Alice Cooper, live at the Whisky A Go-Go

Man, this was a great night. Not only was it my first time shooting Alice Cooper, but the first time I had shot inside the Whisky in like forever...the last time was way back in the mid-90s when I shot my old friends the Humble Gods. On top of that, there were no photo restrictions (rare for any L.A. venue!) and I had clearance to shoot the entire set. Fucking fantastic.


"We're a bar band!" Alice proclaimed this night, and he was absolutely right--this band rocked with a real kick-ass, no bullshit attitude. They played one new song, a real rocker called "Bite Your Face Off" which I liked a lot. There were some guests throughout the evening, such as Robbie Krieger of the Doors (back in the place where the Doors played as the house band), and later Ke$ha, who joined in for "School's Out", which had Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall Part II" in it for good measure.


Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine was also there, but he didn't join Alice onstage. Cheech Marin was there too--in fact, he was peeking over my left shoulder when I was shooting alice fron the Whisky's front staircase up to the upper section. He was definitely rocking out, and for good reason...this band was loud, rude and very heavy. One particularly good example was their cover of the Animals' "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place"--much faster, chuggier and harder than Eric Burdon & company's original version.



Alice was telling a number of funny stories this night, like the one about the last night he played in the Whisky back in 1969...opening for a little band called LED ZEPPELIN. Robbie also had a funny story about when Alice first met Jim Morrison. Apparently Alice was on pins and needles, anxious as hell to meet Jim...who, in one of his many booze-filled foggy days, totally blew off the extremely disheartened Alice. The entire Whisky audience all collectively went "Awwwwwwww!" in response to this tale.


One cool thing was the fact that they opened up covering "The Train Kept A-Rollin'", which as a lifelong student of rock music I heartily respected. Rock on, Alice.