Post
by ConstrictorRules » Wed Dec 16, 2015 6:11 pm
The meet and greet VIP experience is over! Picked up my VIP package at the box office before the show, but unfortunately was not selected to be on stage. Would have been cool, but on the other hand, I got to enjoy the whole show and didn't miss a minute of it getting to the stage to be in position to throw the balloons, etc. :-) Silver linings!
The show was great! The band was on top of things! Nita was amazing and I thought Sheryl was especially funny in her role as the nurse. Alice sounded really good, of course! Essentially the same show as last time he was through with Motley Crue, but I'm not complaining. Any Alice show is a good show.
After Alice's set we were to meet at a certain spot, but some bad advice/directions from the venue ushers had me panicked as I was NOT in the correct place. Fortunately, I figured out what went wrong and hustled to where I was supposed to be. I needn't have panicked. Once I got to the meet-up area there was still plenty of time...maybe another 10 minutes before we got moving under the arena to get to Alice's dressing room. The platinum VIP folk were ushered along first. Waiting behind us, though, were at least another dozen of, I guess, "regular" VIP people. I was surprised to see so many. Not sure if that's the norm at all his concerts or not.
The women leading us had us stop before we got to the dressing room, while they went and got our "goodie bags." While we waited for those, the bin of Alice props was wheeled by us along with another bin of the Frankenstein monster in all it's pieces. Cool to see that stuff up close. The woman behind me was the one chosen to throw out the balloons and she said it was "awesome." Chatted with another man in front of me who has met Alice at 3 other meet and greets. Everyone seemed very cool.
Alice tote bags were handed out to the dozen or so of us that were in the platinum VIP group. Included in the bag was a special VIP T-shirt, certificate of insanity (already signed by nurse Sheryl), a bill of Alice money, some "dirty diamonds", and a copy of the setlist. Next we were asked if any of us cared about seeing Motley Crue's opening few songs. A couple of people spoke up and were allowed to go to the front of the line, so they'd be out of there sooner. The rest of us didn't really care, though. We were then asked again to please keep our signed items to a maximum of 4 things as Alice is very generous with his time and they wanted to keep things moving in the interest of giving everyone their fair share of time. This is where I get a little nervous as I have actually brought a couple extra things to get signed. We were also told that we would have to hand over our phones when we entered the dressing room. Pretty strict about that no cell pics thing. I guess it might be kind of weird really to have a dozen people with their camera phones out while Alice is trying to interact with someone, so I get it.
We were next lead down to Alice's dressing room, which was right next to Mick Mars'. Typing that out, I now wish I had gotten a pic of that before I handed over my phone. Oh well. WE HEADED IN! Entering the dressing room there were 4 small loveseat couches in the initial dressing area, a couple of coffee tables in front of them and a ledge with bar stools lined up on one wall. Next to that was another doorway that led to the back area of the dressing room where I assume Alice actually got into costume and make up. Didn't get to see that part.
Kyler Clark (photographer) was already in the room ready to go. He seems like a really nice guy. He mentioned that he is also the man inside the Frankenstein outfit. I jokingly asked him if that was his voice, too. He said no, but he's asked for a microphone in there. They won't give it to him, though, because he said they think he'll ham it up way too much. :-)
Alice appears! He says hello to everyone and heads to one of the back couches with a table in front of it. One by one we now all get our chance to meet the man and get some things signed. I sit back and let a couple of people go ahead of me, which turns out to have been a good idea, since you are ushered out pretty quickly after your time with Alice is over. This way I get to listen to some banter between him and the other VIPs until it is my time. I end up being the 2nd last person to sit down with Alice.
We shake hands and I tell him I really enjoyed the show, but that it was just too short! He agrees and talks about how that's the way it has to be when you're the opening act. I mention how much I enjoyed Sheryl's performance and he said "I never know what she's doing behind me. I look at the audience and they're supposed to be scared, but they're all laughing! So she's got to be doing something good." I mention she has a kind of 'Evil Dead' look to her and he tells me that she does all her own makeup and that their daughter is the true make up artist in the family. One of the items I have him sign is the classic Marvel Alice comic book based on "From the Inside". He laughs when he looks at it and says that he thanks Stan Lee every time he sees him for making him look so good..."my nose is straight, I have great abs!" :-) There's other quick little words about Nita being so good, the current comics featuring him, and the Hollywood Vampires touring again next year as well as his show. I tell him I look forward to seeing another, longer, headlining show from him soon! Graciously, he signs everything I put in front of him (even over my 4 item limit!), but I have to admit I was very organized in this regard and I have everything put out nicely so it was just a swipe of the sharpie and they were done in no time at all. In my excitement I forget to show him and possibly have him sign some custom Alice Cooper baseball-type cards I've made up myself. Doh! Oh well...perhaps a reason to do this again sometime! :-)
And that's that! I thank him for all the years of entertainment and am ushered back down the arena by one of the very nice women running the meet and greet. They really were great. She talks about how great her job is and how nice Alice is to everyone. On our way out we pass by the regular VIPs now waiting for their turn to meet Alice. We also pass Nita going the other way and she says hello.
The entire span of the meet and greet was about 25 minutes and I personally got about 2-3 minutes of time with Alice. Kyler took some GREAT photos and the whole experience was awesome. I wish it could have been longer, but really, I could have talked all day with him and it wouldn't have been enough.
That's my story! Hope you enjoyed the rambling!