“Spend The Night With Alice” Tour Rolls Through The Packard Music Hall

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All Photos By Geoff Ketler/Aces High Photography

Very few names appear on the list of innovative rock legends who’s efforts have forever changed the live setting in which we enjoy music. Consider only those that are still touring with an extensive live production package that continues to sell out concert halls and that list shrinks considerably. ALICE COOPER has been dazzling audiences and pushing the boundaries of live entertainment for over a half century now. Let that sink in. With his trademark boa constrictor and guillotine, Alice and Company descended upon the capacity crowd just outside of Youngstown, OH.

The ticket stub read, “8:00pm SHARP”. I can’t recall how many times I have seen Alice in concert, likely in the neighborhood of 6 or 7 times, but what I do remember is his timeliness and notably early starts. Tonight was no exception, give or take a few minutes. I guess you need some shut-eye when you have an early tee-time.

At just a few minutes past 8pm, the banner dropped and the band was showered in sparks as the Vincent Price intro ended and “The Black Widow” kicked in. The three-headed guitar monster of Nita Strauss, Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie shredded all night in perfect unison. Of course there was plenty of stage antics. The boa constrictor made an appearance during “Is It My Body”. The enormous “Frankenstein” Alice showed up during “Feed My Frankenstein”. And it wouldn’t be an ALICE COOPER show without a guillotine, right? At 68-years-young, Alice Cooper has all of the stage demeanor and energy of any (fill in the blank with any emo, punk, 20-something year old). The god-father of shock rock never disappoints.

The massive set flew by as the band kept the pace up. The daunting catalogue of hits came pouring through the sound system one after another. Glen Sobel pulled off a fantastic drum solo. After all, he has the 5th fastest hands on the planet according to The Guinness Book Of World Records. Look it up. Nita Strauss also ripped through a spectacle of a guitar solo. There is no doubt that ALICE COOPER still has a firm grip on the music industry. The sold-out show of crazed Cooper fanatics in Warren, Ohio proves it. After all of these years he is still on top of his game…here’s to many more tours!

Setlist:

• “The Black Widow”
• “Public Animal #9”
• “No More Mr. Nice Guy”
• “Under My Wheels”
• “Is It My Body”
• “Billion Dollar Babies”
• “Long Way To Go”
• “Woman Of Mass Distraction”
• Guitar Solo - Nita Strauss
• “Poison”
• “Halo Of Flies”
• “Feed My Frankenstein”
• “Cold Ethyl”
• “Only Women Bleed”
• “Guilty”
• “Ballad Of Dwight Fry”
• “Killer”
• “I Love The Dead”
• “Pinball Wizard” (THE WHO Cover)
• “Fire” (THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE Cover)
• “Suffragette City”
• “I’m Eighteen”
• “School’s Out”