Alice Cooper – Overture Center Madison WI – 08/10/2023

I think I have written about this before, but I first became aware of Alice Cooper when my half brother Mark played me “Gutter Cats vs The Jets” and “Street Fight” off of the “School’s Out” album. He thought that the sound effects were trippy and it certainly stuck with me.

Then in Junior High my friend Alan was a big fan of “Welcome To My Nightmare” and of course I had heard plenty of Alice’s old stuff on the rock radio out of Detroit. I have a hazy memory of picking up “The Alice Cooper Show” live album from a Ben Franklin (?) which I dug, and then in later years getting “Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits”.

In high school I picked up “Muscle of Love” in its weird cardboard box (genius) and it blew my mind and continues to this day to be my favorite. So many great songs!

In years since, I have heard some of his new stuff and marveled at how this guy just keeps on going and going…

My friend Shawn is an Alice Cooper fan with (now) 19 shows under his belt and has posted videos from recent shows. After checking them out I had to admit that they were totally rocking out. I was impressed. So when I asked him if he was going to see him at The Overture Center in Madison, of course, his answer was yes. Before I knew it I was joining him and his wife and was going to be 2nd row left!

As the day approached I had to admit I was stoked.

No marquee shot, but there was a digital booklet that was sent to ticketholders.

The vibe when you don’t have to get to the venue an hour before doors open to be first in and stake a claim at stage front and wait endlessly is refreshing, and we calmly entered, got a drink and leisurely examined the merch table. T-shirts were $50, ugh, but I’m glad I bought one. Spoiler alert, the show was amazing and if I hadn’t gotten it earlier I would have wanted to stand in the longer lines AFTER the show to get one.

With tour date (always a bonus) with Madison listed

As there are at all shows, there were folks in all sorts of garb, someone was in a suit in front of us, and lots of Alice tour wear was on display. There was someone with a plastic doll and one woman was passing out little flags to wave during “Elected”. Like Alice Cooper fan old home week.

We were ready.

When the show started, immediately everyone was up on their feet and some folks filled in the gap between the front row of seats and the stage. The 2 gals that were on my left moved into the void and so I had room to spread out a bit.

I was in visual overload at first. The backdrop behind the drummer had large screens that were displaying a feed of stage scenes and video and there were 3 guitarist, bass, and Alice in the center.

There was a raised block that ran most of the way across the stage that everyone took turns standing on and shredding. Ryan Roxie was like directly in front of my spot. It was awesome.

Prior to Alice arriving there was a sign lowered that indicated Alice Coper was banned in Wisconsin. Lol. Sadly, it didn’t come down perfectly. Still cool though.

Alice burned through some of my favorites from his early years and I was shredding my voice singing along to “I’m Eighteen” (sorry if I can be heard screeching on your video Shawn !) and I loved it. Everyone changed positions, Alice prowled the front stage block and I immediately knew my ticket had been 100% worth it.

Everyone was moving around and the lights and video screens. It was quite a spectacle as well as great music.

I think the whole night they only played a couple songs I didn’t know, so I was singing along with everyone else. Alice did a great job of playing to the crowd and moving to the sides so everyone got to see him as close as possible.

The show was like a well oiled machine and they moved from hit to hit. It was incredible. The crowd was amped up, but, remarkably respectful. It was the Overture Center after all.

Nina Strauss was all over the place, and she did a lot of photo ops for eager cameras. Her hair flipping was a spectacle in itself. Ryan had a little game where he tossed his pick into the air and caught it and slid into the next cord.

He, and frankly all the guitarists tossed tons of picks out for the crowd. One landed in the void created by the 2 girls who were next to me before the show started but went down front. I got it.

I flipped my camera and got my “here’s me, here’s the band” shot.

At one point Nina and Ryan discovered they could go all the way stage right (?) and get to the low balcony, where they jammed close up style. Those people must have suddenly appreciated the money they spent on the seats.

Then Alice broke out the harmonica for a bit.

I got a Strauss hair flip in the background.

Then it was snake time. I had forgotten about the whole snake thing but it was cool to see. I think I saw Alice on Phil Donoghue a billion years ago and he had his snake with him.

At one point a soft limbed doll (?) was thrown out onto stage and “Cold Ethyl” started up. Alice was tossing her around.

Hair flip!

Then Alice tossed her over the back of the stage. When he started playing “Only Women Bleed” a dancer crawled up from where Alice had thrown the doll. She danced around him as he sang.

They ended sharing a passionate kiss that surprised me, but jokes on me. That dancer is Alice Coopers wife.

With the ballad out of the way the shredding re-commenced with “Feed My Frankenstein” and he made a short appearance onstage. Caught him against Chuck Garric for size comparison.

More shredding… including Tommy Henriksen coming pretty close.

Then it was time for he straight jacket.

I have to say that the lighting for this part of the show was conducive for great pics. I love this one. I cropped out a couple peoples heads, but the light falling on him could not have worked out any better.

“I gotta get out of here. I gotta get out of here. I gotta get out of here.”

Then the stage got a change over and it was time for Alice to die.

I’ve seen this bit before online both in the past and recently, but seeing it live was really cool I have to say. The theatrics, the spectacle. Awesome.

Oh no! Alice. R.I.P.

BUT… he came back to rock the show some more.

Then a final stage change and it was time for “Elected”. Everyone took out the flags that had been handed out and we cheered.

“I wanna ROCK to the rules that I make.”

He came back down to do band introductions and finish with “I’m Eighteen”.

It was an incredible show and I am so glad I went. The guy is still impressive after all these years. It was a real show and I walked away with a huge smile on my face.

The next day I posted a couple pics on Instagram and I was blown away when Alice Cooper’s account commented on my post and thanked Madison and used MY pics and called me out in the official account post!

That was the cherry on the cake of my show experience.