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Nov. 11, 2026
Alice Cooper Shows There’s Still Plenty of Life in His Shock Rock Spectacle At Waukegan’s Genesee Theatre (SHOW REVIEW)
The Godfather of Shock Rock’s showmanship remains a gothic delight. Cooper, who’s an absolute road dog, is on Alice’s Attic Tour. It’s named after his well-liked radio program, often recommended by rock fans. As always with Alice these days, the concert is professional anarchy.
The song more or less remains the same.
The theatrical classics are all there and play especially well at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois, on November 8th, 2026, with a crowd of around 2,400 adoring fans. They got the giant Frankenstein’s monster, the guillotine, the evil nurse, etc. These gags never really get old in telling the story of the character Alice being a stain on society, being locked up, and breaking free to keep doing his sinister thing with glee. There’s still so much charm to every one of these kitschy moments, played with reverence by Cooper and his band.
There’s a lot of sugar-coating on these theatrical concerts, but the main draw is always the music. Shredder Nita Strauss is temporarily on break, but Anna Cara holds her mantle well, along with Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen keeping up the high energy and rhythms of “House of Fire” and “Spark in the Dark.” Bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel bring enough of a danceable groove to the goth rock.
A part of the joy of a trip to Alice Cooper’s attic is that all the outsized kitsch is always outmatched by the professional musicianship. Alice Cooper and his seasoned bandmates, almost all together for quite some time now, click effortlessly – meaning, a lot of effort. Over the last few years, Alice hasn’t changed up his setlist too much, with a few variations here and there, but all the joy is still there in what’s a very well-oiled machine.
“School’s Out,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Ballad of Dwight Fry” – these tunes don’t get old. Cooper, almost always in character with his no-craps-given grin, even makes misery sound fun at his concerts. A few new additions to this tour include “Spark in the Dark,” “Muscle of Love,” and “Dirty Diamonds.”
Side note: “Lost in America” felt missing on this tour.
But the band really sends the audience out on a high with a cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Following “School’s Out,” darkness follows, and Alice says, “For Kurt.” It is a lovely tribute to Kurt Cobain from Alice and his bandmates. It was the legendary showman at his loosest onstage, almost out of character and clearly relishing this rock classic. It was some of Cooper’s best musicianship of the night, with him hauntingly singing, “Hello.”
As an Alice fan, it’s a highlight seeing a new cover from Cooper. He doesn’t bring out too much new music on his tours, even though his last album, The Revenge of Alice Cooper, was a solid one. If there’s one problem with a Cooper show, it’s that he’s made a lot of killer albums that can’t or won’t get setlist time.
There are many sides of Alice Cooper. There’s Alice, who made the fantastic From the Inside with songwriter Bernie Taupin, the man behind the rock noir album Lace and Whiskey, and many other peaks, such as Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. There are too many fine tracks to list from those albums alone that, ah, one of these days, it’d be a treat to dig deeper into his attic for some mean and dusty gems.
By the end of the night, old and new fans left happy, though. Cooper, the character, remains a lovable villain – or, most likely, antihero. Alice Cooper is still the ghastly life of a party.