Concert Recap: Alice Cooper's "Too Close For Comfort" Tour in Greensboro, NC (February 2, 2025)

When the term “rock and roll legend” comes up, Alice Cooper should easily be one of the first names to come to mind — as the creator of what we know now as “shock rock,” Alice Cooper perfected the art of incorporating theatrics into live music performances, with an arsenal of props and and elaborate sets. Every musician, regardless of genre, owes a debt to Cooper for paving the way for what’s now become commonplace in live performances and turning a concert into a full-blown show.

Those who have kept up with this blog are likely well-aware of my love for Alice Cooper’s music, and as a lifelong fan who wasn’t able to see him live until this current “Too Close For Comfort” touring era, the anticipation is through the roof whenever the opportunity comes to make it to another show. After seeing two shows in the summer/fall of 2023, my third show took place in Greensboro, NC at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.

Walking into the Tanger Center was extremely similar to the show in Wilmington, NC at the Wilson Center, from the color of the seats to the pre-show house music. On the topic of the latter, though, there was a bit more variety with the playlist this time around while still keeping it within the Alice Cooper musical universe — along with some “blackout” era tracks like “Clones (We’re All),” “I Better Be Good,” and “Grim Facts,” there were also songs from the side projects of Cooper’s musicians, such as Tommy “Crossbone Skully” Henriksen’s “The Boom Went the Boom” (ft. Phil Collen) and Nita Strauss’ “Victorious” (ft. Dorothy) and “Winner Takes All” (ft. Alice Cooper and Kane Roberts). Once the show got started, however, it was an energetic sprint from beginning to end.

The setlist for this tour was mostly the same as the last show I attended in Wilmington, with the exception of “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” and “Go to Hell” being added this time around, which were both welcome additions in my book. As a hardcore horror fan and a huge fan of Cooper’s 1986 comeback album Constrictor, getting to hear “He’s Back” in a live setting, complete with an appearance from Jason Voorhees and an unlucky Crystal Lake camper (for those who don’t know, “He’s Back” was featured in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), along with Constrictor’s opening track, “Teenage Frankenstein” and the soundtrack-exclusive song “Hard Rock Summer”). Getting to hear “Go to Hell” live at this show also brought me back to the first time I ever heard the song (a live version, ironically enough), from watching the DVD for the 2009 “Theatre of Death” Tour.

Personally, my favorite parts of the set song-wise included the performances of “Snakebite” and “Hey Stoopid,” as the 1991 album named after the latter track is one of my personal favorite Alice Cooper albums — the title track is my favorite song out of Cooper’s greatest hits, and getting to hear a deep cut of any kind, much less the catchy and underrated “Snakebite,” is always a great experience. Adding in the theatrics of performing with a live snake and impaling photographer Kyler Clark (who’s also Cooper’s personal assistant) only makes the performances that much more memorable.

Getting to the theatrics, the “Too Close For Comfort” show is starting to become one of my favorite stage setups in Cooper’s career — having seen it live three times now certainly helps its favorability to some degree, but it’s genuinely such a great sequence of events from beginning to end. The way Cooper enters the stage, cutting through a curtain that looks like the front page of a newspaper saying Cooper’s banned in the state he’s performing in and immediately kicking into the verse of the underrated banger “Lock Me Up,” is an incredible way to get the show started and get the crowd amped up from the jump. The video screens at the back of the stage also provide new visual opportunities that previous tours maybe lacked one way or another. Of course, there’s also the classic theatrical beats like the Franken-Alice during “Feed My Frankenstein,” the crutch during “I’m Eighteen,” the dollar bills shooting into the crowd during “Billion Dollar Babies,” and so much more. Cooper’s wife, Sheryl Cooper, also has some very memorable appearances, with one of the highlights being her eager decaptitation of Cooper towards the end of the set. As stated earlier, the show never stops either — the pauses between songs are extremely short, and Cooper doesn’t speak to the audience between songs either. Instead of introducing the next song, they just rip right into it. Wasting no time, the band truly makes the most of their time by playing as many songs as possible in the time allotted, which I appreciate as a hardcore fan.

This was also the best Alice Cooper show I’ve seen so far on a musical level, particularly with Cooper’s vocals — don’t get it twisted, he’s never had a bad performance, but his voice was noticeably stronger during this show compared to the Wilmington show, with some examples taking place during songs like “Be My Lover,” “Welcome to My Nightmare,” and “Ballad of Dwight Fry.” The talent and chemistry of Cooper’s backing band is also always a sight to behold and not go unnoticed — having had the same lineup for around a decade now, it’s nice to see the crowd show the same enthusiasm for the rest of the band that they do for Cooper himself. Glen Sobel does a phenomenal job of holding things down on the drumset while occasionally experimenting with subdivisions that deviate from the recordings of the songs but still work well in a live setting. Bassist Chuck Garric is an absolute monster both on the bass and with his backing vocals, and guitarists Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen are always keeping the crowd on their toes with their stage presence and pick-throwing abilities. In the absence of guitarist Nita Strauss for this tour, former Guns n’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke filled in and fit into the rest of the band so perfectly. Having performed with the likes of Slash’s Snakepit and Nancy Sinatra, I was confident he would cover Cooper’s territory well, regardless of the short notice, and I’m glad to be proven right after seeing him perform in Greensboro.

As previously mentioned, getting to see Alice Cooper live for a third time made for another fantastic concert experience, as well as my favorite Cooper show to date. It’s always a great opportunity to be able to see a legendary rock act, but when it also happens to be your favorite artist, there’s an elevated emotional factor to it, and it definitely wasn’t squandered at this show. The greatness of this show and my experience of seeing it in person for the third time can’t be overstated, and I’m hoping there will be a fourth opportunity in the near future.

Setlist:

1. Lock Me Up (first verse + chorus only)
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. Snakebite
9. Be My Lover
10. Lost in America
11. He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)
12. Hey Stoopid
13. Drum Solo + Welcome to My Nightmare
14. Cold Ethyl
15. Go To Hell
16. Poison
17. The Black Widow (jam session w/ guitarists, introduced with a solos from Gilby Clarke and Ryan Roxie)
18. Ballad of Dwight Fry
19. Killer (band only, Alice goes through the guillotine)
20. I Love the Dead (chorus only with band, guillotine is wheeled away)
21. School’s Out

Encore

23. Feed My Frankenstein

The “Too Close For Comfort” Tour continues through the southeast United States until February 11, with the last stop taking place Saint Augustine, FL. Along with the Rock Legends Cruise in Miami and a couple of summer festivals in the states, a return to Europe has also been announced, with several shows on sale now. For all tour dates and to buy tickets, click here.

To keep up with Alice Cooper, click here.

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