Alice Cooper Rocks The Pearl In Vegas!

Wednesday night, the explosive pioneer of shock-rock Alice Cooper brought his fall Raise the Dead tour to The Pearl Concert Theater inside Palms Casino Resort for a full night of good ol’ rock and roll. After a curtain, which was emblazoned with “welcome to my nightmare,” was removed, the full stage sparked with pyro revealing the band and all the ghoulishness of an Alice Cooper set. Belting out hit after hit including No More Mr. Nice Guy, Under My Wheels, House on Fire and Hello Hooray, Cooper and his band, which once again included guitarist Orianthi, kept the energy going throughout the night to the excitement of fans of all ages.

Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock.  Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. He continues to tour regularly, performing shows worldwide with the dark and horror-themed theatrics that he’s best known for.

Known as the architect of shock-rock, Cooper (in both the original Alice Cooper band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where CNN can present real life shocking images.

Cooper was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Phoenix with his family where the Alice Cooper band was eventually formed while the members were in high school. In 1969 they were discovered by Frank Zappa in Los Angeles where he signed them to his record label. Their break-through third album Love It to Death hit the charts in 1971 followed by Killer, School’s Out, Billion Dollar Babies, and Muscle of Love. Each new album release was accompanied by a bigger and more elaborate touring stage show. 1974 saw the release of a Greatest Hits album, and then Cooper, in 1975, released his first solo album, Welcome To My Nightmare, accompanied by the legendary groundbreaking theatrical Welcome to My Nightmare concert tour. His solo career skyrocketed in the late 1970s with a succession of hit singles, such as “You & Me,” and classic albums including Lace and Whiskey and From the Inside. With the rise of his solo success came the growth of his concert tours, becoming bigger and more elaborate than ever.

In the ’80s, Cooper explored different sounds, highlighted by the new wave-ish album Flush The Fashion, the heavy metal Constrictor, and 1989’s  melodic hard rock album Trash, which featured the massive hit single “Poison” and became his biggest selling album and single worldwide. During this period Cooper also appeared in the horror films Monster Dog and John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. 1999 saw the release of the definitive historical four-CD box set “The Life & Crimes of Alice Cooper,” from Rhino/Warners.

In the new millennium, Cooper has been very productive and busy, writing, recording and releasing the albums Brutal Planet, Dragon Town, The Eyes of Alice Cooper, Dirty Diamonds, Along Came a Spider,  and 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare, plus Old School 1964-1974, a limited edition box set celebrating the original band.

Cooper and the other members of the original band were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2011 and Cooper was also featured in the Tim Burton film “Dark Shadows” in 2012.

With his influence on rock ‘n roll long since acknowledged, there is little that Alice Cooper hasn’t achieved in his remarkable career, including platinum albums, sold-out tours and any number of honors and career achievement awards.  As he heads back out on the concert trail each year, Cooper insists he’s still motivated to continue touring and recording albums, as well as making time for such side projects as Cooper’stown (his Phoenix-based restaurant/sports bar) and his Nights With Alice Cooper nightly radio show, syndicated domestically and worldwide on more than 100 stations.

Photos by Denise Truscello