Concerts: Alice Cooper's Halloween Night Of Fear at Wolverhampton Civic, 10/25/2012 - Sea of Tranquility - The Web Destination for Progressive Music!

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Alice Cooper's Halloween Night Of Fear at Wolverhampton Civic, 10/25/2012

Posted on Saturday, October 27 2012 @ 05:05:33 CDT by Dean Pedley

Touring the UK to celebrate Halloween for the third year in a row, Alice Cooper brought his Night Of Fear to Wolverhampton's Civic Hall in a show that saw support from Duff Mckagen's Loaded and reformed Californian rockers Ugly Kid Joe. SoT Staff writer Dean Pedley reports from the packed out venue with Alice unleashing his 'Raise The Dead' theme that included tributes and tombstones for Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon.

With Velvet Revolver on extended hiatus and seemingly no prospect of a $$$ reformation with He Who Shall Not Be Named, Duff McKagen has made Loaded his number one priority. His punk rock influenced vocals are a good fit for Loaded's gritty blend of edgy rock with plenty of attitude and the riff heavy display of brutal energy and vitality is well received. After several of their own songs across a thirty minutes set a cover of Misfits 'Attitude' segues into GnR 'It's So Easy' to ensure a raucous close. As good as Loaded were they only served as an appetiser to the amazing Ugly Kid Joe who raised the roof with Whitfield Crane climbing the speaker stacks and going on his very own tour of the balcony. Their infectious breed of funky metal had the Wolverhampton audience pumped up right from the opening of 'V.I.P' as Crane and Co move gloriously through 'Neighbor', 'Milkman's Son' and 'I'm Alright', taken from recently released EP Stairway To Hell. Signature hits 'Cat's In The Cradle' and 'Everything About You' are crowd pleasing sing-alongs and the reaction suggests this is proving to be a very successful come-back. Ugly Kid Joe always enjoyed a relatively strong fan base in the UK and they have made it a focus of 2012 with festival slots and support tours and will soon be headlining Hard Rock Hell VI in Wales.

Against a backdrop depicting a spooky abandoned railway station, Alice Cooper launches into 'Hello Hooray' accompanied by his band of three guitarists and a rhythm section, including the dazzling blonde bombshell Orianthi. Still looking for ways to make the stage show even more theatrical Alice goes through several costume changes in an explosive performance that includes mad-scientist smock for 'Feed My Frankenstein', flipping the switch to bring a giant Alice Monster to life. Drawing from his entire career the set includes crowd pleasing renditions of 'No More Mr Nice Guy', 'House of Fire', 'Hey Stoopid' and many more.

Then it is time to 'Raise The Dead' as Alice pays respect to some of his departed peers – covers of 'Break on Through', 'Revolution', My Generation' and 'Foxy Lady', with the latter giving Orianthi the opportunity to shine via her blistering solo. From here on in it is even more fireworks, flash bombs and shock rock camp as Alice roars through 'Under My Wheels', 'I'm Eighteen', 'Poison' and the encore of 'School's Out'. Arguably the greatest rock n roll showman of them all, Alice Cooper remains a spellbinding live attraction.

Set List:-
Hello Hooray
House of Fire
No More Mr. Nice Guy
I'll Bite Your Face Off
Be My Lover
Caffeine
Billion Dollar Babies
The Congregation
Hey Stoopid
Dirty Diamonds (including Drum Solo)
Welcome to My Nightmare
Ballad of Dwight Fry
Go to Hell
He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)
Devil's Food
Brutal Planet
Feed My Frankenstein
Break on Through (To the Other Side)
Revolution
Foxy Lady
My Generation
Under My Wheels
I'm Eighteen
Poison
Encore:
School's Out

Review by Dean Pedley
Pics by Angel Gareth, check out Angel's Rock Show every week at www.brfm.co.uk