Alice Cooper Launches Too Close for Comfort Tour: Set List

A model new stage present allowed Alice Cooper to carry out some new toys, as he sings about in “School’s Out” – and to return to some previous, well-loved tips as properly.

You can see unique pictures and the total set listing from final night time’s present under.

The title of Too Close for Comfort Tour, which Cooper and his band premiered Friday night time on the Soaring Eagle Casino Resort in Mount Pleasant, Mich., references the shock rocker’s first foray into in depth on-stage video manufacturing. Four high-definition panels on the rear of the stage introduced followers nearer than ever to each grimace and sneer, the main points of make-up, the nuances of the costuming, the fleet fingering of guitarists Nita Strauss, Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen.

It was notably efficient throughout “Snakebite,” which, appropriately, marked the return of the snake draped throughout Cooper’s shoulders for the primary time in almost a decade; the boa obtained as many close-ups because the singer, and regarded calm however engaged underneath the highlight. The screens additionally allowed Vincent Price to be seen in addition to heard throughout “Black Widow.”

With its mixture of reside footage and ready movies, usually blended, it was a strikingly contemporary option to expertise the Cooper spectacle, which solely made the fast-paced 95-minute, 22-song present extra intriguing and enveloping.

It was additionally not as tightly scripted as a few of his earlier productions, though the acquainted crime/punishment/redemption arc nonetheless performed out. It was in some ways extra of a rock band sort of live performance, the main focus extra on the music and the taking part in (extremely tight after a pair weeks of rehearsals, with a sound combine to match) than the theatrics – although, as you’d anticipate, there have been nonetheless loads of these.

Cooper’s spouse Sheryl was readily available together with her classically skilled dance abilities because the “Cold Ethyl” Cooper abused, and to function a blue-gowned and powder-wigged Marie Antiodeath, straight out of mid-Nineteenth century, who marched Cooper to the guillotine after “The Ballad of Dwight Fry.” The large monster puppet prowled the stage throughout “Feed My Frankenstein,” and a crew member shot paper payments into the group throughout “Billion Dollar Babies.”

A ferocious “School’s Out” was accompanied by large balloons that bounced across the ballroom, and for the lone encore, “Elected,” Cooper dressed as a horror film Uncle Sam perched atop a tall podium, flanked by American flags and declaring, “Why not me?” – though through the closing bows he cautioned, “Whatever you do, DON’T vote for me.”

The opening night time set listing blended issues up a bit as properly. The present opened with a partial rendering of “Lock Me Up” from Raise Your Fist and Yell, the primary time that music’s been labored into the present, earlier than the band tore into “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Hey Stoopid’s “Snakebite” made its first look since 1991, whereas “Welcome to My Nightmare” returned after an almost six-year absence.

“I’m Eighteen,” “Under My Wheels,” “Be My Lover” and “Poison” have been as bulletproof as ever, whereas the blues-tinged “Fallen In Love” opened with Cooper on harmonica jamming with Strauss and Roxie. “Lost in America,” nonetheless eerily topical almost 30 years after its launch, was given a torrid therapy, whereas deep cuts equivalent to “Bed of Nails” and “Escape” have been as potent as any of the massive hits.

Friday’s present was the beginning of loads of highway work for Cooper this yr, together with dates with the Hollywood Vampires and co-billed with Rob Zombie through the summer time. It was a robust begin, nonetheless, setting a excessive bar for what’s to come back.

Alice Cooper Too Close for Comfort Opening Night Set List
“Lock Me Up” (partial)
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”
“I’m Eighteen”
“Under My Wheels”
“Bed of Nails”
“Billion Dollar Babies”
“Fallen in Love”
“Snakebite”
“Be My Lover”
“Lost in America”
“Hey Stoopid”
“Welcome to My Nightmare”
“Cold Ethyl”
“Only Women Bleed”
“Poison”
“Feed My Frankenstein”
“Black Widow”
“Ballad of Dwight Fry”
“I Love the Dead”
“Escape”
“School’s Out” (together with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick within the Wall, Part 2″)

Encore:
“Elected”