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Oct. 27, 2025
Rock titans Alice Cooper, Judas Priest bring sonic assault to San Diego | Review
While they take on disparate personas — Alice Cooper as the “Godfather of Shock Rock” and Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford as the “Metal God” — the pair are complementary co-headliners on their current Shield of Pain tour, and they proved it to an enthusiastic crowd on Oct. 18 at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre.
Following a short but electric opening set from Southern metal veterans Corrosion of Conformity, Cooper and his five-piece band took the stage first.
The master of macabre still reigns
Emerging from the shadows like a creature of the night, Cooper immediately set the macabre tone for the night with “Hello, Hooray” and “Who Do You Think We Are.” Dressed head to toe in black — from top hat and raccoon eyes to leather pants and boots — the spry 77-year-old prowled across the stage as if presiding over a carnival sideshow.
One of rock’s most theatrical showmen for more than 50 years, Cooper used numerous props to bring his sinister songs to life. He shook shrunken-head maracas during “Muscle of Love,” brandished a fencing sword on “Spark in the Dark,” and impaled a pesky paparazzo with his mic stand in “Hey Stoopid.”
And it only got darker and bloodier from there. During “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” Cooper struggled in a straitjacket before being decapitated by guillotine, after which a woman (his real-life wife, Sheryl Cooper) gleefully paraded his severed head around the stage. Moments later, he was back onstage and dancing with a female corpse during “Cold Ethyl.” It was all deliciously twisted.
Fittingly timed with Halloween around the corner, “Feed My Frankenstein” featured a giant Alice-faced monster, while Cooper donned a black cape to become Dracula for “Dangerous Tonight.”
Circuslike as his shows are, Cooper’s razor-sharp bandmates are no clowns. Fueled by three exceptional guitarists — Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen, and “Hurricane” Nita Strauss (think Xena the Warrior Princess if she went blonde and traded in her sword for a six-string axe) — and a fierce rhythm section in bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel, 1970s hits like “I’m Eighteen” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” sounded as vital today as they did five decades ago.
Changing into white tails and top hat, the Shock Rock pioneer — who released his latest album, The Revenge of Alice Cooper, in July — closed his 80-minute set with his biggest hit and 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame selection, “School’s Out.” Cleverly weaving in Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2” as he stabbed giant confetti-filled balloons, Cooper bid farewell with: “May all your lovely dreams become nightmares.”