I hardly recorded any audio or video during Alice Cooper’s grand return to Clearwater last night. Why? There was no need to. Not only do I like to remember the experience based on what my eyes viewed, but judging based on Coop’s last show ’round here, there were no mind-blowing speeches or amusing anecdotes to be told. Just the legendary hard rock, theatrics, and guillotines that got him to where he is today.
These days, the Billion Dollar Babies rocker puts on a show that has zero dialogue from him, other than when he goes over the repertoire of his backing band, near the very end. Beasto Blanco’s Chuck Gerric, and Nita Strauss, ranked by Guitar World as the #1 Female Guitarist You Should Know, just to name a few, travel the world with the king of shock rock.
Though having cracked age 70 and arriving to the stage over 15 minutes later than expected, everyone rose to their feet as those lights came down, preparing to spend an evening in “Alice Cooper’s nightmare castle.” Coop, wearing his trademark top hat and black regalia, came onstage though a castle door, to open with Feed My Frankenstein. Yep, just like in Wayne’s World.
Coop didn’t only conduct his bang-on band through his hits: He didn’t sing a single line of the No More Mr. Nice Guy chorus on his own, commanding his loyal fans to fill in for him. Bed Of Nails was a remarkable surprise for those who likely remembered the Trash album for other songs besides Poison. Coop went through all eras of his especial career. 2017’s Fallen In Love had many of the older fans confused, not knowing he still recorded albums, and was just living off of the old tunes. But the nostalgia hit them again, though, when the poppy sound from He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask) was omitted, and Muscle Of Love saw Coop break out black maracas.
The fists then began to pump for a consecutive trio of greatest hits. I’m Eighteen made an abnormally premature appearance in the setlist, immediately followed by the title track to Billion Dollar Babies, capping up with Poison. Nita Strauss then hopped up the stairs to the castle backdrop, and did her thing for two and a half minutes, while everyone else either changed outfits, or took a breath. Immediately after her rip-roaring solo, the band came back out to dust off another hardly-played-until-this-tour banger, Roses On White Lace. That one featured a full-on kiss to a woman dressed as a bride. Of course, who else could it be but Coops’ real-life bride, Sheryl Goddard?
Coop then headed backstage for awhile, as the rest of his band ripped into a few jams from the incomparable Welcome To My Nightmare album from 1975. This included a drum solo from Glen Sobel in the middle of an instrumental rendition of The Black Widow.
Then, while restrained by two man-sized babies, out came Coop in a straitjacket, to rasp out Steven. Not long after, the usual happened: He was executed and beheaded in the guillotine, the band rocked out to the chorus of I Love The Dead, an inflatable Billion Dollar Baby waddled around the stage with his head, etcetera etcetera. Suddenly, out came a regenerated Coop, from a coffin that had been standing onstage the whole night, to wrap up his main set by ripping off his straitjacket during Escape, and keeping a part-inflatable ghoul under control, during Teenage Frankenstein.
Two staples in his songbook, Under My Wheels and School’s Out served as his encore. Just like during tours past, School’s Out featured fans getting onstage to throw oversized balloons into the crowd to bump around, as well as a snippet of Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2). “This is the part of the show…where Alice actually talks to you!” he called out only minutes before leaving the stage and introducing everybody, including his wife.
His final remarks to Clearwater? “May all your nightmares be horrendous!”
You too, Alice. Your fans aren’t going anywhere. Hopefully, you aren’t, either.
Josh Bradley Live 