DimK: It was the 8th of October and here the US the celebrations for Halloween have already begun so, getting to watch the 'Halloween Hootenanny Tour' with Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie was definitely a 'treat' and not a 'trick'. METAL TEMPLE could not miss that chance, so, there we were after a two hours drive from Chicago to Bloomington of Illinois, parking the car at a most convenient nears the U.S. Cellular Coliseum that was a hokey stadium. That was a really nice venue able to host 7000 people and to our surprise had very good acoustics, despite the fact that it was a stadium.

DimK: Upon our entrance I realized that the place was half empty (or half full if you prefer) making us wonder the reason why. Maybe it was the small city of Bloomington? Maybe there was no interest in the bands? Hell no, I could not consider a positive answer to the latter question, since that was a 'value for money' concert with two great bands. Wait a minute, did I say two bands? Apparently, I was wrong, since MURDERDOLLS were also included in the billing so, that was another good 'treat'. Right on schedule, the light went out and MURDERDOLLS got one by one on stage with the horror / punk looks and the painted faces. I could not even imagine a more fitting supporting act in terms of the Halloween celebrations and the onstage philosophy of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. The reaction to the opening "The World According To Revenge" of the gathered crowd (that was looking bigger and bigger with time) proved that Wednesday 13 band had some fans around. The band members used face powder on their hair, creating a kind of spooky effect as they entered the stage while headbanging. The band's frontman turned to be a very good one and after a while, he made most of the people in the front rows to join the on stage festivities. Without stopping the Californian band performed "Chapel Of Blood" just before the debut album hit "Slit My Wrist". For reasons I can still do not understand this type of looks with painted faces and almost famine moves seemed to be a 'turn on' for most of the young ladies and that song received a massive reaction from them. Since that was a supporting band I felt pretty much ok even though I could not get into their way of thinking. Anyway, MURDERDOLLS did play well and their setlist reached the climax with "Drug Me To Hell" where Wednesday 13 said that was a song about dying from drugs abuse and of the closing "Motherfucker, I Don't Care" that also featured some sing along by the audience that looked overall satisfied by the band.

MURDERDOLLS setlist:

1. "The World According To Revenge"
2. "Chapel Of Blood"
3. "Slit My Wrist"
4. "Die My Bride"
5. "My Dark Place Alone"
6. "Drug Me To Hell"
7. "Nowhere"
8. "Motherfucker, I Don't Care"

MariaV: The 'Theatre Of Death' banner (having Alice Cooper's head on the middle of it) covered the entire stage and while the crowd was getting bigger and bigger counting about 3000 faces. When the time clocked fifteen minutes before 8, the lofty figure of Alice popped out. Five big red letters were hanging from the ceiling spelling his name 'a-l-i-c-e' and the band members were standing among them. Without question Alice Cooper's 45 years in discography are not enough (!), even for the old school fans, since many people (especially the middle aged) grabbed the chance to catch his 'spider' posture on the road, having Rob Zombie, his faithful companion, on his side. Well, I couldn't understand why Alice Cooper supposed to appear first, having Mr. Zombie as the headliner of the 'Halloween Hootenanny Tour' but that's something that I figured out later and you have to read it below, on DimitrisK's part.

The familiar guitar intro of "School's Out", bringing on mind our puberty and our school days, gave us some spins and a bunch of colorful big balloons surged out above our heads: the Halloween party had just started! The hits were unstoppable and succeeded one after the other: "No More Mr. Nice Guy", "Wicked Young Man" and "Ballad Of Dwight Fry" (this one was my personal favorite of Alice's appearance and almost every time), till "Go To Hell" came up and raised the temperature with the uprising tempo. The all-time classic red strait-jacket putted on Alice by his quadruple dancing staff with his daughter on the lead, but the on stage festivities didn't stop there were: whips, fleurets, baby dolls, billions of Alice's dollars (!) and pearl necklaces and his favorite guillotine were some of the spicy surprises that Mr. Cooper always brings in his show. And of course, his trademark spider-jacket!

Fortunately, the long set list satisfied all the kinds of Alice Cooper's fans (young and old ones), so, no one did complain. From the awkward execution of "Poison" with the enormous syringe pinning him and the sensitive feeling of "Only Women Bleed" when he figured as strangler behind a white cloth, till the aggressive "Dirty Diamonds" and the 'glutton' "Feed My Frankenstein", Alice and his band approved once more time that he holds the scepters of the early hard rock and the absolute example for bands like KISS and co, being the respectful master for all he has offered to the music history. The white make-up with the deterrent black eyes inspired many artists through the years and still does. I think, if you try to number some of the musicians that have the same energy on stage in connection with their continuing career's years and their glamor, you are gonna find… none!

Back to the show: the encore appearance began after a couple of minutes with the all-time classic "Under My Wheels" and everybody from the crowd started to dance into Alice's rhythms. His restless staff gave its best with the acrobatic skills and the synchronicity following Mr. Cooper in every move. One of the billion highlights of that evening was the rebellious "I'm Eighteen" which made a lot of the middle-aged to feel eighteen again and enjoy to the maximum singing every single line. The reprise of "School's Out" rang successfully the bell for the completion of 'Theatre Of Death' show after 80 minutes and the entire band grabbed some Halloween pumpkin-baskets with candies, began to throwing their content into the crowd, wishing us 'Happy Halloween'. That's one scene that I'll never forget; Alice for once again is a guarantee to have fun and I can't wait to catch him on tour again! He might left outside of his setlist songs like the compelling "Steven", "Welcome To My Nightmare" and "Elected" but that night's motto was definitely 'Alice For President'!

Alice Cooper setlist:

1. "School's Out"
2. "No More Mr. Nice Guy"
3. "Wicked Young Man"
4. "Ballad Of Dwight Fry"
5. "Go To Hell"
6. "Cold Ethyl"
7. "Poison"
8. "From The Inside"
9. "Nurse Rozetta"
10. "Be My Lover"
11. "Only Women Bleed"
12. "I Never Cry"
13. "Black Widow Jam"
14. "Vengeance Is Mine"
15. "Dirty Diamonds"
16. "Billion Dollar Babies"
17. "Killer"
18. "I Love The Dead"
19. "Feed My Frankenstein"
20. "Under My Wheels"
21. "I'm Eighteen"
22. "School's Out" (Reprise)

DimK: So, Alice gave a hearty and definitely professional performance without loosing time in long solos or breaks between songs despite his age. And there I was wondering how Rob Zombie and his band could top Alice's show. After all, I did think of a logical explanation about having Rob above Alice in the concert billing. Nevertheless, the stage was quickly prepared and by then, it was looking like it came out from a sci-fi comic; there was a huge robot-like statue standing in the middle of the stage, while the three mic stands had skeletons attached to them. Red smoke started feeling the two sides of the stage while in the back there were two fires burning. The reaction of the crowd was loud and hence, enthusiastic. While there was smoke and blue light on the stage (making the task of taking photos impossible) one by one the band showed up on stage. John 5 with his ' The Crow' makeup drew most of the attention until the aforementioned statue opened its guts up letting Rob behind the skeleton-looking mic stand, kicking off the setlist with "Jesus Frankenstein". With 100% industrial looks mixed with Rob's horror aesthetics, the band looked and sounded totally solid. Ok, it was difficult to see the band's performance but on the other hand that was the best way to open the Halloween oriented set. Without pause the pre-recorded samples brought more groove on-stage with "Superbeast". The front rows were jumping on the industrial tempo, while Rob was moving up and down making the photographers' life miserable. The pre-recorded samples were kind of a turn-off since the addition of a keyboard player would give more life to the show and to the sound.

In front of the onstage monitors and in the back of the stage, there were video screens showing Zombie's artistic perspective with footage from his movies enhancing the visual aspect of the show. And what show that was: huge flames, great light work, and a perfectly tuned band gave the music an extra boost! Don't get me wrong here but I have to admit that in Rob Zombie's albums there is not a lot of diversity and the tracks seem to follow a specific pattern. On the other hand, if you combine this music with all the onstage happening and effects then you have a really great show. Rob was in a great mood and might overdid with the talking, but the crowd seemed ok with this 'jokes'. "Living Dead Girl" was a nice treat watching the pyro show and the video footage on the back while the band in constant motion. Piggy D. and John 5 did their job, provoking the audience with their moves and grimaces. Especially, the latter presented his excellent playing aside the massive guitar sound giving the impressions that there were two axe-men onstage.

"Do you want a WHITE ZOMBIE song?" was the rhetorical question a John 5 slide guitar introduced the addictive groove of "More Human Than The Human" while the video screens were showing something like a manga comic that was pretty cool. The next stop to the "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" was "Sick Bubble-Gum" during which plastic balls were threw to the crowd creating party-like atmosphere while the audience on the back was jumping following the dancing groove of this track. "There is a song that a lot of fans are requesting from us saying that is a great song and I always say NO" said Rob obviously in a top mood concluding "And then I realized that indeed it is a good song, actually it is a great song so, here we go!" The bass guitar tempo welcomed "Pussy Liquor" that is also included in Rob's "House Of 1000 Corpses" splatter movie. Of course, there was footage of that movie proving once again how good the music combined to the visual aspect of the show.

The next WHITE ZOMBIE stop was the ultra groovy "Thunder Kiss '65" that came along with some video excerpts from the old-school comedy "The Addams Family". Somewhere in the middle of the song, John 5 started soloing and Rob showed up in the arena with a spotlight in his hand, walking through the crowd creating total mayhem! There was a red light all around during the guitar solo, while pentagrams filled up the video screen creating such a great atmosphere! The band returned onstage to conclude the track and then hit us with my favorite "Werewolf Women of the SS".I don't know if there are plans to shoot a movie with this title, since in the projected footage we saw Nicholas Cage as Dr Fu Manchu and Udo Kier as a Nazi Commandant among others in a -what seemed to be- a full-time movie about a female werewolf. Since, I know little about movies, I have to say that once again I enjoyed the show that brought the set into the climax with "Dragula" and Rob standing in a devil looking podium right in the middle of the stage during a massive pyro show. Of course, there was not an easy goodbye and the US band returned with pumpkin looking buckets full of treats according to the Halloween tradition and hit us with "House of 1000 Corpses". I really love the atmosphere on this one, especially the Southern sounding guitar and the real evil and twisted feeling that one gets listening to it.

So, Rob Zombie gave us a killer show that met the Halloween traditions and expectations to the maximum. Show-wise Rob earned the headlining position standing above Alice. Of course, music-wise Alice takes the lead but in a live concert with that party feeling the former counts the most. The bottom line is that we had the chance to watch an excellent show from all the perspectives in a really convenient venue with a great Halloween atmosphere, having some fans all dressed-up with horror-like costumes.

Rob Zombie setlist:

1. "Jesus Frankenstein"
2. "Superbeast"
3. "Scum Of The Earth"
4. "Living Dead Girl"
5. "More Human Than Human"
6. "Sick Bubble-Gum"
7. "Demon Speeding"
8. "Mars Needs Women"
9. "Pussy Liquor"
10. "Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)"
11. "Thunder Kiss '65A"
12. "Werewolf Women Of The SS"
13. "Dragula"
14. "House Of 1000 Corpses"

(photos by the werewolf SS)