A Nightmare at the Whisky

I

t was just something I never thought I'd see. Alice Cooper playing live at the historic Whisky A-Go-Go, more than 42 years since the last time he set foot on this world-famous stage. In fact, the last time the King of Shock Rock played the tiny Hollywood club, he shared the bill with a rather unknown group of talented young men from England who called themselves Led Zeppelin. In any case, Vincent Damon Furnier, better known as Alice Cooper, found his way back to the Sunset Strip on this mid-September night to celebrate the release of his latest and 26th studio album Welcome 2 My Nightmare.

And what a celebration it was. In a more than 90-minute set to a sold-out capacity crowd, this somewhat scaled down and subdued version of the usual Alice Cooper larger-than-life (yet frightening-to-death) extravaganza still thrilled the more than 800 people who were lucky enough to end up with tickets, many of whom lined up hours before the doors opened in order to get a good position to witness this little bit of history.

Local rock radio station KLOS Program Director Bob Buchmann kicked things off by introducing onto the stage the notorious KLOS DJ Jim Ladd, who then presented the station’s grand prize winner of an Alice Cooper guitar giveaway. The lucky winner would later find herself backstage as No More
Mr. Nice Guy himself signed her
new guitar.

A few minutes later, musician and fellow master of metal theater Rob Zombie appeared on stage, spoke a few words of praise about his friend and idol (Zombie credits his first experience in metal music as being the first time he saw Alice Cooper on a late-night television show), and then introduced Cooper to the enthusiastic audience.

The 63-year-old rocker then took the stage and took on the night! In addition to selections from his new album, Cooper played many of his most famous hits (including a great version of Cooper’s "I'm Eighteen", of which Alice humorously noted would soon need to be re-named "I’m Eighty”). Cooper also chose to play a variety of what appears to be some of his own favorite songs, including a surprisingly brilliant cover of a portion of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2", tucking its non-conformist message neatly inside of Cooper's own anti-scholastic anthem "School's Out". And for two flawless cover tunes from The Doors, original Doors member Robby Krieger himself strapped on his guitar to join the band on stage to play "Break On Through" and "Back Door Man" - with Alice singing the old Morrison lyrics as if they were originally written for him to sing. Also joining the antics, oddly, was Electro-pop rapper Ke$ha, who, by the looks of her on-stage make-up, appears to have taken a few cues from the veteran performer. Oh, and in case there just wasn't enough shock with your rock, at one point, Cooper's old friend – a rather frightening 8-foot-plus python – made an appearance that was, well, nothing short of skin-crawling (although I found out later this wasn't Cooper's actual python; she was a rental as Alice's snake is, for whatever reason, in Australia at this time). And his band, which includes original
1970s Alice Cooper band guitarist Steve Hunter, the talented young female guitarist Orianthi (who was about to join Michael Jackson’s world tour before his untimely passing), guitarist Tommy Henriksen, bassist Chuck Garric, and drummer Glen Sobel, really drove out a set that won't soon be forgotten, including the musical highlight of the night for me – an energetic version of Cooper’s own “Billion Dollar Babies”.

And if the show on stage wasn't enough, the party in the VIP lounge upstairs was a show in itself. In addition to the aforementioned Zombie, in attendance were Kiss's Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer, rock drummer Mick Fleetwood, the legendary comedian Cheech Marin, and world-class guitarist and political activist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. And although I was disappointed that none of these guys picked up their instruments to join Cooper on stage, it was endearing to see them all so enthralled by Alice's performance (yeah, it was priceless watching Tom Morello pump his fist as he sang every word to every single song)!

And Cooper's own daughter Calico, who normally joins her father on stage as an integral part of his touring rock theater, also watched the show from the balcony, grinning happily in support of her dear old dad.

All in all, there is no doubt this was truly a night to remember. Let's just hope it doesn't take another 42 years to get Alice Cooper to come back to the Whisky again.