Reading both the Orange County Weekly and a San Diego weekly, I noticed that my old friend Alice Cooper was playing in Southern California and decided to go. Checking on Alice's website, I found that he was playing at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on October 28, 2009. Having never been to that theatre and after checking the reviews online, I purchased a pair of tickets then called one person and after learning that she was working in San Bernardino, I decided it would be too long a night for her. My friend Ralph Hulett then said we would go, but had to cancel two days before the show when something came up at work. I called several friends it turned out that Chris Parker decided he wanted to go to the show, so I was set. I would take Amtrak to Los Angeles, we would have dinner, see the show and Chris would drive me home.
The day came and my mother gave me a ride to the Santa Ana station for my trip to Los Angeles.
Pacific Surfliner 579 arrived and I boarded the train with water-spotted windows.
The Honda Center, where I have seen many Anaheim Ducks hockey game, as well as Aerosmith and Mylie Cyrus concerts.
Anaheim Stadium, home to the Angles, where I also saw Bob Seger, Montrose, Ted Nugent and Kiss in 1976, as well as the Rolling Stones twice.
Later, the skyline of Los Angeles.
The scenic and wild Los Angeles River.
Dodger Stadium, where I saw the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Rolling Stones. The train arrived at Union Station and I bought two Metro day passes for Chris and I.
As I had almost an hour before Chris arrived, I rode LA Metro's Purple Line out to Wilshire and Western and back. Within five minutes, here came Chris Parker and we boarded the next Gold Line train for Fillmore Street in Pasadena.
Here the train continued to Sierra Madre after dropping us off and we walked over to the Sizzler for dinner. I then received a phone call to let me know that I could go on the Trains Unlimited Feather River excursion on Friday and had to contact Chris Skow, which I did. After a nice dinner, we returned to the Gold Line station.
There we took this Gold Line train back to Union Station.
On the way I saw this movie prop of a locomotive. From the Gold Line, we transferred to the Red Line and took the first train to 7th and Flower, where we detrained and walked seven blocks to the Nokia Theater.
The sign on the Nokia Theater. I was allowed to take my camera in after proving that I was going to take stills and not video. Video would use up my battery after just two songs while with still picture-taking, I could photograph throughout the show and have plenty of battery left. We went inside and I bought a program/poster then had a thirty minute wait for the doors to open before we could go to our seats.
The first warm-up band was Rival Sons folllowed by the former lead guitarist of Kiss, Ace Frehley, with his band.
Ace had a beard and wore sunglasses as he played "Rocker Ride", his opening number.
Everyone else in his band wore his trademark Kiss makeup.
The Ace Frehley Band.
Ace still does his smoking guitar stunt as he did when he was in Kiss.
He put on a good show, but I wondered why "Back in the New York Groove" was not included.
After Ace's set was complete, the curtain was raised in front of the stage Alice Cooper would use.
The curtain came down and Alice Cooper's Theater of Death began.
"School's Out".
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"The Department of Youth".
"I'm Eighteen".
"Wicked Young Man".
Alice killed this person with a microphone stand.
"The Ballad Of Dwight Fry".
Alice gets killed by the guillotine.
Alice came back to life.
"Go To Hell".
"Guilty".
"Welcome To My Nightmare".
He sang and danced during "Cold Ethyl".
Alice sang "Poison".
Then he was killed by lethal injection.
