s name on it as Alice and the band broke into The Who’s “Pinball Wizard”. The next tombstone banner that was reveal was for Jimi Hendrix, and the band proceeded to play “Fire”. The very last tombstone to be revealed was for the recently deceased David Bowie, as the band played “Suffragette City”. All three covers sounded amazing, and the crowd really loved the surprise.
Alice and the band rounded third and headed for home with performances of Alice hits “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out”; the latter had giant balloons tossed out into the crowd, filled with confetti. Alice was at the ready when those balloons came back on stage with the same foil-like sword that saw the stage earlier during “Billion Dollar Babies”.
For the encore, Alice came out looking like Uncle Sam for “Elected”. Towards the end of the song, a man and woman, wearing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton masks, respectively, came out and fought on stage while Alice asked that you vote for him this November.
Cooper, at this stage of his career, is a master in his craft of stage theatrics, and this show was top notch. Alice still sounds great, and he wasn’t afraid to share the spotlight with the incredible group of musicians backing him up. It had all the props and gags that one could ask for. If you’ve ever been a fan of Alice Cooper, and if you haven’t seen him yet, or if you’ve seen him a million times, be sure to check him out when he rolls into your neighborhood again. You won’t be disappointed.
Alice Cooper – Lynn Memorial Auditorium, Lynn, MA – 5/14/16
