i went to see alice cooper last night.

[K]

the man is incredible. i've seen him before, but yesterday i was really thinking about the career.

he is well over a hundred years old, and his set list is 100% bangers. he knows what the crowd wants and he delivers. And what is it they want? Songs about having sex with a frankenstein, and a near-centurion claiming to be eighteen years old. Alice is literally closer to 118 than 18, but we still buy it.

Alice Cooper in its original lineup had a greatest hits album... in 1974. the man put out a greatest hits album fifty years ago, and is still going. Thats nuts.

Alice Cooper started as a Beatles parody act called the Earwigs, who would sing beatles songs but rewritten to be about track and field running (This is true), and now, 90 years later he is on stage having his head cut off by his actual real life wife (Who he has been married to for fifty years btw, also amazing)

Alice Cooper spent his spare time in the eighties helping other rock musicians getting off of booze and drugs.

My wife doesn't really know about rock music, and she thought alice cooper was like death metal, and i drag her to an outdoor gig at a fairground yesterday and she listens to the cheesiest arena dad rock imaginable, and she's like, wait, is that grandad crooning about having sex on a bed of nails? Yes sophie, of course he is because he's amazing.

[Lint]

Unrelated, but years ago I saw Jethro Tull live.  I was completely unfamiliar with Jethro Tull.  Only song by them I knew was Aqualung, and I didn't even know it was a Jethro Tull song.  It was just a song I previously heard and I liked.  I was only there because some friends accidentally screwed me over when going to a local music and food festival

Great show, was into it the entire time and had a blast.  Granted, some of that might've been the contact high I got from all the marijuana at the concert

[Benjamin]

I love that this is the band's Wikipedia image.

[Mick]

...Were you worthy? 

[GhostMachine]

I have a short list of musical acts I want to go see. Alice Cooper is #2 on that list, behind Def Leppard. However, I'd probably skip their current tour as their opening act is Journey. Neal Schon is a world class asshole, Jonathan Cain isn't much better, and to me they're a cover band without Gregg Rolie or Steve Perry. Steve Augeri, who replaced Perry, is touring and its being promoted as "Performing the songs made famous by Journey". No, motherfucker, its "Performing the songs made famous by Journey with Steve Perry on vocals, and some songs you did with them that no one cares about."

 

[VerbalPuke]

I love Alice Cooper. I got his Greatest Hits CD in 5th grade. Been a fan for as long as I can remember. 

I last saw him in 2009 and he was so fucking good. Mind you in 09 I was thinking "damn good to see him before he retires", so the fact that he's still doing his thing 15 years later is sweet. Plus, he's a local hero so its always sweet in front of the home town crowd.

Heres some fun trivia. When the band decided to move out west they secured an audition with Frank Zappa. He told them 8 o clock for the audition time. They showed up at 8 am, when Zappa figured they'd show at 8 PM. He was so impressed he signed them immediately. 

My wife and mother in law some him with Ministry and Rob Zombie. My mother in law has seen him pretty much annually since the 70s, she doesn't miss a show.

Which brings me to my next point, Alice Cooper is sorta in that Black Sabbath and Motorhead hierarchy where they seemingly are respected by all rock music types. 

[King Ellis]

 

[METALMAN]

I have never seen Alice Cooper but I have seen an Alice Cooper tribute band many times!

[BuddyAwesome]

Alice is just the best. When I first began doing well in my career, I bought my mom and I tickets to see him in Sam Francisco. It made me feel good as a son, as he was my mom's all time favorite but she never got to see him. This was in 2012. We've seen him I think 8 times now. Once in Reno, we were leaving the hotel/casino early in the morning when he was getting on the elevator as we were getting off. My mom froze and he smiled, got off the elevator and told his friend he'd catch up, then chatted for a few minutes and thanked us for coming to the show. 

Back in September, I got us tickets again while he was opening for Rob Zombie and my mom knew we were going, but I surprised her with meet and greets. He's always been really cool, but that last time I brought a buddy of mine who's a big Zombie fan and he couldn't believe how great Alice still is on stage. 

KISS may he my favorite band, but Alice is right there on the tippy top for me. Glad you got to experience him!

[GhostMachine]

One I'm an Alice Cooper fan besides his music and stage personality, is his reputation with his fans. He's always seemed to be genuinely appreciative. 

(That's also one reason I'm no longer a Madonna fan at all. She's a prima donna who has absolutely no respect for her fans. I'd never go to one of her shows, even if someone gave me a free ticket. Making them wait 2 hours+ at her concerts.....)

[Skummy]

I have never seen Alice Cooper - I really wanted to see the 2017 tour with the original Alice Cooper Band lineup, and can't remember now why I wasn't able to.

I did see Blue Coupe - Joe and Albert Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult with Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper - and they were great fun; played a mix of tracks from both bands, and some slightly ropey originals, but were super down-to-earth when chatting with them afterwards. A friend of mine, who was a teenager when Alice was at his height, showed up with a bag full of first edition records because he couldn't decide which one he wanted to get signed, eventually settling on the pull-out dollar bill poster from Million Dollar Babies.

 

[GhostMachine]

6 hours ago, Skummy said:

I have never seen Alice Cooper - I really wanted to see the 2017 tour with the original Alice Cooper Band lineup, and can't remember now why I wasn't able to.

I did see Blue Coupe - Joe and Albert Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult with Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper - and they were great fun; played a mix of tracks from both bands, and some slightly ropey originals, but were super down-to-earth when chatting with them afterwards. A friend of mine, who was a teenager when Alice was at his height, showed up with a bag full of first edition records because he couldn't decide which one he wanted to get signed, eventually settling on the pull-out dollar bill poster from Million Dollar Babies.

 

Hope you didn't pay too much for your copy, because that's some real deflation there! 

The first Alice I owned was Constrictor on cassette. Still have it around here somewhere. But if I was going to get anything signed, it would be Welcome To My Nightmare, hands down. Not possible, but I'd love to own a still of Alice and Vincent Price from the Nightmare tv special signed by both.