By Andrew Bansal
November 26th 2013, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, Costa Mesa CA: Over the course of a career spanning nearly five decades, shock rock legend Alice Cooper has always carried the reputation of thrilling audiences across the globe with some of the most spellbindingly entertaining shows ever seen. For the past year or so, Alice and his horde of musicians have been on the ‘Raise The Dead’ tour, consisting of a set of his best tunes along with a brand new stage show, one that certainly promised to maintain and enhance his longtime reputation as the unrivaled king of shock rock. The tour is nearing its end as the band did their penultimate show at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts in Costa Mesa, a debut gig at this venue for Alice Cooper. Having conquered just about every legendary stage on the planet, it was about time he stamped his authority at this venue.
Aptly enough, this gig was of the ‘evening with’ format, meaning there would be no opening acts. It makes absolutely perfect sense for a show of Alice Cooper’s nature to take over the stage, the venue and the evening in its entirety, and the presence of an opening act would definitely ruin and color the experience for the paying audience at least to some extent. The doors to this lovely, artsy venue opened at approximately 6:30 PM, the attendees trickled in, anticipating a memorable evening. Formerly known as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstorm Center’s 3000-seater opera hall was where this concert exactly took place, and within an hour after the doors opened, it was packed to capacity. At 7:50, the lights dimmed and faded to black as ‘The Underture’ intro rang loud and clear on the PA, amidst raucous cheers from this upscale yet excitable crowd. The giant curtain engulfing the stage came tumbling down, as Alice Cooper’s band mates appeared for the first time, positioned on the platforms raised either side of the drum kit, with a pyrotechnic shower in front of them. This scene was taking this audience’s collective breath away, as the man himself donned the stage in the foreground. It was a sight to behold. Alice Cooper had arrived in town in grand style.
The 24-song set began with a cover of Judy Collins’ ‘Hello Hooray’, an unconventional choice for an opening live song by Alice Cooper’s standards, but following that, classic Alice Cooper tunes were brought to life one after the other, each presented with theatrics and stage props in a manner only Alice Cooper could successfully pull off, and while Alice and his band did that, all members of this enthusiastic audience were having the time of their lives. Tunes like ‘House Of Fire’, ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ and ‘Under My Wheels’ raised decibels and rocked this place, along with the solitary new tune ‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off’ the single off of the latest album Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Whenever the stage lights went down for the band to take a momentary break to get their act together for the next portion of the show, drummer Glen Sobel’s ‘glow in the dark’ bass drums lit up and provided an additional element to serve the audience in this already theatrical show.
The next segment of the show presented yet more classic tunes such as ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ wherein Alice showered the first few rows of the crowd with his famous dollar bills. Aside from this, there were several souvenirs to be grabbed and taken away as Alice gladly threw away his stage props into the crowd. ‘Caffeine’ and ‘Department Of Youth’ followed, after which came perhaps the best sing-along tune of the night, ‘Hey Stoopid’, as Alice urged fans to raise their voices, to indulge and participate in the show, and they certainly obliged. ‘Dirty Diamonds’ came next and Alice hurled necklaces near and far from the stage, providing more souvenirs for fans. The song led into a jam as Alice left the stage and the spotlight was taken by drummer Glen Sobel and bassist Chuck Garric. Lead guitarist Orianthi along with fellow guitarists Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen joined them on stage as well, and the sheer richness of the combined sound emanating from the efforts of these musicians was mind-blowing.
Nearly not enough credit is given to Alice Cooper’s so-called ‘backing band’ for their role in the show, but last night’s performance made it evidently clear that without them the show would be lifeless. The three-pronged guitar attack gave a multi-dimensional feel to the originally simpler, more stripped-down versions of these tunes, and in many ways this could be described as Alice Cooper Enhanced, with Orianthi deserving a special mention for her incredible performance on lead guitar, nailing down her parts with consummate ease and well assisted by the other two guitarists.
The level of theatrics went up several notches during the next portion of the set, and it turned out to be the most visual part of the show with Alice’s legendary stage props and shock rock antics galore, including the constrictor around his neck during ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’, Alice turning into a giant Frankenstein-esque monster in ‘Feed My Frankenstein’, then returning back to normal and finally being captured and beheaded during ‘Ballad Of Dwight Fry’ and ‘Killer’. This segment proved that when it comes to theatrical classic hard rock bands, no one can match Alice Cooper.
But in stark contrast, the following part of this glorious performance was going to be entirely about the music. Alice’s band played ‘I Love The Dead’, after which, very aptly in conjunction with the title of this tour, he came back to life and paid tribute to four of his deceased musical heroes Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon in that order, with fantastic cover renditions of their tunes ‘Break On Through’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Foxy Lady’ and ‘My Generation’ respectively. Four tombstones displaying their names and dates of birth and death were raised on the stage, as Alice and his band did complete justice to some of the most loved rock music ever written.
Just like with Alice’s own compositions, the three-guitar approach gave these cover tunes a new lease of life, but more than anything, the heavier, meatier renditions of the four songs showcased the influence they’ve had and still continue to have on the hard rock and heavy metal of today’s times, as it was clear that even though the approach and style displayed by modern hard rock/heavy metal musicians results in heavier-sounding music, it all stems from the likes of Hendrix, Beatles, The Doors and The Who, consciously or sub-consciously. For an artist like Alice Cooper to convey this message, despite having such a humungous discography of his own and being hugely influential in his own right, was a genuinely nice and humble touch.
The audience had already been treated to a concert several times worth the ticket price, but there was still a final burst of Alice Cooper’s original tunes ‘I’m Eighteen’, ‘Poison’ and finally ‘School’s Out’ with an interlude of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’. The words ‘School’s Out’ to go with ‘We Don’t Need No Education’ sounded like a match made in rock heaven. Massive blasts of confetti engulfed the hall and giant balloons were flailing about, and precisely at 9:25, the 95-minute show was brought to a truly spectacular end.
In terms of pure musicianship as well as the visual aspect, this Alice Cooper concert was, without doubt, as good as any he has ever done, with his vocals, stage antics and backing band matching up and bettering his past efforts on stage. To witness this perennial godfather of rock continuing to set high standards with his shows even in the year 2013 fills the hearts of true rock fans with unbound joy. Alice Cooper not only raised the dead in his Segerstrom debut, but raised the bar for live musicianship to a level only he can attempt to attain with more such high-class performances in the future.
Set List:
1. Hello Hooray (Judy Collins cover)
2. House of Fire
3. No More Mr. Nice Guy
4. Under My Wheels
5. I’ll Bite Your Face Off
6. Billion Dollar Babies
7. Caffeine
8. Department of Youth
9. Hey Stoopid
10.Dirty Diamonds
11.Welcome to My Nightmare
12.Go to Hell
13.He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)
14.Feed My Frankenstein
15.Ballad of Dwight Fry
16.Killer
17.I Love the Dead
18.Break On Through (The Doors cover)
19.Revolution (The Beatles cover)
20.Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
21.My Generation (The Who cover)
22.I’m Eighteen
23.Poison
Encore:
24.School’s Out/Another Brick in the Wall