September 29, 2021

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Alice Cooper brought his Detroit Stories Tour to the Youngstown Foundation Ampitheatre on Monday night for an evening of theatrics and classic rock.

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Vincent Furnier, better known as his stage persona Alice Cooper, has been shocking audiences for over fifty years.   Alice still uses many props like an oversized Frankenstein, a creepy inflatable baby, his straightjacket, ghouls that bring out the guillotine, and of course his sword and knife.

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However, the most shocking thing of the evening is how good Alice sounds and his overall stage performance.  His energy level it through the roof, and he still performs and sounds just as good as he did forty years ago.   

 

One of the things that makes Alice shine is his outstanding backing band.   Guitarist, Ryan Roxie (25 years) and bassist Chuck Garrick (18 years) have been with Alice the longest.  Drummer Glen Sobel and guitarist Tommy Henriksen are celebrating 10 years with Cooper and Nita Strauss, an absolute shredder, has been in the band for 8 years.   All of that experience shows as they are extremly tight and play off of each other very well.

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Alice of course played some hits like "Under My Wheels," "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Billion Dollar Babies."  He also included two new songs from his latest album "Go Man Go" and "Social Debris."  But it was the deep cuts like "Steven" and "My Stars" that made the long time fans happy.

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It wouldn't be an Alice Cooper show if he didn't end it "School's Out," that covered the stage, and the audience with confetti.

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Hall of Fame guitarist, Ace Frehley got things started off with about an hour set of mostly Kiss classics.

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Frehley seemed to be in a great mood as he joked with the audience between songs.

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His band also sounded very tight as they plowed through Kiss songs from the Ace era like "Parasite," "Detroit Rock City" and "Shock Me."

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The biggest surprise of his set was when he broke out "Strutter" which he hasn't played on past tours.

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"New York Groove" became "Youngstown Groove" as Ace had the audience sing a long.

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His set ended with two Kiss classics, "Cold Gin" and "Deuce."

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To see two Hall of Fame acts in the same night was money well spent. 

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Photos and review by Greg Drugan

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