Concert Recap: Alice Cooper's "Too Close For Comfort" Tour in Wilmington, NC (October 5, 2023)

After 55 years, there aren't a lot of places that shock rock initiator Alice Cooper hasn't performed in, but Thursday, October 5 marked his first live appearance in Wilmington, North Carolina as he and his band wreaked havoc upon the Wilson Center on the second stop of his fall leg of the "Too Close For Comfort" Tour. Featuring the same stage show as the spring leg and summer “Freaks on Parade” co-headliner with Rob Zombie, the Cape Fear area was truly treated to an incredible evening fully centered on the king of the genre.

As the auditorium doors were opened, the house music set the tone for what was to come, with Cooper classics such as “From the Inside” and “Clones (We’re All)” playing over the PA speakers. A welcome surprise was the selection of “blackout” era tracks like “Grim Facts” and “Who Do You Think We Are” – once the lights dimmed, it was off to the races.

As the stagehands unraveled the curtain that covered the front of the stage and revealed the front page of The North Carolina Times, reporting that Alice Cooper was banned from the state for acts against humanity, the band immediately kicked into the glam rock classic “Lock Me Up” from Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987). Wielding a sword, Cooper burst through the page to reveal himself to the audience, authoritatively pleading guilty and forcefully beginning the opening verse, thus marking the beginning of the show. Again, as a fan, it would’ve been great to hear the post-chorus to “Lock Me Up” (my personal favorite part of the song), but due to the fact that this tour marks the first time this song made it to the setlist, it’s great to hear it at all.

In comparison to the “Freaks on Parade” show in Raleigh back in August, the beauty of seeing Alice Cooper on his own tour is being able to hear a full-length headlining setlist, making room for deep cuts and even more theatrics. Sure, there’ll always be the hits like “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “School’s Out,” but a surprise addition for this leg of the tour was “Welcome to the Show,” a single from his latest album, Road (released August 25 via earMUSIC), and it translates live just as well as one would expect, if not better. Along with “Lock Me Up,” the “Too Close For Comfort” Tour also marks the first live performances of “Snakebite” since the release of the Hey Stoopid album in 1991, and features Cooper on stage with a live boa for the first time since the “Raise the Dead” Tour from the early 2010s. One of the most surprising moments from a setlist perspective however, stemmed from “Bed of Nails” – not only was it great to hear another cut from the Trash (1989) album alongside “Poison,” but it was straight-up astonishing to hear it in its original key, particularly because the rest of the songs on the setlist were downtuned, aside from “Welcome to the Show.”

Other setlist highlights include the duels between Cooper on harmonica and guitarists Tommy Henriksen, Nita Strauss, and Ryan Roxie before beginning "Fallen in Love," the live version of "Poison" that has had more of an upbeat rock-driven edge since the late 90s/early 2000s, and "Lost in America" – if there's one thing I've learned between this show and the "Freaks on Parade" show, it's that the latter cut from The Last Temptation (1994) is much more fun in a live setting than the studio version lets on. While it's not my favorite track to listen to, I love hearing it live. In a way, this just goes to show how well Cooper and his band are able to enhance the experience of a concert instead of simply staring at their shoes and playing the songs exactly how they sound on the album.

To that point, it can’t be exaggerated how talented Alice Cooper’s current lineup is – the rhythm section of Chuck Garric on bass and Glen Sobel on drums, combined with the guitar trio of Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen, and Nita Strauss is a group of incredible musicians on their own, but together they're on a whole other level, seamlessly executing their musical responsibilities while playing into the theatrical aspect of an Alice Cooper show by engaging with the audience and interacting with each other. It's great to see how much fun everyone in the band has on stage and how well their personalities work with each other. Cooper’s never been one to surround himself with subpar musicians, so the following statement obviously isn’t meant to discredit any previous players of his, but I truly believe this is his best lineup to date. What’s even better is that they all have time to shine during the show, from drum solos to extended breaks for guitar features to back-and-forth improvisation, and so much more.

An Alice Cooper concert isn’t complete without a cast of actors either, and it’s fun to see Sheryl Cooper dancing on stage during the later part of the show during songs like “Only Women Bleed” and putting her husband through a guillotine and parading around with his head as the band sings the chorus of “I Love the Dead.” Stagehand (and Cooper’s photographer/personal assistant) Kyler Clark adds some theatrics to the show as well, between being impaled by Cooper while he’s taking photos during “Hey Stoopid” (just like in the performance of “Wicked Young Man” on the “Theatre of Death” DVD), along with shooting a confetti cannon with Cooper-faced dollar bills into the audience during “Billion Dollar Babies.” Cooper and his band are the main focus for the audience, but these two people are exceptional at what they do both on and off stage – for hardcore fans, it’s a treat to see them continue to be incorporated into the show and giving the band even more things to work with during their performances.

To say the absolute least, the city of Wilmington witnessed a legend at work, and the crowd loved every single second of it. On a personal note, this was the best show I’ve ever seen and it’s hard to put into words just how glad I am that a tour like this was brought to Wilmington. It gets hard to travel to a lot of shows, making it easy to miss out on a lot of tours – as a longtime Alice Cooper fan, this is only the second show of his I’ve attended (with the first being just a little over a month ago), so to see him perform as close as possible to my hometown of Jacksonville and in the same city in which I attended college was unbelievable. If the reactions of myself and the other 1,500 enthusiastic fans were any indication, Wilmington was a great place to bring an Alice Cooper show, hopefully making for another stop on future tours, and I sincerely hope the audience's reception was enough for the band and crew to never forget this area.

Setlist:

1. Lock Me Up (partial)
2. Welcome to the Show
3. No More Mr. Nice Guy
4. I’m Eighteen
5. Under My Wheels
6. Bed of Nails
7. Billion Dollar Babies
8. Fallen in Love
9. Snakebite
10. Be My Lover
11. Lost in America
12. Hey Stoopid
13. Drum Solo + Welcome to My Nightmare
14. Cold Ethyl
15. Only Women Bleed
16. Poison
17. Feed My Frankenstein
18. The Black Widow (jam session w/ guitarists, introduced with a solo from Nita Strauss)
19. Ballad of Dwight Fry
20. Killer (band only, Alice goes through the guillotine)
21. I Love the Dead (chorus only with band, guillotine is wheeled away)
22. Elected

Encore

23. School’s Out

The “Too Close For Comfort” Tour continues through the United States until the end of the month, with the last stop taking place on October 23 at the Vina Robles Amphitheater in Paso Robles, CA. Following that are select “Halloween Hootenanny” shows with Rob Zombie in California and Nevada from October 25-28. For all tour dates and to buy tickets, click here.

To keep up with Alice Cooper, click here.

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