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Alice Cooper @ Casino Rama Entertainment Centre (Orillia, ON) on March 2, 2018 [Photos & Show Review]

Every couple of years or so, iconic shock rocker Alice Cooper brings his half-century-sized trunk full of fun to wow his legions of fans at a sold-out Casino Rama Entertainment Centre.

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Every couple of years or so, iconic shock rocker Alice Cooper brings his half-century-sized trunk full of fun to wow his legions of fans at a sold-out Casino Rama Entertainment Centre. This past week, Cooper dropped in for a 90-minute romp through his extensive catalogue of hits, with a few rare gems thrown in to keep us guessing.

As the large Alice Cooper-eyes kabuki curtain dropped and the shower of sparks started, Cooper walked onstage and took his place atop the centre riser in a long black satin cloak. The 5,000 fans, many wearing Cooper’s signature face makeup and wardrobe, lept to their feet as he scowled and sneered the lyrics to “Brutal Planet” into the mic. Cooper’s band can arguably be considered one of the best in the biz with the three guitar assault of Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen and “Hurricane” Nita Strauss, who kept together with the freight train rhythm section of Chuck Garric on bass and Glen Sobel on drums.

Cooper dipped into his mega hits early on with “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Under My Wheels”, along with “Billion Dollar Babies” where he brandished a sword that was loaded with skewered “$100 Alice Cooper Bills” and waved them into the crowd. He also hit two tracks off of his latest release, 2017’s Paranormal, with “Fallen in Love” and “Paranoiac Personality”. It was his first new studio album since 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare and a worthy collection of new Alice Cooper music to add to his bag of tricks.

The props and theatrical elements are always an integral part of an Alice Cooper show. From the macabre bloody masks, mannequins, children’s dolls in various levels of destruction and scary clown images, the creep factor is large and central to his mystique. Whether he’s being electrocuted and transformed into a 10 foot tall “Frankenstein” or restrained in a straitjacket, tormented by “Nurse Rozetta” and loaded into a guillotine, the time-tested show never seems to get old.

Older, less played tunes like the still unfortunately timely “Lost in America” and it’s guns and schools vibe and “Serious” still kill it onstage. With the various costume changes and short breaks that Cooper took, the individual band members got their chance to show us their chops. Nita Strauss is an absolute force onstage, with virtuoso level shredding and bombastic stage moves. Glen Sobel and Chuck Garric had their own spotlight together after “Halo of Flies” with Sobel showing us some next level cymbal and hi-hat work.

Hits “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out” ended the set as large balloons were set out from the stage, and as they came back toward Cooper he would pop them with his sword sending confetti inside showering all over. This was the second show on this latest leg of the 2018 “Paranormal Tour.”

Check out the lyric video for the recent single “Paranormal”.


Alice Cooper’ Setlist:

01. Brutal Planet
02. No More Mr. Nice Guy
03. Under My Wheels
04. Billion Dollar Babies
05. Be My Lover
06. Lost in America
07. Serious
08. Fallen in Love
09. Woman of Mass Distraction
10. Guitar Solo
(Nita Strauss)
11. Poison
12. Halo of Flies
13. Feed My Frankenstein
14. Cold Ethyl
15. Only Women Bleed
16. Paranoiac Personality
17. Ballad of Dwight Fry
18. Killer
(partial)
19. I Love the Dead
(band vocals only)
20. I’m Eighteen
Encore:
21. School’s Out

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