ALICE COOPER - ORLANDO - 2011

ALICE COOPER IN CONCERT!
"No More MR. Nice Guy" Tour
Hard Rock Live Orlando - December 14th, 2011

Artwork by Java John
Photos by Dylan & Java John Goldacker
My fifth time seeing the "Godfather of Shock-Rock" in concert in 36 years, was no less exciting than the very first ("Welcome to my Nightmare") or any of the others, as a matter of fact, it quite possibly could have been the best of them all!
Something that made the night very special was the fact that I had my son, Dylan with me. At 14 he's only slightly younger than I was the first time I saw Alice (at the Hollywood [FL] Sportatorium, April 18th 1975, with Suzi Quatro opening) . For most of the show Dylan was on his feet singing, rocking, and taking pictures...makes a father proud!
One of the many highlights of the evening was the opening act, a rocking London based five piece band called LIVAN. Great songs, a lot of power, and the lead vocalist, the band's namesake, has an exciting stage presence reminiscent of Freddy Mercury, or even Alice himself. I'm looking forward to an interview with LIVAN after the first of the year.
Alice's band is tighter than ever, especially with the addition of the beautiful, and amazing ORIANTHI on lead guitar! Wow what a talent. Ori is best known for her hit single "According To You", and her work with Michael Jackson for the "This Is It" tour that was never to be (see the DVD for "This Is It").
Orianthi was performing right in front of my son and I (we happened to be in the front row!), and we even gave her an Alice 'troll' doll that I made and he kicked around on stage a short time earlier. She spent the first part of the evening with a scowl and fake blood on her face (no doubt trying to live up to the "Nightmare" mystique!). Eventually she loosened up, slyly sharing her gorgeous smile...and plenty of guitar picks!
The show opened up with VINCENT PRICE'S voice...speaking an intro to "The Black Widow". Followed up by "Brutal Planet", "I'm Eighteen", and "Under My Wheels". Next came everybody's favorite "Billion Dollar Babies", during which Alice flings "Cooper Cash" off his sword into the audience...Dylan and I both managed to get our hands on a few!
Halfway through the show Alice played "I'll Bite Your Face Off", the only track he was to play off his new album "Welcome 2 My nightmare". I really like the CD, though it does not remind me enough of the fist "Nightmare" album. But, I did think a better choice would have been for him to play "What Baby Wants" off the new disc. An awesome song with which he shares vocal duties with Ke$ha on...maybe Orianthi could have sang it on stage. Several songs that surprised me in the set list was the ancient "Halo of Flies", his 'new wave' hit "Clones (we're all)", and "Feed My Frankenstein"...which featured a very kool giant 'frankensteined' version of Alice(?)!
After a Full Set that also included "Cold Ethyl", "Muscle of Love", and "Poison", Alice came back with the double-punch encores of "School's Out", (and another fave of mine) "Elected". The former added the chorus from Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall Pt.2", and the latter with Alice (the all-American boy) clad in red white and blue, waving a huge flag. I'd vote for him. Again!The Setlist:
(Vincent Price Intro) Black Widow
Brutal Planet
I'm Eighteen
Under My Wheels
Billion Dollar Babies
No More Mr Nice Guy
Hey Stoopid
Is It My Body
Halo Of Flies
I'll Bite Your Face Off
Muscle Of Love
Only Women Bleed
Cold Ethyl
Feed My Frankenstein
Clones (We're All)
Poison
Wicked Young Man / Killer - I Love The Dead (excerpt)
School's Out (incorporating 'Another Brick In The Wall pt 2')
Elected

CHECK OUT MY BLOGPOST FROM MY LAST COOPER SHOW IN '09

....."REMEMBER THE COOP"!

visit our friends online-
ALICE COOPER: alicecooper.com/
ORIANTHI: www.orianthi.com/
LIVAN: livan.co.uk/

CHEAP TRICK - HEART - JOURNEY : Live In Concert!!

Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa, Florida
July 30th, 2008














Last Night my wife, son, and brother all loaded up for a road trip to Tampa after winning tickets to one of the hottest tours on the circuit this summer. This was the fifth time I'd seen HEART, and the third time both for JOURNEY and CHEAP TRICK. I've been a longtime fan of Heart, and always enjoyed Cheap Trick, but I've never been a huge Journey fan - but I must say they rocked pretty hard last night, and their new singer, Arnel Pineda was pretty awesome, a dead ringer for Steve Perry (read below).

Info About Arnel Pineda from Wikipedia:

Videos of (Arnel's band) The Zoo performing cover songs by Journey, Survivor, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Air Supply, The Eagles, Kenny Loggins and other popular acts from the 70s, 80s and 90s, began appearing on YouTube.com in February 2007. On June 28, 2007, Neal Schon of Journey contacted Noel Gomez, a longtime fan and friend of Pineda who uploaded many of these videos, to ask for Pineda's contact information. Schon sent an e-mail to Pineda inviting the latter to audition for Journey. Pineda initially dismissed the e-mail as a hoax, but after being persuaded by Gomez, he finally replied to Schon's e-mail. Ten minutes later, Pineda received a phone call from Schon. On August 12, Pineda, along with his manager Bert de Leon, flew to Marin County, just north of San Francisco, for a two-day audition. The star-struck Pineda was welcomed warmly but he described the audition as "nerve-wracking, tense".

On December 5, 2007, Pineda was announced as the lead singer of Journey. CNN Headline News ran the story as part of their "News to Me" segment.

Pineda debuted as the lead singer of Journey on February 21, 2008 at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival held at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater in Viña del Mar, Chile. Videos of the Vina del Mar performance are available at the Festival's home page and on YouTube.

Chilean media acclaimed Pineda's performance (translated to English): "The new vocalist fit very well with the band, his vocal aptitudes shining through, which are very similar to the legendary musician of the band, Steve Perry." Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain described Pineda's performance in a radio interview: "We went to Chile just recently, where we had never played and they went crazy, they absolutely went nuts...Arnel's first show - talk about a stressful thing - we had a televised concert for 25 million people...Is the guy a winner? Yeah, he's a winner. He's a clutch player."

Journey returned to the US for a private Remax Convention event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on March 6, 2008, then performed at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood on March 8, 2008 (this concert was recorded and used, in part, for the Revelation DVD).

After Cheap Trick's set, just after Heart started, I asked my boy if he wanted to roam around and see if we could get some good pictures. As we rounded the left side of the stage a security guard said we should not block the aisle, then motioned to the front of the stage, he said he could let Dylan go to the front/center of the stage to take pictures for a few minutes if he liked - SURE! we said.

We he was done he ran back up to me, gave the guard a high-five and we both said thanks. The guard pulled me aside and said he could come back to shoot a few of Journey later if we liked. Kool!

All in all it was a hot show, and we all had a great time, and my wife loves her favorite band agian!

Below are some the photos our budding young rock photographer took! Enjoy.

Heart playing Zeppelin in '77

Heart - Track 5 - The Rover.mp3

MORE TOUR DATES

08/02/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, NC
08/03/08 Chastain Amphitheatre Atlanta, GA
08/04/08 Chastain Amphitheatre Atlanta, GA
08/06/08 The Amphitheatre @ The Wharf Orange Beach, AL
08/10/08 Walnut Creek Amphitheatre Raleigh, NC
08/12/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Virginia Beach, VA
08/14/08 Nikon at Jones Beach Jones Beach, NY
08/16/08 Toyota Amphitheatre Scranton, PA
08/17/08 Mohegan Sun Casino Uncasville, CT
08/19/08 Comcast Center Mansfield, MA
08/21/08 PNC Bank Arts Center Holmdel, NJ
08/23/08 New York State Fair Syracuse, NY
08/24/08 Saratoga PAC Saratoga, NY
08/26/08 Susquehanna Bank Center Camden, NJ
08/27/08 Nissan Pavilion Washington, DC
08/28/08 HERSHEYPARK Stadium Hershey, PA
08/30/08 Center for the Arts Bethel Woods, NY
09/03/08 Verizon Wireless Arena Manchester, NH
09/05/08 Molson Amphitheatre Toronto, ONT
09/06/08 Blossom Amphitheatre Cleveland, OH
09/07/08 Riverbend Music Center Cincinnati, OH
09/09/08 DTE Energy Music Theatre Detroit, MI
09/10/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Indianapolis, IN
09/12/08 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre Chicago, IL
09/13/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre St. Louis, MO
09/19/08 White River Amphitheatre Seattle, WA
09/21/08 Clark County Amphitheatre Portland, OR
09/24/08 Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord Concord, CA
09/26/08 Sleep Train Pavilion at Sacramento Sacramento, CA
09/27/08 Shoreline Amphitheatre Mountain View, CA
09/30/08 Greek Theatre Los Angeles, CA

JOURNEY

HEART

CHEAP TRICK