Hollywood Vampires Iconic Rock Show At Woodstock Birthplace
The Hollywood Vampires latch their fangs into Bethel Woods
There are supergroups and then there are the Hollywood Vampires. The iconic rock n roll group consisting of Alice Cooper, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and actor/musician extraordinaire Johnny Depp don’t tour often and they certainly don’t hit the East Coast often. That’s why we were beyond thrilled to hear about the band coming to the historic Woodstock 69 site at The Bethel Woods center for The Arts.
The Vampires were originally scheduled to play the 3rd of 3 shows back in May but the shows were now rescheduled for July. The band hit Boston on the 28th and New Hampshire on the 29th and on July 30th it was Bethel Woods’ turn. These shows are a great opportunity for a warm-up as Alice Cooper heads on tour with Rob Zombie soon and Joe Perry is going out with Aerosmith for their curtain call on their farewell tour in the fall.
If you’ve ever attended a show at Bethel, you know it’s an experience in itself, beautiful landscapes on a huge plot of once farmland.Fans can arrive early and see the Woodstock museum, while being able to get their hands on some merch and great food scattered around the venue. Fans of all ages lined up to enter the unique amphitheater.
The Hollywood Vampires kicked off their set around 9:15PM, the band’s stage had screens lining the back, giant fangs hovering above the stage and smoke machines for days. As the band comes on the screens display cartoon graphics of each member and then the lights go down and red smoke shoots lining the whole front of the stage.
The set begins with original “I Want My Now” from the group’s 2019 record Rise, before going into “Raise The Dead” and then a cover of Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen”. The supergroup comes out swinging bringing the theatrics of Alice Cooper, the musicianship of Aerosmith and the charisma of Johnny Depp. Plain and simple the show is an absolute blast!
The stage production is that of a top notch rock show and the lighting is absolutely phenomenal as you can see from the photos. The NY crowd was on their feet from the front all the way back to the lawn and side to side. It was a beautiful 70 degree clear night and fans were dancing under the stars.
Cooper and company dish out a hearty mix of originals and music classics like covers of The Doors “Break On Through”, Johnny Thunders “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory” with Joe Perry on Vocals plus an AC/DC cover of “The Jack”. The band delivers classic song after song with never missing a beat.
Highlights of the show are undoubtedly when Johnny Depp brings out the legendary Jeff Beck’s white guitar for Joe Perry to play during “Beck’s Bolero” with Depp proclaiming Perry was the only one who is friend Jeff Beck would want to play it. Perry is also part of another stand out moment of the show in which we get to watch Perry in action shredding his solo during the group’s Aerosmith cover of the rock classics “Walk This Way”, the crowd went absolutely nuts.
We also catch a glimpse of Johnny Depp on vocals for both the cover of Killing Joke’s “The Death and Resurrection Show” and “Heroes” by David Bowie. We really get to see Johnny’s talent as not only a guitar player but also a vocalist. We also catch a glimpse of Johnny Depp on vocals for both the cover of Killing Joke’s “The Death and Resurrection Show” and “Heroes” by David Bowie. We really get to see Johnny’s talent as not only a guitar player but also a vocalist.
The show wraps up with an insanely cool cover of Cooper’s “School’s Out” before closing it out with “Another Brick In The Wall”. The Hollywood Vampires deliver an absolutely incredible mix of rock n roll classics with theatrics that only Alice Cooper can deliver. The show is fun, inspiring, and flat out worth every penny. Hollywood Vampires fill in the massive gap in today’s live shows. Great sound, production, musicianship and rock show feel are all present in the Hollywood Vampire performance.
If you get a chance to experience the Hollywood Vampires Live… Do It!!!
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