Aug 12 min read

Alice Cooper's North American Tour Off to a Killer Start!

Alice Cooper performs live in Niagara Falls, Canada. Photo Credit: Dan Duffin

By: Dan Duffin

Niagara Falls, ON - On July 30th Alice Cooper kicked off the North American leg of his 2024 Too Close for Comfort Tour at Fallsview Casino’s OLG Stage in Niagara Falls, Canada.

OLG Stage is a massive 5000 seat multi-level arena. I have never seen the place like this before. A very busy night. Security was clearly on point and increased, huge lines were building outside the arena, fans were everywhere snapping up merchandise at the store and quite a few people were dressed up as Cooper himself.

Alice Cooper - The anticipation begins. Photo Credit: Dan Duffin

With no supporting act, Cooper left us in a dark room and came on stage about 10 minutes later than billed, but by this time the crowd had revved themselves up considerably in anticipation.

The show opens with a black curtain being pulled away by white masked figures on stage, and then Cooper’s silhouette can be seen backlit against a large backdrop that looks like a giant newspaper article. The crowd can see his distinctive shadow, and you can feel the atmosphere rise. Cooper rips through the backdrop, with sword in hand and the crowd goes wild. He and the band immediately burst into action with “Welcome to the Show” as Cooper throws his sword and it sticks into the stage and stays in place.

Alice Cooper performs live in Niagara Falls. Photo Credit: Dan Duffin

We soon got to the classic “No More Mr. Nice Guy” which was absolutely fabulous to see live. The classic “Poison” and another guilty pleasure of the set for me personally was “He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” - the track used as the end credit titles for the film Friday 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

Guitarists Tommy Henriksen, Ryan Roxie and Nita Strauss were amazing and very much moving around the entire stage with incredible confidence. Cooper's willingness to share the spotlight with his talented bandmates is really obvious. He gave each of them time to perform, whether it was a drum or guitar solo, you could see him encouraging them to take center stage on the elevated platform.

The show featured a really impressive lighting setup, complete with huge back screen video behind them with video montage and fog effects.

Quite an incredible show and I was really pleased to be able to see his first stop on the North American tour live. It’s a big show! That’s the first time I’ve ever seen him personally and it felt like I was seeing a really big rock star in action.