'The Gruesome Twosome Tour: Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie’Date: 5/22/2010
Location: Artpark Lewiston, NY
Review by: Bucky
“You’re going to Hell!!” was shouted out by a couple of protesters carrying signs which read that God doesn’t approve of Drinking Alcohol, Taking Drugs, Homosexuality, Rock & Roll, Pre- Marital Fornication & at least 10 other things as we were driving down Fourth Street in Lewiston, NY on our way to the last date of the “Gruesome Twosome Tour” featuring Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie. This statement ended up being true as myself & the packed house at Artpark in Lewiston, NY were all taken to Hell by shock rock legend Alice Cooper after the 5th song of his near 80 minute set & remained there through the end of Rob Zombie’s 70 minute set.
A huge curtain covered the stage & on it was Alice Cooper’s ‘Theater of Death’ featuring a painting of a skull with classic Alice Cooper make-up, a noose around its neck, & wearing a top hat. A school bell rang loudly through the amphitheater & the beginning notes to Alice Cooper’s classic 1972 hit “School’s Out” cranked out. The curtain dropped & huge balloons filled with confetti & powder were sent into the crowd. Alice walked out wearing leather pants, a leather jacket, & a black top hat with a skull on the front. The band featuring guitarists Keri Kelli & Damon Johnson, bassist Chuck Garric & drummer Jimmy Delgrasso sounded tight as hell as they rocked their way through a couple more Cooper classics with “No More Mr. Nice Guy” & the smash hit from ’71 “I’m Eighteen”. During “I’m Eighteen” a hooded ghoul roadie handed the Prince of Darkness a crutch made out of bones & Cooper thanked him by knocking him to the floor. The band cranked into “Wicked Young Man from” Cooper’s Brutal Planet album & Cooper walked out from the side of the stage dressed similar to the classic gangster thug, Billy Boy, from the Stanley Kubrick film “A Clockwork Orange”. A hooded ghoul roadie brought out a mic stand & set it at the front of the stage. Alice picked up the mic stand and drove it through the chest of the ghoul & while the ghoul layed onstage in agony Coop gave it a few twists for good measure. A bunch of hooded henchmen came out, grabbed Alice, & put him in a straight jacket which led into 1971’s “Ballad of Dwight Fry”. As the song picked up its tempo during the instrumental segment of the song a guillotine was wheeled out to the front of the stage & Alice was now going to meet his fate. Alice screamed out “I’ve gotta get out of here!!!” a number of times but eventually the blade came down & Alice was executed for the first of four times that night. The T-shirt I bought at the show says “The Theater of Death Tour…They Keep killing him & he keeps coming back!” & that’s exactly what happened.
After the guillotine Alice walked out onstage kind of lethargic & confused as red spotlights covered the stage. Alice reached into a basket underneath the guillotine & pulled out his own bloody head. Alice then realized he was dead & wasn’t in heaven as the band kicked into “Go to Hell”(this was the part of the show I was referring to when I said Cooper took the crowd to hell where we remained for the rest of the night). Sticking with the ‘Alice Cooper Goes to Hell’ album “Guilty” was up next which is a solid rocker. As the song came to an end Tiffany Lowe dressed as a bloodied bride walked onstage & her & Alice walked off together. Alice dragged a lifelike woman doll onstage which was supposed to be his bride & knocked the hell out of her for the next two & a half minutes as the band ripped into a kick ass version of “Cold Ethyl” from Cooper’s 1975 ‘Welcome to my Nightmare’ album. The band launched into one Cooper’s most successful singles “Poison” from 1989’s ‘Trash’ album & as the song was reaching its end, a nurse (Tiffany Lowe) along with a few hooded ghouls walked out onstage carrying a syringe that was about 6 feet long. The ghouls held Alice down while the evil nurse injected Alice with enough “Poison” to kill Alice for the second time of the evening.
The band launched into the title track from Alice’s ‘From the Inside’ album. Alice walked out onstage stumbling with a whiskey bottle in his hand. I noticed that during the part of the song where Alice sings “…Proposed a toast to Jimi’s ghost…” Alice & the band sang “Brian’s ghost” which referred to Alice’s long time personal assistant Brian “Renfield” Nelson who passed away in 2009. While Coop appeared drunk through the tune the nurse was in the background taking notes. As the song ended the nurse guided an intoxicated Alice off the stage & a few moments later she wheeled Alice back onstage in a wheelchair. Alice was dressed as a patient as he sat in the wheelchair & sang “Nurse Rozetta” from the same album. The nurse moved in close to Alice & Alice tried touching her but the nurse slapped his roaming hands away. “Be my Lover” had the nurse beginning to fall for Alice. A white screen was wheeled out on the stage & the nurse stood behind the screen & began to undress. Her silhouette on the screen showed her taking off her stockings. She reached out & handed the stockings to Alice. Cooper put one of the stockings over his head & face & walked behind the screen with the other stocking held tightly in both of his hands. He then began to strangle the nurse which led to “Only Women Bleed”. Coop held the motionless body in his arms while singing the 1975 hit single & as the pace of the song picked up near the end Alice threw the nurse to the ground. He grabbed her wig, nurse’s cap, & nurse’s coat & put them on. As the nurse lye cowering on the stage the hooded ghouls brought out the hangman gallows, dragged Alice over to it, & placed the noose around his neck. Alice then began to sing “I Never Cry” showing his tender side. The nurse crawled over to him & just as it appeared she’d forgiven him she kicked the stool out from underneath him & Alice was now dead for the third time!
The band delivered a wild instrumental jam of “The Black Widow” from the 1975 ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ album & even mixed in a bit of “Steven” from the same album. A stair case with Alice at the top wearing a black widow jacket (with 6 legs sticking out of the sides) was wheeled out to the front of the stage as the band kicked out the heavy “Vengeance is Mine” from his most recent studio album ‘Along Came a Spider’. Alice had the crowd on their feet throwing their fists in the air chanting “Vengeance, Vengeance, Vengeance!” Up next was the title track from Alice’s ‘Dirty Diamonds’ album & the ghouls rolled out a child’s wagon which was loaded with a pile of jewelry & Alice began throwing necklaces out to the crowd. On top of the pile sat a baby doll & drummer Jimmy Degrasso kicked out the familiar intro to “Billion Dollar Babies”. Alice brought out a sword with stacks of currency hanging off the end. He shook the sword over the crowd & they reached for the bills. Alice began fencing onstage & swung his sword around at one point beheading the baby doll. The bass line of 1971’s “Killer” filled the air as Coop sang about his fate. Out came the nurse & the hooded ghouls with “The Chamber of Spikes”. Alice was placed inside this chamber & all that was visible was his head. Huge spikes pierced through his body with a single solid push from the nurse as blood flew out of Cooper’s mouth & out of the side of the chamber. Once again Alice met his demise & once again he returned. This time he came out in glam fashion with a shiny silver suit & top hat. He was waving an American flag while the band went into “Elected”. The final tune of the near 80 minute set was “Under My Wheels” from Alice’s ‘Killer’ album. The band was on fire during this final tune & Cooper introduced each member & Tiffany Lowe.
Rob Zombie & band put on a phenomenal show as well with screens showing clips from various films including Planet of the Apes, Night of the Living Dead, House of 1000 Corpses, & Munster Go Home. I had never seen Rob Zombie in concert was amazed at his stage presence & crowd control. He had the entire crowd singing along through just about every song & there was so much going on onstage between the films, giant creatures wandering onstage, the band, & Rob Zombie himself that I wasn’t sure where to look. The band rocked through about a 70 – 75 minute set covering all of the classics such as “What Lurks on Channel X”, “Scum of the Earth”, “Living Dead Girl”, “More Human than Human”, “House of 1000 Corpses”, “Sick Bubble Gum”, “Werewolf Women of the SS”, “Mars Needs Women”, “Thunder Kiss 1965”, & “Dragula”. During “Thunder Kiss 1965” guitarist John 5 had one hell of an unbelievable guitar solo. While the guitar solo was going on Rob Zombie was running up & down the aisles of the amphitheater causing the crowd to go wild. The final song of the night “Dragula” was classic as on the screens they showed the drag racing scene with Herman Munster from the cult classic movie ‘Munster Go Home’.
Overall the show was phenomenal but I definitely give the edge to the Prince of Darkness who shows no signs of slowing down. Cooper’s band was great as they mixed a modern rock sound while maintaining a 70’s sound & style.
Bucky
‘The Gruesome Twosome Tour: Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie’ 
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