Artist: Alice Cooper
Venue: Fox News Building “Fox and Friends”
Opener: n/a
Date: 8/14/2015
Label: Universal Music
Now while this was a very new event to me as a scribe, it seems as though the fine folks at Fox News have been holding this “All-American Summer Concert Series’ set of shows for a few years now. It’s a part of their “Fox and Friends” broadcast and this fantastic idea is one that lets the bustling streets of our Big Apple metropolis get a little louder nice and early in the morning. Historically I’ve heard of sets being done by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Loverboy and Bret Michaels and when I heard that the great Alice Cooper would be doing one of these shows, I knew that I had to be there. Now the way that this works out is that with the events being free to the general public you need to get yourself in place nice and early to get the best spot to see the show. They also set up some kind of a free BBQ and that is a major attraction especially if you would like a little ribs with your morning coffee and newspaper. I didn’t get to sample any of this but I pretty much draw the line at hot dogs and cold pizza for breakfast if I must have them. Suffice it to say there was a LOT of people already there by the time I arrived and that makes sense since this is Alice Cooper we are talking about. Cooper is currently touring with Motley Crue who is on their “Final Tour” adventures and according to reports his opening set is a fantastic one.
Alice would open up with “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and sadly while I could hear the tune clearly I was out of the way on the side so visuals were compromised while I waited to be able to go over to the concert area. At first I believed the tune to be a sound check but I felt that was not the case once “I’m Eighteen” kicked into gear. I had to say that Alice and company sounded pretty damned good and the rigid corporate offices around us had to be getting a shocking wakeup call from the thundering Metal Rock that was being dished out. Cooper’s band consists of Chuck Garric (Bass), Nita Strauss (Guitar), Ryan Roxie (Guitar), Tommy Henriksen (Guitar) and Glen Sobel (Drums) and I had to say that it was interesting to find him touring with three axe slingers. Hey if it works for Iron Maiden why wouldn’t it work for the guy that preceded so many others. I missed “Under My Wheels” based on the vantage point and getting ready time but was back out just before they kicked into “Poison”. While Cooper waited for the signal that the network was ready someone on the side of the stage brought out a chicken which caused quite a bit of laughter from the crowd and Coop. Don’t worry folks the chicken is fine and didn’t get tossed into the audience like its distant relative so many years ago. For “Poison” the whole audience was singing along and Alice would point to various members of the audience calling them poison and it was just being eaten up.
The band was rocking for sure but I had to say that most of the faces onstage were new to me with the exception of guitarist Nita Strauss. I enjoyed her work with the Iron Maidens (that’s an Iron Maiden tribute act in case you were wondering) and I had attended one of her product clinics a few months ago and wrote it up on the website. It seemed as though each member of the band was offering up solid backing vocals which just increased the appeal of these classic tunes. A quick break found Cooper returning in a top hat and with a samurai sword as a stream of sparklers pyrotechnics went off behind him. This was done during the “School’s Out” tune and depending on your own vintage as a fan was very likely the song that brought you into Coopers clutches. It’s been a favorite of mine for decades now and I was screaming along with everyone for this. Through it all the band members up in the front were throwing out guitar picks and though I had hoped to snag a couple for my own collection it was rather impossible. Oh well.
Another brief breather was taken and joining Alice on the stage was Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Steve Doocy who are both Fox network personalities and they polled the singer about the tour and being on the road and if it gets tricky to know where you are night after night. After some laughs they pulled up the tape that said “New York City” and pasted it across Coopers chest. He sported that and the band jumped into “Elected” and during the song hundreds of fake 100 dollar bills with his face burst out of the balloons that were bouncing over our heads. The way the audience was jumping for these pieces of Cooper Currency you would have thought that they were real bills. Sadly that would be the last song so after some quick bows and waves the band and Alice were gone and heading down to Philadelphia where they will pick up with the Motley Crue tour. After seeing this I said to my friends in attendance that I hoped we would get a full on Alice Cooper tour soon because after opening for Crue for the last bunch of months and Iron Maiden a couple of years ago, most of the cities of the region have never gotten the full on experience. Let’s see if the dark powers that be want that to manifest in the near future. This was a pretty awesome way to enjoy a music legend like Alice Cooper because there were about 1000 people were witnessing this according to the network people and he is the musician that inspired the likes of KISS and Motley Crue along with underground favorites such as Wednesday 13 and perhaps even The Misfits. Each of them now touring for their own throngs of fans using notes scribbled from the masters teachings.
The All-American Summer Concert Series continues next week with an appearance by Night Ranger and you can bet that I will be on point to show that “(You Can Still) Rock In America” – See you then, and remember set that alarm clock for super early and make the coffee stronger.
Full Alice Cooper Photo Gallery: http://piercingmetal.com/alice-cooper-live-photos-fox-friends-8142015/
Set List:
1. No More Mr. Nice Guy
2. I’m Eighteen
3. Under My Wheels
4. Poison
5. School’s Out
6. Elected
Official Website: http://www.alicecooper.com
Official Website: http://www.foxandfriends.com