Finally Dresden will see a great rock show again, Alice Cooper is in town.

Doors opened at 7 pm and it was already pretty filled as I arrived there at 7.30 pm. But most of the people still hang around at the bar, so it wasn’t difficult to get a good place not far away from the stage. Thankfully the show should start at 8 pm, after all it is a tuesday evening!

Some minutes before 8 the supporting band hit the stage, it was the Traceelords, a german metal band. What kind of music did they provide? Well imagine a guy looking like rock, one guy looking like metal, one guy looking like punk and another guy looking like nu metal. Mix those styles up and you’ll get their style! They haven’t been bad, but I would’ve preferred the Brides of Destruction anyways that are doing the support at the other gigs.
The guys did a good show, one time they announced their metal opera about dragons and swords that would last for 20 minutes now, wll it ended after 20 seconds! They even devoted one song to the dutch national soccer team, it was called “Fuck Yourself”. (You must know, at the same time Germany was playing versus the Netherlands in the European Championship in soccer.)

They played about 45 minutes, afterwards the stage got busy, after all Alice Cooper will play next and the stage need to be prepared!

Half an hour later the play started! Staring: Alice Cooper!

Dressed in black he started his show with “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, followed by “Man Of The Year” from the album that named the tour: “The Eyes Of Alice Cooper”.
The band provided a solid sound based on two guitars in the classical style, pushed by a great bass and drums. They interacted as if they would play together for many years!

Mr. Cooper played a good mixture of classics like “Million Dollar Baby” or “Schools Out” and newer songs, preferably from his latest album “The Eyes Of Alice Cooper”.
He was in good shape, his voice still strong and alive, not a trace of his age!
His show was very much for the eyes, everything looked like a well initiated play! He had several weapons, several hats and jackets, ballons and faked dollar bills, a streetgang, a vamp, a plastic doll, a snake …

He was murderer (with fake blood of course), he was saver of his crew (at the streetgang attack), he’s been attacked and in danger, he was bound …, but after all he was the hero!

After about an hour there was a dressing break for Mr. Cooper, but no break for the band! What followed was what I call a drum solo! It started with a bass solo with the drums taking it over, the two guitarist changed their axes against a pair of sticks each and joined the drummer in the solo! After a while it was drums only, even guitarists and bassists need a dressing break.

The audience has been great as well, they cheered along, they sang the songs, everything was a hughe party! At the song “What Do You Want From Me” some people raised signes with the word “More” on it.

Well they got more, the show lasted for one hour and 40 minutes, including 28 songs. There was no real break before the encores, just another dressing break. The encores included “Poison” as well, with long passages only sang by the audience.

What I missed was some interaction with the audience, the only words he spoke was “Thank you Dresden” at the end of the “regular” part and as he introduced those “handsome young men on stage”.
Amazing thing: the longer the show run the younger Mr. Cooper became! The longer the show run the more he jumped across the stage!

All in all it was a great evening with a faszinating show, if only the alarm clock wouldn’t have been so pitiless the next morning!
One thing I know for sure: next time Alice Cooper will be in town I will be there!