Alice Cooper

[Buckeye Randy]

I really appreciate him still releasing albums. Too many older bands no longer do that. he's been very productive. But I'm also of the feeling that why bother if you're never going to play any of it?
And his recent albums do all have solid tracks.




I definitely agree, but over the last 10 years, he's really diversified his setlist, adding more different songs. His setlist for the previous 10-15 was very stale.

I understand that you have 4 or 5 must plays every night, but he draws too much on those second level classics that remain in the set.

Some retro acts are tribute bands to themselves and others keep pushing the envelope with new material. Some artists like Todd Rundgren aren't above having a themed tour playing a new release in its entirety. Alice is a couple notches below that because you're lucky to get one on the tour following a new release but he is releasing decent material.

My favorite when it comes to playing new material is Mitch Ryder. I saw him a couple years ago at a celebration tour for Ruff Records. There were five bands on the bill with Samantha Fish headlining and Mitch contributed I think three songs. Mitch was led shuffling to the microphone and in a gravelly voice said, "I'm going to play one that will be on my next album". Ha, are you kidding me? I love that! Go Dog Go!

It sounds like I got back on board with Alice at the right time. The first show of my Alice resurgence was in 2005 and there is a good CD/DVD release from that tour, Live at Montreux 2005.

I'll be seeing Nick Lowe this Sunday and I peeked at the setlist, he's doing three from his excellent 2024 release, 'Indoor Safari'. I have tix for Greg Hawkes (The Cars) in October and I doubt I'll hear anything released in the last...35 years.