The Alice Cooper Thread

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Are you going to see him, Susan?

Not this time

I'm not a big fan of The Cult and so I would be disappointed with Alice playing a truncated set

Also, the closest venue to me now is Swansea, which is over 160 miles away by road, meaning in the car it would be a round journey of over 6 hours! However, if I went by train a one-way journey would be over 4 hours!

[Justin101]

The tickets are pretty expensive too, I would have liked to have gone but it’d be a big trip for me too whether it be the midlands or Scotland for a venue. Tickets, travel and hotel. Too pricey.

Edit, forgot about Manchester but I’d still stay overnight so it all still applies lol.

[Susan Foreman]

I've just heard that the Swansea show is sold out!

Anyway...it's just been announced that the Southampton based band CREEPER will be joining Alice and The Cult on the UK leg of the your

[Susan Foreman]

Alice has just started the UK leg of his latest tour, with a truncated show at the Swansea Arena on May 23rd - truncated because he was only on stage for 80 mins and a total of 19 songs were played as opposed to the 22 that were played the last time he visited the UK

Alice didn't come on stage until 9:45pm!

The staging seems to be the same as the 'Nightmare Castle' set from 2019. Dropped from the set were 'Raped and Freezin'' / 'Muscle of Love' / 'He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)' / 'My Stars' / 'Devil's Food'

The actual setlist comprised of:

• Feed My Frankenstein
• No More Mr. Nice Guy
• Bed of Nails
• Hey Stoopid
• Fallen in Love
• Shut Up and Rock (played for the first time on the tour)
• Go Man Go
• Under My Wheels
• Roses on White Lace
• I'm Eighteen (which suffered with problems with the microphone)
• Poison
• Billion Dollar Babies
• Black Widow Jam
• Steven
• Dead Babies
• I Love the Dead (band vocals only)
• Escape
• Teenage Frankenstein
• School's Out

It will be interesting to see what changes are made to the set over the remaining five UK dates

Apparently the sound at the venue was dire - it was 'muddy' with a lot of bass and drums and very little guitar

There is an average review of the concert in The Guardian:

"Alice Cooper review – guillotine-wielding rocker is no longer a cut above

3/5 stars

The shock-rock superstar delivers a fine spectacle, but his varied back catalogue gets homogenised on this arena tour

The man on stage has died this way before. The blade catches the spotlight on its way down and a lifeless head tumbles into a basket, ready to be paraded in front of the baying crowd. In Alice Cooper’s world, execution by guillotine counts as playing the hits.

Kicking off this co-headline tour with the Cult – who, thanks to Ian Astbury’s aggro charisma, remain a muscular, exciting rock band in their best moments and a meat-and-potatoes one the rest of the time – Alice doesn’t skimp on crowd-pleasing gimmicks.

At a juncture when most people want to be reminded of how things were, it’s a canny, safe move. He hits the stage, which is decked out as a polystyrene castle, to the punchy riff of Feed My Frankenstein, done up in his trademark top hat and eye makeup, cane twirling. The response is exactly as you might expect – each costume change and macabre set piece is welcomed like fan service in a franchise revival.

It’s a shame, though, that the spirit of Alice’s 2021 album Detroit Stories – a tribute to the MC5-launching late-60s garage rock scene in his home town – hasn’t left much of a footprint. Just as the guillotine is on the road again, so is the glam metal aesthetic that has been his bread and butter for the past thirtysomething years.

Poison, Hey Stoopid and Teenage Frankenstein are dispatched with maximum bombast, divebombs flying from the fretboard of guitarist Nita Strauss. But, accentuated by the pyrotechnic chops of the band, who look like action figures from a toy line based on the mid-80s Sunset Strip, the staging of older numbers such as I’m Eighteen and No More Mr Nice Guy grinds their psych and powerpop elements into homogenised sleaze-rock.

With only 25 minutes at their disposal, openers Creeper race through their Jim Steinman-meets-AFI set, urged on by puckish vocalist Will Gould. They are heading in Alice’s direction, with a love of theatricality trumping their roots in Southampton’s hardcore scene, but they still perform with the guts and desperation of a punk band. They are unpredictable, something the headliner might take note of."

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

In a recent Classic Rock interview Alice said. And i quote.

I appreciate the past, but i don't live in the past. I'm always looking forward to the next record. If you think you've written your best songs then you should quit.

He may well make a new record every three or four years but his set list doesn't tell you that. It's always the same stuff. Tour in tour out. Only two songs here from his latest album Detroit Stories and one from 2017's Paranormal. The rest of the set is at least thirty years old.

It's one of the reasons i don't feel i need to see him live again.

He should do era shows similar to Maiden, just keeping Schools Out as the show closer. That would be interesting. But above all he should tour his latest record properly.

[Justin101]

I agree, I wanted to go to this tour but the ticket price put me off. I don’t feel like I have missed out as it’s basically the same show I saw in 2019.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I agree, I wanted to go to this tour but the ticket price put me off. I don’t feel like I have missed out as it’s basically the same show I saw in 2019.

Twelve of those songs i saw live back in 2002.

It's too long to post but if you want to compare set lists it's here.

https://www.concertarchives.org/conc...e-dogs-d-amour

[Susan Foreman]

Swansea review at Metal Planet Music

"There are certain gigs that as a photographer are on your bucket list, Alice was on mine so the opportunity to see him plus one of the bands from my mid teams whose ‘Love” album I about wore out came along it was smiles all round.

The newly opened Swansea Arena lended itself well to such an auspicious occasion, the gig was sold out and the opening night of the UK tour, so the anticipation levels were high as was the number of Alice lookalikes leaning on the barrier.

Opening the proceedings was Creeper, the lights stayed low for the Southampton Goth Rock band as frontman Will Gould began an expressive and energetic set full of swagger to warm the party up. Cyanide from their second studio album ‘Sex, Death & the Infinite Void’ kicked the short but full on set off. Down Below from their second album stuck in my head but it was the closing track Annabelle from 2017’s Eternity, in your Arms’ that got the mood ready for “The Cult”. Definitely a band to check out.

After what seemed like forever, the lights went down and ‘The Cult’ with the distinctive sound of Billy Duffy’s guitar and the unique voice of Ian Astbury smashed their way though your ears with ‘Sun King’ before smoothly flowing into ‘Automatic Blues’. The band transported me back in time with ‘Sweet Soul Sister’ and I have to say, they sounded better than I thought possible.

The sound in Swansea Arena is great from the back and as there was no pit photography allowed for their set, it was nice to just enjoy the set if not a little frustrating as a long time fan.

Ian likes a chat and engaged with the crowd easily talking about his Celtic Roots and as the tambourines flew into the crowd, even the hardened Alice fans warmed to the charismatic Astbury.

It was however, Duffy’s riffs and licks that stole it for me though – phenomenal player and when the familiar opening of ‘Love Removal Machine’, ‘Revolution’,’ Rain’ and ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ hit my ears I felt transported in time back to my own days of oodles of black eyeliner and black lipstick bopping around the local disco Ian Astbury style!

Enough of the time travelling and it was time for the other headliner for tonight, Alice Cooper. The stage was set…castle turrets, chandeliers, skulls and bones, in total contrast to the straight gig sets of the two previous bands.

But of course, we know what to expect, a performance, a theatrical fest of catchy songs spanning Alice Coopers career, a production not a gig, supreme musicians, and the master of shock rock Alice Cooper himself who with a 50 year plus career seems as sprightly and magnificent as ever!

“Feed My Frankenstein’ kicked it all off, the crowd bouncing and singing along, we had the first 4 songs in the photo pit and it honestly felt like 2 minutes such was the power of the performance with the band swapping places, coming together to hit those lovely guitar heavy phrases, playing to the audience all the while Alice overseeing and commanding, wafting his cane, a sword, a knife, steady in his vocal and never breaking character. What a show!

“No More Mr Nice Guy’, ‘Bed of Nails’ and “Hey Stoopid’ never let the pace up for a second, a whirlwind of such classic tracks with costume changes, giant monsters and equally giant choruses. Swansea Arena holds 3000+ and I think everyone was singing along.

I won’t detail the full set list for those of you going to other shows but there was a live debut and loads of theatrics with huge ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ , the guillotine (of course) and tonnes more classics.

A 19-song set list in 1 hour 15ish minutes – fast and frantic but all in a good way. Yes ‘Poison was in there, and of course the one that every generation knows ‘School’s Out’.

Nita Strauss is the guitar queen of rock, a goddess with a guitar who can bend those strings with such dexterity all the time stamping her authority on the stage.

She has a confidence that is very well deserved. Ryan Roxie is on parr with Nita, performance perfection and fabulous to watch and listen too. Tommy Henriksen equally matches his colleagues for his turn at solos, seriously nippy in his riffage. The low end delivered impeccably by Chris Wyse. They play off each other but also with each other.

The band are unbelievably good, Glen Sobel smashing out the tempo and under-pinning each track, they all perform not just play but it is the playing that matters and it’s flawless! My only comment would be turn it up a bit Swansea Arena, these songs need to be played loud, hit you squarely in the stomach, 4 guitars on stage and at times I couldn’t feel that fuzz let alone the big tub thumping!!

The Godfather of Shock Rock is still amazing, the ultimate showman and you really shouldn’t miss this tour, buy the tickets, get yourself out for a night of pure music and theatrics. Total enjoyment."

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Just out of interest Susan, do you have the set list from The Cult?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Just out of interest Susan, do you have the set list from The Cult?

I was waiting for a full and confirmed one before I mentioned it here

All I know at the moment is that The Cult's set included Sun King / Automatic Blues / Sweet Soul Sister / Edie (Ciao Baby) / Rain / Wild Flower / She Sells Sanctuary / Love Removal Machine’ / Revolution, but there must be more than that

If you are interested, the setlist for Creeper was Cyanide / Thorns of Love / Down Below / Midnight / Annabelle