Hell, yeah, I finally made it to an Alice Cooper show. I was pretty excited when I went to the Rudolf-Weber-Arena in Oberhausen, and please let me report that I didn't get disappointed with him and his band in any way.

Before Alice, another metal legend, namely Doro did a fantastic show in the Arena. Doro had a great mood, played a lot with the audience, and offered them a cool overview of her over 40-year-lasting career. Most of the songs were varying Doro pieces but the gig also was peppered with a lot of classics by her former band Warlock. What I really liked about the show was that she always appeared humble and down-to-earth and even if I didn't follow Doro's music, there were some songs that I also liked very much. But let's forget about me, the audience was going nuts, especially with 'Für Immer' and 'All We Are'. A lot of lighters were lit and (of course the inevitable cell phones, too).

Setlist: I Rule The Ruins (Warlock) / Burning Witches (Warlock) / Fight For Rock (Warlock) / Time For Justice / Raise Your Fist In The Air / Für Immer (Warlock) / Hellbound (Warlock) / Children Of The Dawn / Fire In The Sky / All We Are (Warlock) / Living After Midnight (Judas Priest cover)

Welcome to the show! Well, Alice didn't start with that great song from his last album but it was track #2. With him, his new band (which I guess was a great decision to form instead of using guest musicians all the time) entered the stage and did a musical firework. Every second, you could see how much the guys and Nita Strauss enjoyed being on stage and playing their songs. Mr. Cooper himself was full of energy and so he did a great performance as well. Talking not a single word to the audience, he did his usual horror show, I guess if have attended some shows already, there isn't anything new to see but it was an immense pleasure to see such a legend live. The light show and stuff were also very cool to see and although there might have been a couple of songs that he might have spared and put some other into the setlist (I missed more from 'My Last Temptation' and also was very surprised that he only did the aforementioned song from Road. But, well, he has so many great tracks up his sleeve that it is hard to make it right for everybody. In the end, he did a cool cover version of 'Another Brick On The Wall' which he combined with the evergreen 'School's Out'. This one turned out great and for that song, Doro also entered the stage. And finally, he spoke to the audience. This was a truly fantastic evening with great shows and great music and I hope that Alice will not retire too soon.

Setlist: Lock Me Up /Welcome To The Show / No More Mr. Nice Guy / I'm Eighteen / Under My Wheels / Bed Of Nails / Billion Dollar Babies Be My Lover /Lost In America / He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask) / Hey Stoopid / Drum Solo / Welcome To My Nightmare / Cold Ethyl / Go To Hell / Poison / Feed My Frankenstein / "The Black Widow" segment from My Nightmare / Guitar Solo Nita Strauss / Black Widow Jam /Ballad Of Dwight Fry / Killer / I Love The Dead / Elected / Schools Out 

The photos of Alice Cooper and the band are kindly provided by Tatjana Krupka of Darkstars.de. Thank you very much!