Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Concert date: June 12, 2016
Attendance: 4,000
Ticket price: €59.00 (fan pit) / €44.00 (floor) / €39.00 (stands)
On the very day the deadliest mass shooting in US history echoed around the world, the godfather of shock rock Alice Cooper paid a visit to Ljubljana’s Hala Tivoli, ending a long drought of rock events worth mentioning in that venue. The legendary master of shock and horror surrounded himself with an impressive backing band, and the loudest applause from the Tivoli crowd went to the excellent guitarist Nita Strauss, whose good looks also drew plenty of glances from the male half of the audience. The fiery blonde, who spends most of her musical career playing with the all-female band The Iron Maidens, performing Iron Maiden covers, is without a doubt one of the best guitarists currently walking the face of the planet, and she handles vocal harmonies nicely too. Nita also has some pretty fancy musical roots, as she’s a distant descendant of the famous Austrian composer Johann Strauss the Younger.
In Alice’s band, you also have to single out the superb drummer Glen Sobel, who shone in his solo spot too, as well as bassist and backing vocalist Chuck Garric. The other two guitarists, Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen, who handled their instrumental duties decently and are respected session players, got thoroughly upstaged by Strauss and her virtuoso playing more than once. The setlist was, as expected, made up of Alice’s beloved classics, especially those from the seventies. His solo debut »Welcome to My Nightmare« (1975) was more than decently represented, with the opener »The Black Widow« coming from it, as Alice marched onto the stage wrapped in a black cloak. He soon shed it and showed up in a top hat and suit, looking like a cross between a circus ringmaster and an undertaker. The dandy cane, as expected, soon went flying into the crowd. Among the (supporting) stage characters that evening we also spotted a dwarf and freaks in gas masks.
The stage design was, as befits an innovator and icon in the field, top-notch the whole way through. Alice, who changed outfits quite often, carried (fake) dollar bills on his sword during the golden standard »Billion Dollar Babies«, from the early days of his career when he was still part of a band called Alice Cooper, and shook them out over the crowd. The early classics didn’t go missing either, with »No More Mr. Nice Guy«, »Cold Ethyl«, »Ballad of Dwight Fry« and Alice’s finest ballad, »Only Women Bleed«. The first high point of the night was the mega hit »Poison«, where the excellent backing vocal harmonies once again deserved endless praise. With them, Alice Cooper, or Vincent Furnier, as his real name goes, which doesn’t sound anywhere near as mystical, did a pretty good job covering his somewhat fading voice, which still has that distinctive style all its own.
After »Poison« came perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, the avant-garde rock track »Halo of Flies« from the album »Killer« (1971), whose title track they played later on. It’s one of the few creations of Alice’s career that could loosely be labeled progressive rock. The second big high point, especially in terms of stage design and all-round fun, was the brilliant rendition of the horror evergreen »Feed My Frankenstein«, during which Alice was strapped to an electric platform. After sparks flew all around and a huge cloud of smoke billowed up, a giant, monstrous figure suddenly stomped onto the stage in the form of a grotesquely enlarged and disfigured Alice Cooper, and ‘rocked out’ the rest of the aforementioned classic. Next to the gigantic Alice, Eddie from Iron Maiden looks like a little kid. Some who had been to Alice’s shows before did grumble that there are usually more horror bits like this than what he showed in Tivoli that night.
Still, the stage masquerade peaked with the song »Guilty«, where Alice, in a straitjacket, succumbed to the injections of a sadistic nurse who looked a bit like a goth version of the Joker’s crazy clown girl Harley Quinn from Batman. For the »Guilty« finale, masked weirdos brought a guillotine onto the stage and chopped Alice’s head off, while one of the creeps held his head high in the air. Of course, it was just a clever illusion, and the real Alice was doing just fine. To the disappointment of some, this time he didn’t have a chat with his severed head. In the last stretch of the show, Alice surprised us with four covers in honor of departed rock legends. First he remembered the unforgettable drummer Keith Moon, to whom a very fitting version of The Who classic »Pinball Wizzard« was dedicated. Then, somewhat predictably, he honored the memory of Jimi Hendrix with a cover of the beloved classic »Fire«, and plenty of people figured Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin would be next in line, which would have been very predictable and cliché. Luckily, Alice had other plans.
Quite unexpectedly, he also bowed to two cult musicians who said their goodbyes not so long ago. Out of all of David Bowie’s popular songs, Alice and the gang picked the not-so-famous »Suffragette City«, which came off really well, while Lemmy was remembered with the expected Motorhead ultimate standard »Ace of Spades«. It was sung admirably by bassist Garrick, who, not just in his vocal tone but also with his sideburns and outfit, looked a little like a young Lemmy from afar. Some probably grumbled that Alice played as many as four covers in a set just an hour and a half long, but all four covers turned out to be really enjoyable. An Alice Cooper show wouldn’t have been complete without him and the gang playing his best-known and best-loved rebel anthem at the end, namely »School’s Out«. The Tivoli hall then erupted with its loudest roar, while Alice started tossing huge balloons of various colors toward the crowd, popping them every so often when they got too close to the stage and showering everyone in colorful confetti. Inside »School’s Out«, Alice also deftly worked in the main motif of the Pink Floyd evergreen »Another Brick in The Wall – Part 2«, firing up the rebellious atmosphere that took over the hall even more.
For the encore, Alice and the gang played the beloved »Billion Dollar Babies« classic »Elected«, during which, dressed as Uncle Sam with a dandy cane, he poked fun in an entertaining way at the current American presidential election, as two costumed actors appeared on stage playing the best-known Slovenian son-in-law and racist demagogue, Donald Trump, and currently the most unlikable ‘woman’ in the world and war criminal, Hilary Clinton. The two grotesque figures, who still looked better than the originals, started physically going at each other, so Alice had to chase them off the stage pretty quickly. Mr. Cooper may be a ‘born-again Christian’, but his heart stays in the right place when it comes to political (in)correctness. At the end of the show, Alice’s crew also wowed us with a short fireworks display.
The show by the shock rock veteran at Hala Tivoli was a hugely entertaining experience that delighted plenty of Slovenian classic rock fans, young and old. With his crew behind him, the old rock tomcat threw an unforgettable rock party and reminded a lot of people of the good old days, when rock was still fun to listen to and not the exhausting ordeal it all too often is these days. Sadly, there were far too few people in the hall to claim the show was a success financially too. Still, full credit to the selfless organizers for making Alice Cooper’s show happen at all, at a time when the (live) rock scene on our turf is dying in agony, while concerts by Jasmin Stavros and Jelena Rozga break attendance records. It’s very sad when a legend of Alice Cooper’s caliber fills only half of Hala Tivoli while turbo folk ‘stars’ sell out our biggest halls without breaking a sweat, but we’re used to that by now. As for Alice, who will turn seventy in two years and has weathered plenty of ups and downs since his humble beginnings, when the unforgettable Frank Zappa discovered him and his band in the late sixties, hats off: he still brims with youthful energy on stage, wows with fun stage design and, most importantly, still plays quality rock music. That’s also why we’ll easily forgive him for playing only an hour and a half in Hala Tivoli instead of the expected two hours, which is the only complaint about an otherwise hugely entertaining and memorable show.
Setlist
1. Black Widow
2. No More Mr. Nice Guy
3. Under My Wheels
4. Public Animal #9
5. Billion Dollar Babies
6. Long Way To Go
7. Woman of Mass Distraction
8. Posion
9. Halo of Flies
10. Feed My Frankenstein
11. Cold Ethyl
12. Only Women Bleed
13. Guilty
14. Ballad of Dwight Fry
15. Killer / Love Dead
16. Pinball Wizzard (The Who)
17. Fire (Jimi Hendrix)
18. Suffragette City (David Bowie)
19. Ace of Spades (Mötorhead)
20. 18
21. School’s Out
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22. Elected
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