Alice Songs That Went Over Well Live but Are Rarely Played

[cooperrocks]

Whenever Alice is off tour, it is always a good time for the random question. I was thinking about songs that Alice played perhaps only on one tour or hasn't played in years that always got good crowd responses. Are there any songs that the crowd reacted to positively (not necessarily your own preference but the crowd as a whole), that Alice simply doesn't do very often?

To me there are a couple that stand out. Hello Hooray always got a good crowd reaction and is an excellent Alice opener. It is not one of my favorite Alice songs ever, but I am not sure there has ever been a stronger opener for a show. Alice opened with Hello Hooray for several tours and then from 2000 beyond, it has disappeared. I have always been surprised that one has never returned. Just a sidebar but I personally wouldn't mind Sideshow making a return as an opener as well and I like the new opener with "Lock Me Up" but wish the entire song would be played.

The other song that stands up to me is "Fantasy Man." I saw a couple of shows on the Dragontown tour and the crowd always reacted strongly to singing back the "Hey, Hey" part. There was good energy in the crowd even if some fans didn't know the song.

[wind_up_toy]

Hello Hooray featured as an opener on both the Bare Bones / The Eyes Of Alice Cooper (2003 to 2004) and Raise The Dead (2012 to 2015) tours.

The rare live tracks I really liked were Wind Up Toy, Gutter Cat vs. The Jets (with the street fight) and Dragontown.

[cooperrocks]

Hello Hooray featured as an opener on both the Bare Bones / The Eyes Of Alice Cooper (2003 to 2004) and Raise The Dead (2012 to 2015) tours.

The rare live tracks I really liked were Wind Up Toy, Gutter Cat vs. The Jets (with the street fight) and Dragontown.

Good grief you are right. The sad thing is I saw both those tours and forgot Hello Hooray was the opener. I want to say the show I saw on the Raise the Dead Tour had Black Widow as the opener but I could be wrong. I have reached the age where everything is running together lol.

Wind-Up Toy is a good pick, one of my favorite Alice songs ever and I am very surprised Gutter Cat hasn't made it back into any other sets. Those would be some easily theatrics that could still be done.

[Saint&Sinner]

Wind up toy is an absolute beast of a song and sounded superb live on the CD - never heard this in person sadly.
Nothings free and cleansed by fire also absolutely rip, luckily i have heard these in person and they are fantastic especially nothings free.
Dragontown is great shout to.

Id go for another cheeky number in I'm Your Gun - i know some hate this song and while lyrically it .....is what it is......man does it rock ridiculously hard

[wind_up_toy]

Good grief you are right. The sad thing is I saw both those tours and forgot Hello Hooray was the opener. I want to say the show I saw on the Raise the Dead Tour had Black Widow as the opener but I could be wrong.

Yup, Hello Hooray went on to be replaced by The Black Widow at a later date.

A good recording of it can be found on the Live At Wacken performance...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE8e9Znj1_8

[dadascot]

Model citizen was superb live as was grim facts. The last temptation tour is the only one I have missed so I would love to hear sideshow. Would also love to hear public animal no. 9 again.

[cooperrocks]

Model citizen was superb live as was grim facts. The last temptation tour is the only one I have missed so I would love to hear sideshow. Would also love to hear public animal no. 9 again.

You know it's funny. When Alice played Public Animal No.9 and Long Way to Go back in 2016, I was very surprised by how little reaction those songs got from the crowd at the show I attended. Same thing with Grim Facts, a few years ago. I though Grim Facts sounded dynamite but I could count on one hand how many people were singing along. Anytime Alice does something off of the early 80s albums I always love that. There is so much great material on those albums. I have said this before but it bares repeating. I have always had respect of how Iron Maiden does some of their tours. They will tell you up front, hey we are going to be playing several new songs this tour or we are going to cover this album or we are going to do a lot of deep cuts, etc. And they will tell you if it isn't your thing then stay home but that's what they are doing. I wish more artists would do that.

With Alice, I have always contended that yes you have to play Eighteen, School's Out and Poison. Those were massive hits and you probably always need to do something off of Welcome To My Nightmare but otherwise I think you could get more creative with the playlist. I have the upmost respect for Alice and management (Shep and Bob Ezrin have a lot of control over setlists) but I think when they contend there's 15 songs you have to play that isn't exactly true.

[jacknifejohnny]

Model citizen was superb live as was grim facts. The last temptation tour is the only one I have missed so I would love to hear sideshow. Would also love to hear public animal no. 9 again.

You know it's funny. When Alice played Public Animal No.9 and Long Way to Go back in 2016, I was very surprised by how little reaction those songs got from the crowd at the show I attended. Same thing with Grim Facts, a few years ago. I though Grim Facts sounded dynamite but I could count on one hand how many people were singing along. Anytime Alice does something off of the early 80s albums I always love that. There is so much great material on those albums. I have said this before but it bares repeating. I have always had respect of how Iron Maiden does some of their tours. They will tell you up front, hey we are going to be playing several new songs this tour or we are going to cover this album or we are going to do a lot of deep cuts, etc. And they will tell you if it isn't your thing then stay home but that's what they are doing. I wish more artists would do that.

With Alice, I have always contended that yes you have to play Eighteen, School's Out and Poison. Those were massive hits and you probably always need to do something off of Welcome To My Nightmare but otherwise I think you could get more creative with the playlist. I have the upmost respect for Alice and management (Shep and Bob Ezrin have a lot of control over setlists) but I think when they contend there's 15 songs you have to play that isn't exactly true.

I agree with all of this 100% Cooperrocks

[Miller]

Model citizen was superb live as was grim facts. The last temptation tour is the only one I have missed so I would love to hear sideshow. Would also love to hear public animal no. 9 again.

You know it's funny. When Alice played Public Animal No.9 and Long Way to Go back in 2016, I was very surprised by how little reaction those songs got from the crowd at the show I attended. Same thing with Grim Facts, a few years ago. I though Grim Facts sounded dynamite but I could count on one hand how many people were singing along. Anytime Alice does something off of the early 80s albums I always love that. There is so much great material on those albums. I have said this before but it bares repeating. I have always had respect of how Iron Maiden does some of their tours. They will tell you up front, hey we are going to be playing several new songs this tour or we are going to cover this album or we are going to do a lot of deep cuts, etc. And they will tell you if it isn't your thing then stay home but that's what they are doing. I wish more artists would do that.

With Alice, I have always contended that yes you have to play Eighteen, School's Out and Poison. Those were massive hits and you probably always need to do something off of Welcome To My Nightmare but otherwise I think you could get more creative with the playlist. I have the upmost respect for Alice and management (Shep and Bob Ezrin have a lot of control over setlists) but I think when they contend there's 15 songs you have to play that isn't exactly true.

I agree with all of this 100% Cooperrocks

The setlist has been stale for years and why can't Alice have more of a say in it? Why does Shep and Bob Ezrin have so much control? It's the same songs year after year with a couple of new additions added then dropped or a song or 2 from the new album added then disappear. I find the Black Widow jam elongated and boring. Yes Cooperrocks he should do what Iron Maiden does and say up front that they're playing new songs and we're dropping certain songs for the tour just to mix it up a bit. The show's so formulamatic that the regular concert goer knows exactly what's going to happen. The question is how many times do you want to hear the same songs played or is that why you are going in the first place?

[del]

I can’t make up my mind on this. As has already been said, there are quite a few songs which just don’t get a reaction when played. Would the reputation of Alice’s shows stand up for long if 50% of the set fell into that category. I suspect audiences on subsequent tours might dwindle quite quickly.

I’d possibly just push for at least 4 tracks from recent albums and remix the rest from the standards.

[Marcelocooper]

It’s incredible that anytime someone asks anything about live music it evolves to the same “the set is stale” discussion.

Here in Brazil I was impressed with the reaction to Lost in America and Cold Ethyl. Both got a great reaction from the audience. Hey Stoopid is now more regular on the show again, but when he first played it in 2011, in Argentina, than here in Brazil, it was a huge live hit and hadn’t been played in a while.

[VinceRaven]

It's long been said that the band want to do Yeah Yeah Yeah, which was only ever done on the Killer tour. Alice indulging in the harmonica during live shows again makes this the perfect time to resurrect it.

I heartily agree with Si that Black Juju and Inmates (Were All Crazy) are long overdue a live return. The latter would surely get a good reaction from any crowd.

Sideshow is also a good call and I would expect it to get a good audience response.

As a fan of that era, I too would like to see Model Citizen and Grim Facts again.

I'd love to see Vicious Rumours given the spotlight it fully deserves and never really got.

[Seriously]

Model citizen was superb live as was grim facts. The last temptation tour is the only one I have missed so I would love to hear sideshow. Would also love to hear public animal no. 9 again.

Yep, agreed, playing 'Sideshow' right now.

[cooperrocks]

I can’t make up my mind on this. As has already been said, there are quite a few songs which just don’t get a reaction when played. Would the reputation of Alice’s shows stand up for long if 50% of the set fell into that category. I suspect audiences on subsequent tours might dwindle quite quickly.

I’d possibly just push for at least 4 tracks from recent albums and remix the rest from the standards.

Excellent point which I have thought a lot about. There is no question that many artists have casual fans or era fans. They claim they are a diehard of someone but then they really only like one period or two or three albums. They certainly have that right, but I would contend they aren't a diehard. For example, I love Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime album. It is one of my very favorite albums by anyone. But other than that they have a few songs here and there, I really really like but some albums they have done I haven't liked much of anything.

I think the mistake many artist make is they get stuck. They become legacy artist sometimes of their own doing. Absolutely an artist should play a few of the hits. Tickets cost a lot of money and you should do a few songs everyone knows, no question. However, if it is essentially the same setlist at what point does someone say, I have seen 90 percent of this setlist/show a dozen times, I think I am going to sit this one out or stop listening.

I think bands basically have to and this is a poor word but "train" fans and just say look, we are going to play a bunch of new stuff or we are going to throw in a lot of deep cuts or focus on one album in particular this tour and stick to their guns. I like when bands put out new albums and try to stay current. But the problem is and I know not many people want to pay for music these days, but you spend money to record an album and in interviews leading up to the album you brag for six months how this is the "best album I have ever recorded" or "I am going back to my roots." Then the album comes out and an artist plays maybe one song off of the album for a month or sometimes not at all and two weeks after the new album is out they aren't talking about it anymore. You said it was the greatest thing you have ever recorded and then two weeks later you pretend like it didn't exist? If a fan doesn't know an artist full catalog or most of it, is that the fault of the artist or the fault of the fan?

[Si]

The only way to create new "stage favourites" is to play them live a fair amount. If you don`t play new songs for more than a few months and then drop them forever, they can NEVER become new stage hits.
Of course that still doesn't mean it works for every song, but if you don`t play them it can never happen.

[cooperrocks]

The only way to create new "stage favourites" is to play them live a fair amount. If you don`t play new songs for more than a few months and then drop them forever, they can NEVER become new stage hits.
Of course that still doesn't mean it works for every song, but if you don`t play them it can never happen.

Absolutely! I guess that's the thing and this applies to all artists that gets to me sometimes. I would like to see more artists stand behind a new product and say, "Listen, I worked hard on these new songs and they are reflective of where I am at as a songwriter these days. I believe in these new songs and love them and hope you can find some enjoyment in them too. Just so you know, I am going to play some of your old favorites but I am going to play lots of new stuff too and I hope you will continue to come and support me and my new music but I am just telling you I am going to be playing some new songs and a few deep dives."

[patrick]

during the bare bones tour, Long way to go was received well afaik. I thought he sang Angry or Back yard brawl as well ( but couldn't find it in the setlist on this site)..
anyway, I don't think that Alice at this stage of his carreer will suddenly change things he's been doing succesfully for so long now ( I just looked at the Hellfest show today and before that to the songs he played in the gig for the bushfires : all the classics are always well received, whereas e.g. My stars or Raped and freezing didn't get much reaction a few years ago .. )

[Si]

during the bare bones tour, Long way to go was received well afaik. I thought he sang Angry or Back yard brawl as well ( but couldn't find it in the setlist on this site)..

At the top of the Bare Bones setlist page is a list of the songs played on the tour.
Also, if you do a page search (ctl+f) once there you can highlight which shows a song was played at. In the case of 'I'm So Angry' it was played just three times on that tour. 'Backyard Brawl' not at all.
https://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/17-setli ... ebones.php

'I'm So Angry' was also played occasionally (about 14 times) on the actual 'Eyes..." tour. Also 'Backyard Brawl' was played in part as a ending to 'Gutter Cats vs The Jets' on the Eyes tour.
https://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/17-setlists/16-eyes.php

[dadascot]

I would really like to hear pick up the bones. It was superb. Really theatrical and atmospheric.

[rodentdog]

Clones- was a minor hit here in the states. I've only seen it on the Special Forces tour and on one other tour. Can't recall which one.