ALICE COOPER, JUDAS PRIEST, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY In Houston, TX

Co-Headline Run Closes Out At The Woodlands Pavilion On October 26th

All photos by larry petro/petrofyed photography

After a seemingly endless summer in Texas a hint of autumn was in the air at the Woodlands Pavilion just north of the Houston metro area where for the second time in as many weeks, H-Town was the site of the final show of a tour. Exactly two weeks ago to the day MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, along with ARMORED SAINT closed out their North American run with a performance at White Oak Music Hall and on this night, the co-headline jaunt featuring Heavy Metal Legends ALICE COOPER and JUDAS PRIEST closed things out in fine fashion.

The support act for the tour was none other than long running sludge/stoner band CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, led by the incomparable frontman/guitarist Pepper Keenan. It’s hard to believe that they also have been around for over 40 years and despite having not released a new album in over a decade they just continue to go out and tour, bringing their brand of classic metal to the masses. The sun was just starting to make its way down to the horizon as they kicked the evening off with “Bottom Feeder (El que come abajo)” from the 1996 album ‘Wiseblood’. The rigors of a long tour were not evident as the band played, guitarist Woody Weatherman smiling and pointing to the crowd while bassist Bobby Landgraf held down the low end, his long white beard gently waving in the light breeze as they rolled through a seven-song set comprised solely of tracks from 3 albums, the aforementioned ‘Wiseblood’, from which they also played “King Of The Rotten”, the 1994 album ‘Deliverance’, with “Albatross”, “Seven Days” and set closer “Clean My Wounds”, which also included a brief snippet of the PRIEST classic “Victim Of Changes”, and America’s Volume Dealer, the release from 2000, playing “Diablo Blvd.” and “Who’s Got The Fire”. I’m not sure who the drummer was though I can tell you it wasn’t Stanton Moore unless he suddenly grew his hair a couple of feet long in a short time. All in all, it was a nice way to get things started for the headliners.

Setlist:

“Bottom Feeder (El que come abajo)”
“King of The Rotten”
“Seven Days”
“Diablo Blvd.”
“Who’s Got The Fire”
“Albatross”
“Clean My Wounds”

Now for some mistaken reason I thought that even though this tour was a co-headline affair that it would be JUDAS PRIEST closing out each night. That was actually not the case. In fact, at the prior night’s show in Austin, TX it was ALICE COOPER who closed and as I watched the set changeover it was apparent that Houston would be no different.

It’s hard to fathom that this band has been going for over 50 years now and having been fortunate enough to cover and photograph the band nearly every time they’ve come through Texas over the past 12-15 years I am still amazed at how good they sound, in particular frontman Rob Halford, who at 74 (?!) years of age can still belt out the classics with seemingly little effort.

This particular tour was called ‘Shield of Pain’ and was really a tour celebrating the 35 year anniversary of probably their heaviest album ever, ‘Painkiller’. And to that end, at 7:40pm sharp, the band took the stage, “All Guns Blazing”, both literally and figuratively. And since the band was not closing the show we got a solid 14 song, no frills, no filler set, just straight ahead heavy metal, with the next song “Hell Patrol”, the second of 5 tracks they would perform from ‘Painkiller’. The metal fury continued with “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”, followed by one of my favorite PRIEST songs, “Freewheel Burning”.

The band was on fire and again, you couldn’t tell that it was the final show of the tour based on their energy that was displayed. As they rolled on with “Breaking The Law” and then “Touch of Evil” and “Night Crawler” I still find it hard to fathom that guitarist Richie Faulkner is just 4 years removed from the aortic dissection he suffered while playing on stage, something that should have killed him while he stood. Yet here he is, still playing with the intensity and fire that he has always had.

We got a nice deep track for the show, that being “Solar Angels” from the 1981 album ‘Point Of Entry’ before going recent with “Gates Of Hell” from last year’s ‘Invisible Shield’ release. Perhaps the greatest moment of the show, aside from the blast of heavy metal, was during the track “Giants In The Sky”. On the large video screen that adorned that back of the stage an image of some of the rock greats that we have lost over the years was shown, including Eddie Van Halen, Ronnie James Dio, Ace Frehley, Lemmy, Freddie Mercury and even Jill Janus of HUNTRESS. the image then switched to one containing just two images of Ozzy Osbourne, one from earlier in his career side by side with a more recent one. What a touching tribute it was.

The band finished their set with the ‘Painkiller’ title track before briefly leaving, only to return to the sound of a motorcycle gearing up and the crowd roared with approval as Halford road his ‘Invisible Shield’ adorned Harley onto the stage, setting up for “Hell Bent For Leather” and then finishing things up with “Living After Midnight”. As the band took their final bows and ‘The Priest Will Be Back’ displayed on the videos screens, you can’t help but wonder how much gas is still left in the tank and even though it’s been teased before about them doing one last album and tour, it’s hard to imagine them hanging it up just yet. At any rate, with so many of our rock heroes passing on lately, as fans we should savor every moment we have left with them and go see them perform.

Setlist:

“All Guns Blazing”
“Hell Patrol”
“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”
“Freewheel Burning”
“Breaking the Law”
“A Touch of Evil”
“Night Crawler”
“Solar Angels”
“Gates of Hell”
The Hellion/Electric Eye”
“Giants in the Sky”
“Painkiller”

Encore:

“Hell Bent for Leather”
“Living After Midnight”

We had a little bit more of a break between bands this time. We the photographers we initially told there would be an hour between sets but PRIEST played for an hour and fifteen so the time between shows was cut down to just 45 minutes.

As the set changed over for ALICE COOPER I tried to remember the last time I saw or photographed him. I knew where it was and who opened (LILLIAN AXE), but not the year. It was only after searching through my Facebook photo albums that I would find out: It was 2009 and looking at the setlist, it was 26 songs long! And at that point in my photography career I was using a digital point and shoot. My how times have changed!

So needless to say I was really looking forward to not only seeing Alice perform, but once again taking photos, this time with a solid Canon 5d Mark IV camera. A few of the cast members have changed since then. Back in 2009 guitarist Keri Kelli (NIGHT RANGER and others) was in the band. Now the ALICE COOPER band consist of a triple axe attack of Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen and the beautiful and extremely photogenic Nita Straus, along with longtime bassist Chuck Garric, who also plays in BEASTO BLANCO, the band fronted by Alice’s daughter Calico. And holding down the drum kit was Glen Sobel.

As the lights dimmed and Alice emerged from a huge, crypt like slab in the center of the stage, they started their performance with the intro to Judy Collins’ “Hello, Hooray” and then launching into “Who Do You Think We Are”, “Spark In The Dark” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy”. Even though we photographers were allowed the first 4 songs instead of the usual 3 (the show I shot in 2009 was also the first 4), the first 3 tracks all seemed to run together quickly and by the time “Nice Guy” finished it felt like we had only been there for 5 minutes, but the band, Roxy and Nita in particular, made sure to pose for the cameras during our short time.

This setlist was a few songs shorter than my previous experience, most likely due to the co-headline status, but we still got a trip down memory lane with inclusions like “House Of Fire”, “I’m Eighteen”, Feed My Frankenstein”, “Hey Stoopid”, “Poison”, “Ballad Of Dwight Frye”, and the 50 year old classic that I remember my mother listening to from the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ album, “Only Women Bleed”.

For those of you not familiar, Alice’s wife Sheryl also plays a part in his highly theatrical show, including being the one ‘killed’ during “Only Women Bleed” and also the one who acts as executioner when Alice gets ‘beheaded’ in the guillotine onstage. Alice’s performances have always been as much about the show as the music and it’s nice to see how his stage show has evolved over the years.

Alice and company closed out their amazing set with the classic “School’s Out”, including a large portion of PINK FLOYD’s “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2” that is inserted into the middle of it.

Overall, it was an amazing night of classic rock and metal and I was so glad to be a part of it!

Setlist:

“Who Do You Think We Are” – Tape
“Hello, Hooray” (Judy Collins cover) (intro only)
“Who Do You Think We Are”
“Spark in the Dark”
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”
“House of Fire”
“I’m Eighteen”
“Muscle of Love”
“Feed My Frankenstein”
“Dirty Diamonds”
“Caught in a Dream”
“Hey Stoopid”
“Dangerous Tonight”
“Poison”
Guitar Solo (Nita Strauss)
“Brutal Planet” (with extended band solos)
“Ballad of Dwight Fry”
“Cold Ethyl”
“Only Women Bleed”
“Second Coming” (band only, followed by “Killer” on tape)
“Going Home” (band only, followed by “Hello, Hooray” snippet)
“School’s Out” (With Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2” snippet and band introductions)
“I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (Harry Carroll song) – Tape