Page 34 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 109

BV109 pg 34-37 Hollywood Vampires.qxp_BV109 pg 34 10/12/2023 15:36 Page 1

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YYYYY Excellent YYYY Very Good YYY Good
YY Listenable, Just Y Poor

HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES – BIRMINGHAM UTILITA ARENA, 11.07.23
“Lock your doors, put garlic all around, because the Vampires are coming!” Alice Cooper exclaimed,
when the long-awaited Hollywood Vampires UK tour was rescheduled and announced to take place in
July 2023. The rock supergroup, which comprises of the legendary Alice Cooper, actor Johnny Depp,
Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen from Alice Cooper’s band, plus touring bandmates Glen
Sobel, Chris Wyse and Buck Johnson, were originally due to grace our land in 2020, until Covid hit, and
lockdown commenced.
But now that our doors are unlocked again, Alice’s advice may fall of deaf ears. We won’t be putting
any garlic out, and instead we rush to the venue to burst inside as soon as their doors open, eager to
catch these lovable Vampires in action.
With an intro of Bauhaus’s ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, suddenly, there’s a clap of thunder and lightning strike
and a line of blood red smoke piercing the air. The seven musicians take to the stage and blast into ‘I
Want My Now’, the first track from their second studio album, ‘Rise’, released in 2019. Initially, it’s hard to
know who to focus on. Eyes are on Johnny Depp at the far left of the stage, while vocalist Alice Cooper
points his cane up in the air and stalks the stage, coming together with guitarist Joe Perry as the song
progresses. With a live album, ‘Live In Rio’, released a month before the shows, it’s the perfect excuse to
play some of the tracks on the release, and
‘Raise The Dead’ is up next, the opening
song from the live album. ‘Raise The Dead’
was one of the band’s original songs from
their first, self-titled, album, released in
2015 – giving us a couple of original tunes
before delving into some of the cover songs
that they perform. Alice Cooper’s own ‘I’m
Eighteen’, which sees the frontman prowl
around to the breakthrough tune, recorded
in 1970, precedes a tribute to The Doors
with ‘Five To One’ and ‘Break On Through
(To The Other Side)’.

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