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Events and Reports - Alice Cooper - Live at Skanderborg festival, August 11th 2005
Supporting his fresh release "Dirty Diamonds" Alice Cooper was once again to honor his fans with a tour. This time Denmark's second largest festival got treated to a dose of Rock that I think most will never forget.
10 minutes before showtime I entered the area of the main stages and found it trouble-free to get up-front. While waiting for the master to enter the stage the PA system played songs from "The Eyes of Alice Cooper". The festival crowd wasn't a typical Alice Cooper crowd so I wondered how many knew that it was Alice played on the PA and the fact that Alice still makes solid and splendid records. I got eye contact with a guy wearing Alice Cooper make-up, who sang along - what a relief! I wasn't alone.
Alice Cooper took the stage with Department Of Youth off his best album "Welcome to my Nightmare". After the second chorus the band went directly into the classic riff from No More Mr Nice Guy. Wow! The party was already started and Alice managed to attract people's attention - not only because of the music, but also because of Alice Cooper's charisma on stage.
Cooper stacked a handful of diamond necklaces on his arm as he roadtested the first new song from "Dirty Diamonds" namely the title track.
The band sounded incredibly tight and they were all very present on stage. As the backbone Alice Cooper had the usual suspects from his last tours - superstar drummer Eric Singer and the amazing bassist Chuck Garric.
On Billion Dollar Babies Alice grabbed a sword stuffed with "Alice Cooper Dollars". The dollars were bundled and with elegance Alice Cooper made the front rows wealthy in his dollar bills with an imprint of Alice Cooper's face. Lost in America was up next and it was clear that a lot of the people recognized that song. Only 2 songs were played from the 90's decade. Cooper delivered the song with lots of energy and his usual twinkle in the eye.
Since this was a festival appearance Cooper was only permitted 75 minutes stage time so this was a compressed set. I was moved to tears by this massive start, which proceeded with I'm Eighteen. Cooper has such a strong catalogue and there are only a few artists who can deliver so many hits in the beginning of a show and still leave the best till last.
Since the crowd was all fiery Alice cleverly decided to play another song off the new album. The rocky Woman of Mass Distraction got a good crowd response where upon Alice played another "new" song from his 2001 album "The Eyes of Alice Cooper". Between High School and Old School was a low point in the set even though the song is pretty good. The crowd didn't respond to the song since nobody really knew it. However, Cooper didn't let down his true fans by neglecting his later albums. Well! That being said, Cooper actually left out material from the dark tales "Brutal Planet" and "Dragon Town". "On Cooper's last two albums "The Eyes of Alice cooper" and "Dirty Diamonds" he goes back to his roots and plays the music that he started out with when he was a young Detroit kid. It kind of funny that this shape of Detroit rock has been reinvented and commercialized with Detroit bands like The White Stripes
The set was built up around the remarkable album "Welcome to my Nightmare" from 1975. The title track was the first song that triggered off a medley accompanied by astonishing theatrical stage show that twisted the concept on "Welcome To My Nightmare" since next song was an extract of The Awakening, which ends the original album.
Alice took a well-deserved break and time off to change clothes, while the band played the riff from Black Widow in a prolonged and monster heavy version. Eric Singer got his time in the spotlight performing a drum solo. Alice returned to stage and they kicked into Steven, which is probably the AC song that holds most emotions and atmosphere.
The "Welcome to My Nightmare medley" ended with the beautiful ballad Only Women Bleed. It was a triumphant medley because the plot was kept from the original album but put together in a different order, which made it another "story".
Alice Cooper's daughter Calico played the part of a she-devil, whose mission was to destroy Alice Cooper. During Go To Hell she came on stage to challenge Alice. He succeeded in keeping her away, but her cowl-wearing helpers overpowered Alice.
The audience was silent as Alice got overpowered and almost unnoticed Damon Johnson picked up an acoustic and starts to strum the emotional chords to Ballad Of Dwight Fry. The song definitely is my live favorite because everything comes together. The theatrical element fits the lyrics to perfection when Alice all tied up in a straight jacket complain about "sleeping don't come very easy in a straight white vest".
The guillotine is probably Alice Cooper's most famous trick. During Ballad of Dwight Fry Alice gets decapitated. Calico takes his decapitated head, shows it to the audience and kisses his bloody mouth and spits back blood at the audience.
The human born Vincent Damon Furnier plays the character Alice Cooper, who is a person dominant on stage, self confident and impossible to "get down". Of course you can't kill Alice so he returns to the sound of Feed My Frankenstein and immediately tries to eliminate Calico with his sword.
The first encore was Alice Cooper's mega hit School's Out where big air balloons were thrown to the audience. Alice puffed most of them with his sword and Damon Johnson also got one with his guitar.
People went totally nuts for Poison with everybody jumping up and down. The younger crowd all wanted to get up front to this mega hit that still holds up today. Alice Cooper has an ability to write timeless songs. Ryan Roxie was all laughing and pointing out to everybody in the band to take a look at the crazy crowd.
Surprisingly third encore was from Alice's 78 album "From the Inside". I wish I was Born in Beverly Hills was taken into the new millennium with Calico Cooper playing Paris Hilton. Once again Cooper has a fantastic ability to link present topics to his older material. Paris (Calico) had a horde of photographers following her and loving every minute. Alice made diva moves and sang the song very pretentious. The stage show ends with Paris's little poodle biting her face to blood, while the photographers keep shooting pics. Overall a pretty cool song to include in the set.
The mega classic Under My Wheels ended the set. It was performed with refreshing power from Alice Cooper's skilled band, made of some of the best players in rock. The spotlight hungering Paris Hilton of course wanted to be included in the big ending. She came on stage on crutches and Alice knocked her crutches out leaving her helpless on the floor to an enthusiastic applauding crowd
Just like my first Alice Cooper concert this was a huge experience. Cooper really got it all - fantastic musicians, a strong voice still, amazing song catalogue and one of the best stage shows in the world. Skanderborg festival is always sold out because of the cozy surroundings and therefore 99 percent of the crowd had not bought their ticket because of Cooper. However, a good sized crowd showed up and even Cooper skeptics must have enjoyed themselves witnessing a concert full of energy and an incredibly entertaining stage show.
The stage show is never at expense of the music. The band was fabulous. Ryan Roxie was smiling all the time and so was I. Before this show Roxie was like a ghost player to me. He has played on a couple Cooper records but I have never seen him in his touring band. Roxie also played on Slash's Snakepit "Ain't Life Grand" but when they were on the road to support the album Roxie wasn't in the band. Visually he was quite entertaining looking like a glam rocker with a bandana. He had a cool gimmick where he threw his pick high the air, catched it and played on. Overall he was a blast on stage - several times he signaled to the crowd "C'Mon" waving his hand.
Damon Johnson really impressed me with his guitar playing. He also took turns soloing. Damon Johnson was originally the singer and guitarist of the brilliant Brother Cane and I have always seen him as a singer more than a guitarist, but his playing was flawless.
Eric Singer and Chuck Garric were the solid backbone of the band. This time there was no keyboard player - but Damon Johnson handled keyboard duties on the "Welcome to my Nightmare" songs while the rest was sampled. Even though Singer is a huge name since he plays with Kiss, I was disappointed that he was permitted a drum solo in a 75 minute festival set.
Alice Cooper did a lot of wardrobe changing. He started off in a leather jacket, then got the straight vest on and came back reincarnated in a white suit with blood stains. He ended the show in a Dirty Diamonds t-shirt.
Alice Cooper is the real deal on record, but on stage he is the master. Fantastic concert.
Setlist
Department Of Youth
No More Mr Nice Guy
Dirty Diamonds
Billion Dollar Babies
Lost In America
I'm Eighteen
Woman of Mass Distraction
Between High School and Old School
Welcome To My Nightmare
The Awakening
Black Widow
Drum solo
Steven
Only Women Bleed
Go To Hell
Ballad Of Dwight Fry
Feed My Frankenstein
School's Out
Poison
I Wish I Was Born In Beverly Hills
Under My Wheels
| Click pictures for a bigger version
All pictures taken by Martin Borg | Written by Michael
Tuesday, September 20, 2005 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Nina - RevelationZ (Anonymous) - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 | Wow, sounds like a fantastic concert! I really wish I could have been there! Very nice report, it made me think back at when I enjoyed Alice on stage myself!
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| Comment by Heather (Anonymous) - Thursday, September 22, 2005 | Wow, Wonderful review of the master!! I enjoyed reading this review. and I don't usually read the reviews, I'm usually just after to view the pics of the show. I really enjoyed your review of the Alice Dirty Diamonds show! I hope to see it myself OCt 9 unless my friend is in jail by that time in which case, I'll pull this trigger in my mouth! Just Joking!! But I'll be very depressed and angry at my parents and my friend and the judge and the courthouse and everybody invovled with making me miss him the 8th time.
Again Brillitant review!
Heather
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| Comment by Chris` (Anonymous) - Saturday, October 1, 2005 | Very nice pictures! Im glad they are playing Feed My Franekenstein again. looking foreward to seeing them when they get to london in november
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| Comment by Michelle (Anonymous) - Monday, October 17, 2005 | cool article. Alice and company never disappoint thats for sure!
Great pics, very yummy of Mr. Roxie especially :-)
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| Comment by Фанат из России (Anonymous) - Friday, January 6, 2006 | Обожаю Элиса! Классные фотки, просто заглядение.
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| Comment by Linzi (Anonymous) - Saturday, January 21, 2006 | Amazing stage show, wasn't there, but saw the one in Birmingham, can't wait 'til next time.
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| Comment by Lisa (Anonymous) - Saturday, February 18, 2006 | Great pics and wonderful write-up! I've seen the Coop a variety of times and really enjoyed the Dirty Diamonds tour just as much as his previous shows. In August 2005 my sister and I were able to meet him at the show in NY, got his autographs and pics with him - what a thrill! Great guy - couldn't have been more patient with his fans. If you ever get a chance to get the "Platinum Club meet and greet package, its worth every penny!
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| Comment by johanne (Anonymous) - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 | I love alice cooper he is so cool
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| Comment by Johanne c. (Anonymous) - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 | Alice cooper is so cool.He is so fantastic.I wish I could come to a concert.But I just mean that he made some of the worlds best music.I LOVE ALICE COOPER.
JOHANNE!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Comment by Coopkitten (Anonymous) - Thursday, August 31, 2006 | Great pics - I'll be catching 8 shows in 10 days in Oct and I hope I can get some good pics too.
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