Shock Rocker Delivers A Stellar Performance At The Paragon Casino

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Review By Jody Hickman

Alice Cooper hasn't played Houston since his Theater of Death tour in 2010. Since then, he's had tours with Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson, but never made it back to Houston. So, when I saw I could take a bus trip to see him at the Paragon Casino in Marksville, Louisiana, I was all over it.

The ballroom had normal theater seating even though the show was general admission. The first six rows were roped off for VIPs and I began the show two rows behind the VIPs. A few songs in, security allowed us to be a rock and roll crowd and I ended up spending most of the show on the barricade.

As for the show, there was no opener. LILLIAN AXE had opened the last three times I saw Alice, so I wasn't completely shocked to see Steve Blaze in attendance. It was his home state after all. I did find it strange that the venue started playing Alice Cooper songs as show time approached like "Vengeance is Mine", "Wicked Young Man", "What Baby Wants" and "Gimme", among others.

The lights went down to the music of "Only Women Bleed" leading into "Steven". The curtain came down and there was a shower of sparks as the band opened with "Hello, Hooray". They kind of scaled back on the theatrics, ripping through four more Cooper classics. Of course during "Billion Dollar Babies", he shook $100 Alice Cooper bills out in the crowd off his fencing sword. Then he was "drinking" out of a gallon sized coffee mug during "Caffeine" and threw out Mardi Gras beads during "Dirty Diamonds". The band, guitarists Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen and Orianthi, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Jonathan Mover sounded great, as did Alice. Other trademark gags - the boa constrictor, the guillotine, the relatively new FrankenAlice, were all there. The new twist for this show, once Alice came back from the dead, he "brought other dead rock stars back from the dead" , actually a tribute to a few dead rockers, by playing covers from THE DOORS, THE BEATLES, JIMI HENDRIX, and THE WHO. The show ended to "School's Out" in a whirlwind of bubbles and confetti. That was my ninth time to see Alice Cooper over the years and he never disappoints.

Setlist:

• "Hello, Hooray"
• "House of Fire"
• "No More Mr. Nice Guy"
• "Under My Wheels"
• "I'll Bite Your Face Off"
• "Billion Dollar Babies"
• "Caffeine"
• "Department of Youth"
• "Hey Stoopid"
• "Dirty Diamonds"
• "Welcome to my Nightmare"
• "Go To Hell"
• "Man Behind the Mask"
• "Feed My Frankenstein"
• "Dwight Fry"
• "Killer/I Love the Dead"
• "Break on Thru"
• "Revolution"
• "Foxy Lady"
• "My Generation"
• "I'm Eighteen"
• "Poison"
• "School's Out"

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