Alice Cooper Live at Community

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REVIEW BY: Ryan Trush

Living in Thunder Bay -- a town with a population of 114,000+ -- we don’t get too many major rock shows in town. As of late, Thunder Bay has been getting bigger name acts such as Nickelback, Tom Jones and Joe Cocker -- each concert sold out. These concerts, however, weren’t geared toward satisfying a diehard rocker like myself. (I was actually tempted to go to these concerts -- prior commitments prevented me.) Rumor had been circulating since July that the great Coop may play town. When I first heard about the tickets going on sale, I waited 4 hours + and scored second row tickets!

Both Cooper shows sold out in hours and a third is scheduled for October!

Plenty of people in the crowd sported Cooper makeup/clothes -- this is a true rock concert and the crowd was more then delighted to see Alice live! The age in the crowd ranged from a 12-50+ -- a good mixture of people with a healthy dose of mullets and scantily clad middle-aged ladies, which was a nice treat!

The concert opened with “Black Ju Ju” intro, opening into “Hello Hooray” intro then onto “Under My Wheels”! Alice and his band were clearly very into the show and feeding off the crowds energy -- everyone stood up and was very into the show, something rarely present in Thunder Bay audiences. Alice’s band consisted of Ryan Roxie, whose previous bands include Electric Angels, Dad’s Porno Mag and Slash’s Snakepit , on guitar. On bass, Chuck Garric, who previously played with LA Guns and Dio, keyboards consisted of Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreas from Guns ‘N Roses and Gilby Clarke’s band, and new drummer Tom Clufetos, who played on Ted Nugent’s Craveman album.

Throughout the concert Alice, threw props into the crowd such as his staff, posters, Alice Cooper $. Numerous costume changes by Alice and his band were very exciting. Halfway through the show, Teddy, Ryan and Tom did a group drum solo, followed by Tom doing his own drum solo -- a pretty neat touch as most drum solos are only done by the drummer alone. Bassist Chuck Garric did the bass intro to KISS’ “God of Thunder.” Being a major KISS, fan I loved this!

While playing “Guttercats VS. The Jets” and “Streetfight,” Alice’s daughter and road crew came out and engaged in a fight scene with Alice and his band. The snake made an appearance during “Sick Things,” which was a pleasant treat! In the 90-minute set, there were fights, straightjackets, a snake and an array of great tunes! As far as anything missing about the concert there was no guillotine, nothing off Brutal Planet was played and no “Welcome To My Nightmare.” I hope Alice adds “Novacaine” into the set list, as I believe this is one of Alice’s most killer tunes in a while -- agree fellow KNAC’ers?

. Cooper set list:

Black Ju Ju (intro)
Hello/Horray
No More Mr. Nice Guy (staff)
Man Of The Year
Billion Dollar Babies (sword/$)
Highschool & Old School
Muscle Of Love
Be My Lover
Who Do You Think We Are
What Do You Want
I’m Eighteen
Desperado
Hallow Of Flies drum solo (group)/ then Tom solo Sick Things
Guttercats Vs The Jets
Streetfight
Backyard Brawl
Cold Ethyl
The Ballad Of Dwight Fry
School’s Out

Encore:
Poison
Under My Wheels
Elected