Alice Cooper

My back still hurts from those past few days. Saturday and Sunday were work. Monday was a 4½ hour train to Stockholm to go to the amusement park Gröna Lund. The main show of the day was the Alice Cooper concert in the evening at Gröna Lund, but since entrance to the park is more expensive after 6pm and admission wasn't guaranteed since they closed the entrance gates after the area in front of the stage was full, we decided to get there early. Thus, as a bonus I got a full day at Gröna Lund amusement park! ^_^ Me, Love, his friend Roger and my friend Kajsa went together and of course we rode all the roller coasters (there are four of them), the Funny House, Free Fall and one more. Soft ice is mandatory when going to an amusement park :)

At 6pm we went to the stage to find ourselves a nice spot. We sat down on this spot on the ground, then we took turns going out to buy ourselves some T-shirts, food and drink. At 7pm we could no longer sit down because the place had gotten wuite crowded and finally at 8pm the show started. No support act. I was in heaven. Then he started out with Black Widow. Such a great song! Standing on a podium with an extra six arms that all followed the movements of his own arms (probably attached by nylon threads or something)

All in all he played the classics No More Mr. Nice Guy, Poison, Billion Dollar Babies, I'm Eighteen and School's Out. The whole crowd sang along to all the lyrics of Poison. I wonder how sick he is of that song by now? I loved that in the bridge of School's Out he had added the chorus from Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall. The crowd loved it and sang along with "We don't need no education..." Awesome! I also loved that he played Hey Stoopid. One of my absolute favourites. The only ballad played was Only Women Bleed. And he played one brand new song called I'll Bite Your Face Off, which was actually quite good. I'm looking forward to the next album!

I loved the theatrics of the show. I've seen Lordi twice before and they have quite theatrical shows, but nothing like this. To one of the songs (I don't remember which one) he had a real live snake around his neck and shoulders. To one song i guillotined himself and afterwards the masked hangman walked around the stage holding a doll copy of his head by the hair. The really big part of the theatrics was the song Feed My Frankenstein. Alice put on a lab coat and then there was a big kind of fake machine that seemed to work like a cauldron/oven. In this cauldron/oven they put a doll that looked like a dead person. Then there was an explosion with smoke and next thing we know Alice has disappeared and there's a 4-5 m tall mechanic doll walking out on stage singing the rest of the song.

For the encore he walked out on stage carrying the Swedish flag and singing Elected and one more song that I didn't recognise but it seemed to be quite popular cause half the crowd was singing along. He ended the show saying Happy 4th July :) During all of the show people at the very front had been jumping up and down with an American flag. 

When we got to the tram station there were loads of people and Roger got us on the tram in the opposite direction (only two stations til the final one and then it made a turn to go back the same way) This way we got seats before the whole crowd took over the tram and turned it into something slightly similar to the constant crowd at Yamanote Line in Tokyo, but not quite as bad as the morning rush. 

So to conclude this concert. I thought it was awesome and when I walked away from it I didn't feel like he missed anything. But now that I'm home and I've been going through my Alice Cooper songs I realise that there are some that I feel he could have added... But no harm done. It was amazingly incredibly fantastic (although it felt like my back would break in two from almost constantly standing up for three days in a row) and it felt like my knees and feet never would work properly again. It's hard, he's made so many good songs. But I feel like he could have played He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask), Vengeance is Mine, Perfect and Dirty Dreams. 

On a sidenote, though. Concerts are the only time I wish I had been 5 cm taller. Or that I would've liked a genre of music that didn't attract all the big, tall guys. This time I had a hell (my neck still hurts from me standing on my tip-toes with my head bent as far back as it goes to see over heads). The person in front of me seemed to be making a fuss of taking up as much of my view as possible. (s)He was wearing a bright pink shirt, tight black jeans and pointy loafers. (s)He had long blond wavy hair down the back (I was seriously convinced he was a she before he turned around at one point). And everytime he had made something with his right hand in the air he didn't retract it fully but just let it rest on the top of his head (sometimes even playing with his long long thick hair). For some time I tried to figure out a way to push him out of my way without turning the whole crowd over like a bunch of dominoes, but in the end I gave up. Love helped a little by switching places with me and for some time I could see really well. Then the Pink Shirt's friend who was equally tall went to stand in front of me. Oh well... At least it makes me feel short...

I also somewhat hoped to see Johnny Depp join in and play a guest guitar on some songs. I read that he had been in shows with Alice Cooper in London. This would (if possible) have made this day even better. But no sign of Johnny.