All that good? The band was brilliant!!

Let's start with how the night started.

It started with a bang from the opening band Buckcherry.  I won't pretend to be familiar with the band's catalog other than the radio and jukebox hits. The band was tight and talented.  The drummer was especially gifted.  For the first half of their set, I was thinking Buckcherry was going to be a hard act to follow.

Then came the Crazy Bitch medley.

If you're unfamiliar with the song, it relies heavily on the F word.  Actually, F***, in all its forms, is a common thread through all Buckcherry songs.  It's wasn't so much a musical medley, it was a plot to play a lame and tiresome Crazy B song three different times attempting to get the crowd to scream the lyrics back at them.

That got old real fast yet lasted so long.

TJ the DJ
TJ the DJ
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So a great start fizzled at the finish. But it's on to Alice Cooper!

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Big show. Big sets. Big Frankenstein monster. Big Blonde.

TJ THE DJ
TJ THE DJ
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I'm not going to dwell on just one band member because they were ALL really, really good. Alice Cooper deploys a three-guitar, bass, and drum attack. They all sing backup and participate in the theatric shenanigans you'd expect at an Alice Cooper show.

Plus plenty of mascara.

TJ THE DJ
TJ THE DJ
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Even a duet with Jason on the Friday The 13th theme song The Man Behind The Mask

TJ THE DJ
TJ THE DJ
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The setlist also included Feed My Frankenstein, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Hey Stoopid, Under My Wheels, I'm Eighteen, Billion Dollar Babies, Poison, and a whole bunch more. The full setlist can be found here. No surprise that his anthem School's Out ended the night.

The big surprise?

No Welcome To My Nightmare.  Disappointing but I got over it.

This concert was everything I'd hoped for...he even got his head chopped off by a guillotine! Classic Alice. The sets were cool and the band seemed really into the show.  So I'd say Alice Cooper moved up my list past Guns & Roses and Cheap Trick. I'm keeping Rush at the Civic Center as my number three on my favorite North Dakota concerts. Rush just had ONE guitar player after all.

Approaching his mid-70s, Alice Cooper's voice and presence still reflect why he truly is rock and roll royalty.

What are the best concerts you've been to in North Dakota?

Maybe you saw Guns n Roses Last Year at the Fargo Dome? I did.  First time I'd ever seen them.  Like all singers, time has not been especially kind to Axle Rose's vocal range.  Especially his low end...which is odd, usually the high end suffers the most.  As a concert-child of the '70s and '80s, it was cool to see a band that still breaks out eight extended guitar solos a night.  Your thoughts?

2016 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival - Weekend 1 - Day 2
Kevin Winter
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It was a great show but for me, it simply couldn't beat the boss.

#1 Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band in Fargo November 1999

Rock in Rio 2013
Getty Images
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I'm way too big a fan of their entire catalog to not put this three-hour show on top.

Honorable Mention- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Bismarck July 2003

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour - Nashville, Tennessee
Rick Diamond
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Also, way too big a fan to not mention it's pretty darn close between those top two.

I'm throwing Rush and Cheap Trick shows out there too (1980-81)?

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE NORTH DAKOTA CONCERTS?


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