I had really bad luck the first two times I attended an Alice Cooper concert.   The first time (here at the Gibson), I dropped and smashed my new phone when I was getting my ticket out of my pocket on the way into the show.  Here’s the picture I managed to squeeze out of my broken phone.

       

The last time I saw Alice, I ate some really weird pizza spicy shrimp pizza next door to the venue before the show.  Food poisoning hit me immediately.   By the time I went to will call for my tickets, I was violently ill.   I repeatedly threw up in front of all the people in line as I retreated to my car to be completely miserable for a while.  Not recovering at all, I didn’t feel well enough to drive home, so I just went back to the venue a while later.  I was able to watch a few songs (including the song “Poison” – the irony) before stumbling to my car and driving home.  That night sucked and I was so sick that I didn’t even realize Johnny Depp was playing with them onstage most of the show , which, after hearing that, made me sick all over again.  He already has so many guitarists, I guess I didn’t notice a fourth.

I figured the third time would be a charm and I had to attend this show, for it may be my last at the Gibson.   Given the horrible upcoming schedule of the Gibson Amphitheatre and the fact it’s closing altogether in early September, I figured this is the show that I will say “farewell” to the Universal Amphitheatre, where I’ve been enjoying shows for roughly 25 years of my normally delightful concert going life.   My first concert here was in the late 80s and I’ve been here hundreds of times since then.  Some were fantastic, some were OK and a few were complete garbage.  To think my last show at what I consider my favorite venue of all time would be 2 dudes named Alice and Marilyn is rather unsettling (ha ha).  This turned out to be the most fun I’ve ever had at the Gibson.  Great sound, great stage set and the band totally rocked. and this easily was the best performance I ever saw by Alice Cooper.   The only “bad luck” I had was losing the lens cap for my camera at the very end of the evening.   I think I’ll live.

              

 

    

ALICE COOPER SET LIST:

The Underture

1. Hello Hooray

2. House of Fire

3. No More Mr. Nice Guy

4. Billion Dollar Babies

5. I’ll Bite Your Face Off

6. Is It My Body

7. Under My Wheels

8. Hey Stoopid

9. Poison

10. Dirty Diamonds

11. Welcome to My Nightmare

12. Go to Hell

13. Feed My Frankenstein

14. Ballad of Dwight Fry

15. Killer

16. I Love the Dead

17. School’s Out

Encore:

1. I’m Eighteen

Alice Cooper – vocals, guitar, harmonica (1963–present)

Chuck Garric – bass guitar, vocals (2002–present)

Ryan Roxie – guitar, vocals (1996–2006, 2012–present)

Tommy Henriksen – guitar, vocals (2011–present)

Orianthi – guitar, vocals (2011–present)

Glen Sobel – drums, percussion (2011–present)

Prior to going to Universal, I didn’t really care if I saw Marilyn Manson play at the show last night.  I own a few of his CDs, but only listened to them a few times about 10 years ago.  Some of his stuff is pretty good, but I’m not big on the shock rock.   And I’m still bitter about the time I was at a taping for That Metal Show when he was the guest.   The A/C in the studio broke and he rambled on for endless time about nothing.  I’ve never felt so drained from just sitting somewhere before.    It was very creepy and hotter than hell.

This was most likely the last show I’ll attend at the Gibson (it closes in September and all the upcoming shows aren’t much to my liking).

We only popped in to watch a few songs and must have seen 30-40 minutes of his set in total (around 8 or 9 songs).  I actually watched the show while sitting down close to the stage in an aisle seat, so I probably missed some stuff (not that it really matters).    From my seat, the show sounded great and was actually a really cool experience.  The lighting and sound were good, his band is fantastic and the place was rocking.  The Eurythmics and Depeche Mode covers were really good.  

I read afterwards about his inappropriate actions earlier on during the show and feel that’s totally disgraceful.   I’m not surprised. 

He’s WAY too over the top and I think he’s absolutely ridiculous.  And, in all honesty, he’s not a very good singer, but, somehow, the songs seem to work on some level.   

As a parent, I don’t know how comfortable I’d be if my kids were fans of his music.   I think I’d be quite concerned.   He’s not a role model by any means (and I think there should be age restrictions on his shows), but I have to admit that the part of the show I caught did rock. His actions are completely absurd, but people seem to like that sort of thing.

 

  

 

MARILYN MANSON SET LIST:

1. The Flower Duet (Lakmé)

2. Angel With the Scabbed Wings

3. Disposable Teens

4. No Reflection

5. The Dope Show

6. Rock Is Dead

7. Great Big White World

8. Personal Jesus

9. mOBSCENE

10. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

11. This Is the New Shit

12. Irresponsible Hate Anthem

13. The Beautiful People

Marilyn Manson -vocals
Twiggy Ramirez – guitar
Spencer Rollins – guitar/ keyboards
Fred Sablan – bass
Jason Sutter – drums

   

I saw Hollywood U2 play last year and already knew they were worthy of being considered “The World’s Greatest Tribute Band”.   U2 formed as a band long before MTV started and have been a solid band for almost 40 years with all original members.   That’s incredible.  

I was a pretty big U2 fan about 25 or 30 years ago.   I had The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree on cassette (and most likely still do, although I no longer own a cassette player).  

They kind of lost me after that period where the became a mega-band, but U2’s hits and quality of music really are undeniably good.  And even if you don’t own any of their albums, it’s pretty hard not to know their most of their big songs.

Hollywood U2 have been playing the music of U2 for over 10 years and manage to recreate the songs in a most marvelous, spot-on type of way. 

 

A large, very enthusiastic crowd gathered well before show time to catch Hollywood U2.  

 

After the crowd filed in, Katie Daryl introduced the band , the curtain went up, and Hollywood U2 treated the capacity crowd to over a dozen U2 favorites.

  

It was kind of ironic that they started the show with “Even Better Than The Real Thing”.    Given the theme of the show, that was pretty amusing.   There are obvious striking similarities between Bono and Joe Hier, the band’s lead singer.  Even from close up, he was very, very convincing.  Early on into the set, his harmonica playing on “”Desire” was also a real bonus. 

The guitarist played all of Bono’s guitar parts very well and the rhythm section matched that of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. quite nicely.  They went to commercial break with “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. 

This concert actually ran almost 20 minutes longer than the previous shows and contained an additional commercial break.  The crowd went absolutely bonkers the entire show.  With all the wild enthusiasm at the venue, the show could have been mistaken for a metal concert. 

Returning from the first break with a rocking version of “Vertigo”.   You can tell a tribute band rules when you are forgetting that you are watching a tribute band.  That happened with this tune.   Then they played Beautiful Day”, “With Or Without You” and included a little audience participation as “Bono” serenaded his significant other up onstage and they played out to the commercial break with a fantastic version of “Pride”.   It reminded me of being in elementary school.

They kicked off the “encore” with “Elevation” and finished strong with “Where The Streets Have No Name”,  as evidenced from the YouTellConcerts video, several people in attendance that admittedly weren’t U2 fans really enjoyed this show and were even going on about it.  That says a lot.   This band is solid and I think a lot of us will be catching them again at their shows this summer.

SET LIST:

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Desire

Until The End of the World

Bullet the Blue Sky

New Year’s Day

One

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Vertigo

Beautiful Day

The Sweetest Thing

With or Without You

Pride

Elevation

All I Want Is You

Where The Streets Have No Name

    

 

The second break concluded with Katie interviewing a few members of Rumours (Lindsay Buckingham and Christine McVie), who are paying tribute to Fleetwood Mac on the show next Monday night to close out the first season of TWGTB (free tickets to the live show in Hollywood on June 10).   

                   

Picture from a previous show with members of Queen Nation, Hollywood U2,  The Ultimate Stones and TWGTB host and producer, Katie Daryl.

EXTRA PICS OF MUSICIANS AND FRIENDS OF PAST PERFORMERS OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST TRIBUTE BANDS

    

TWITTER

HOLLYWOOD U2

KATIE DARYL

AXS TV

AXS TV CONCERTS