Ryan, Orianthi and Chuck at Skogsröjet

Besides Alice and the band doing two fantastic shows in Gothenburg and at Skogsröjet I got a little lucky at Skogsröjet. Ryan Roxie were having a little meetup after his gig with Roxie 77 (which was a nice gig as well, inspired and happy band) and although we only got to meet Ryan and not the others in Roxie 77 Orianthi popped by and talked a little and did autographs and photos. Ryan seemed slightly stressed/confused but was nice as the other few times I've met him. Orianthi was nice to meet as well but she left soon.

Later I saw a familiar character walking across the plain between the stages and the merchant area and after a second or two I recognized the short statue and the tattoos (new haircut again confused me from behind) and realised it was Chuck Garric so I ended up having a short talk with him and helping him hand out some flyers for his new band Beastö Blancö. 

Both Roxie 77 and Beastö Blancö is worth giving a try. Beastö Blancö is much heavier rock though than Roxie 77. Both bands are available at Spotify (for Roxie 77 only their latest album) and Roxie 77 can be bought and downloaded from their BandCamp site while Beastö Blancö can be bought from for example iTunes (Beastö Blancö can be seen both with or without metal umlauts).

Alice Cooper live at Skogsröjet, Rejmyre 120810

When I watched this show I had already seen the fantastisc show at Liseberg two days earlier and by that I was slightly spoiled and probably can't compare them with full justice. The show at Skogsröjet was good though and really fun to watch. Acquaintances that didn't see the Gothenburg show thought it was very good. Part of the Liseberg show winning was the audience, no drunks and no fights. Alice and the band were really tagged here as well but I still liked the Gothenburg show best and felt they were having the most fun there. A little sad for the ones watching only the Skogsröjet gig was that the snake didn't show up during ''Is it my body'' which it did at the Gothenburg show.

Alice Cooper live at Liseberg, Gothenburg 120808

Before the consert in Gothenburg I was slightly discontented with the band playing the same set list as last year but removing old ''Clones'' which was appreciated last year. A good thing though was that they instead played ''Caffeine'' (from the latest album ''Welcome 2 my Nightmare'').

When the gig started my discontent was blown away though. Alice and the band (Ryan Roxie, Orianthi, Chuck Garric, Tommy Henriksen, Jonathan Mover) seemed so tagged and having so fun that it all made us extra happy as well. The set was really well done and with several smiles glittering now and then among the musicians throughout the gig and Orianthi and Ryan did a little back-to-back dance while playing during a part of ''Billion Dollar Baby''. Part of it was the audience, there were a lot of fans surrounding me and behaving civilized although being submerged into the music and the show.

When the ending came with the balloons, serpentines, ''School's Out'' mixed with ''Another Brick in the Wall'' and Elected it felt like there had never been so much confetti, serpentines and paper feathers ever at a Cooper consert. Alice always tell the press that ''he's in the best shape ever'' but this time it felt like it. It was a very happy ferret leaving Liseberg's main stage that night.

Steven's Story so Far

Okay, so I'm gonna try a little different approach to the story of Steven. Acutally I'm gonna place a song from the latest record, Welcome 2 my Nightmare, as the first event. My speculation here is that Steven and his mom gets mistreated by their father and this is what's described in When Hell Comes Home and that leads up to the boy, I assume Steven, shooting his father. It do fit in with the ballad Only Women Bleed who actually deals with mistreated women (by men). Steven shooting his own father might be the scaring episode of his life that the song Steven (from Welcome to my Nightmare) refers to but I don't think we're there yet since for example Escape implies some age, like 16 or soemthing since the main character obviously have some sort of stage career.

Next I think The Last Temptation takes place. Here Steven is something like twelve years old or so. Steven meets The Showman and gets challenged by him and Steven's friends to enter The Theatre of Real. The Showman tries to lure Steven into a contract by showing him troubles in grown-up life and offering forever childhood, for the small price of Steven's potential. Steven sees through him though and in the end burns down the Theatre of Real and escapes with the girl Mercy who in the end shows to not be real and disappears and leave Steven alone, abandoned.

Welcome to my Nightmare might actually take place several years later in Steven's life. The song Escape implies a certain age since the escape to the stage and the stage persona craves some sort of career and that a certain age. In the song Steven Steven remembers something horrifying that happend years ago. Someone died and Steven wants in certain moments flee to his childhood before this happened and in certain moments get forced back to reality and after the horrifying event. The someone might be Steven's father shot by Steven after mistreating Steven and his mother for some time (Only Women Bleed and When Hell Comes Home). Death of someone loved can be horrifying enough but having ones father make you hate him that much that you shoot him probably creates a lot of tension and a not totally sound personality. The temptation of escaping to childhood also is a little like the temptation that Steven might haven fallen for in The Last Temptation.  It is also plausible that When Hell Comes Home and the murdering of the father takes place after The Last Temptation since it hasn't to be about a really young boy although Welcome to my Nightmare gives that impression.

Wind-up Toy, a song from the album Hey Stoopid, places Steven in an asylum. It's hard to tell whether Steven's young or if his mind has snapped and he's escaping by becoming crazy and ''becoming young again''.

Along Came a Spider tells the story of a serial killer that in the end shows to have been in anasylum for 27 years and not bein able to have committed the crimes and leaving for the listener to think about whether everything just have taken place in his mind or if he in some way committed the crimes. My friend Bellis did his own take on this in a post on the blog here.

In Welcome 2 my Nightmare Steven is having his last nightmare. As it goes on it shows more and more of Steven actually dying and probably going to Hell.