Concert Reports
Alice Cooper
07/25/2015, California Mid State Fair, Paso Robles
Legendary rocker Alice Cooper, who’s known as “The Godfather of Shock Rock” for his wildly theatrical shows, brought his world tour to the California Mid State Fair’s Grandstand Arena on July 25th, 2015
All Photos: Ray Soto/ Central Coast Rocks
With a music career that spans five decades, Alice Cooper’s ghoulish stage shows, which feature fake blood, electric chairs, guillotines, hangman’s gallows, snakes and other macabre props, have been credited for influencing such artists as KISS, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Slipknot and Ozzy Osbourne. Alice Cooper was originally a five-member band that formed in Phoenix during the late 1960s, and it featured Vincent Furnier on lead vocals and harmonica. The band broke into the mainstream in 1971 with the hit “I’m Eighteen” off the “Love It to Death” album. In 1972, “School’s Out” climbed the Billboard Albums chart to No. 2, and the band followed with the chart-topping “Billion Dollar Babies” in 1973. Furnier adopted the band’s name as his own and began a solo career with the album “Welcome to My Nightmare” in 1975. He is credited with shaping the look and sound of heavy metal, and he’s regarded as the first artist to introduce horror imagery to rock ‘n’ roll. In 2011, the original five-member band Alice Cooper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. He continues to tour regularly, performing shows worldwide with the dark and horror-themed theatrics that he’s best known for.
With a schedule that includes six months each year on the road, Alice Cooper brings his own brand of rock psycho-drama to fans both old and new, enjoying it as much as the audience does. Known as the architect of shock-rock, Cooper (in both the original Alice Cooper band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where CNN can present real life shocking images.
Cooper was born in Detroit Michigan, and moved to Phoenix with his family. The Alice Cooper band formed while they were all in high school in Phoenix, and was discovered in 1969 by Frank Zappa in Los Angeles, where he signed them to his record label. Their collaboration with young record producer Bob Ezrin led to the break-through third album “Love It to Death” which hit the charts in 1971, followed by “Killer,” “School’s Out,” ”Billion Dollar Babies,” and “Muscle of Love.” Each new album release was accompanied by a bigger and more elaborate touring stage show. 1974 saw the release of a “Greatest Hits” album, and then Cooper, in 1975, released his first solo album, “Welcome to My Nightmare” in 1975, accompanied by the legendary groundbreaking theatrical Welcome to My Nightmare concert tour.
With his influence on rock & roll long since acknowledged, there is little that Alice Cooper hasn’t achieved in his remarkable career, including platinum albums, sold-out tours and any number of honors and career achievement awards.
As he heads back out on the concert trail each year, Cooper insists he’s still motivated to continue touring and recording albums, as well as making time for such side projects as Cooper’stown (his Phoenix-based restaurant/sports bar) and his Nights With Alice Cooper nightly radio show, syndicated domestically and worldwide on over 100 stations.
Today Alice Cooper is widely known for having one of the best live shows in the business, and a lot of that is due to the musicians he brings on the road. Alice always manages to surround himself with a rotating cast of top notch musicians that will literally Bite Your Face Off!
Occasionally when a band member does change, Alice tells them three things: “You’re gonna see the world; You’re gonna get paid, and you’re gonna get stitches!”
Cooper’s band currently consists of Chuck Garric on Bass, Glen Sobel on Drums, and the triple Guitar Attack of Tommy Henriksen, Ryan Roxie and Guitar Goddess Nita Strauss
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