By “Tampa” Earl Burton, Journalist, and Chyrisse Tabone, Photographer, Rock At Night Tampa
Live Review: Alice Cooper at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL – October 27, 2026
It is rare when you see a performer and their band at the peak of their powers. It is even rarer when that performer has been a part of the rock world for over fifty years. Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper delivered a brilliant, entertaining performance, bringing his Alice’s Attic Tour (named after Cooper’s popular podcast of the same name) to Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Tuesday night.
Sold-Out Show for Rock Royalty
Anticipation was high for the fans who decided to trek to Clearwater for the show on Tuesday night. More than 90 minutes before the show was set to start – and a half hour before the doors would even open – legions of fans were ready for one of Cooper’s legendary shows. I do not recall seeing an audience arrive so early for a concert, and it suited a legend making only the fifth stop on his current tour.
And it was a crammed Ruth Eckerd Hall that awaited Alice & Company on Tuesday night!
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s befits a theater setting, the show started fashionably late, about fifteen minutes after its scheduled start, and for the next 90 minutes fans were consumed by the Alice Cooper experience. Cooper brought the goods, too, including a triple-guitar attack featuring veteran axe-wielders Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henricksen (Cooper’s running mate in Hollywood Vampires), plus newcomer 22-year-old Anna Cara. Nita Strauss, who would normally have a place of honor on the Cooper stage, is prepping for her own solo tour, but fans did not mind as Cara stepped in and blew them away with her skills.
Cooper is clearly ready for his moment on stage, no matter the time or place. With Glen Sobel and Chuck Garric managing the backbeat (drums and bass, respectively), Cooper charged the stage like a still-hungry up-and-coming rocker; he showed no signs that he would be turning 79 next February. As he and his entourage took to the stage, they brought a fifty-year-plus catalog to life, delighting the packed house.
Timeless Classics and Recent Successes
Throughout the evening, Cooper mixed timeless classics with some of his more recent successes. It might have been an odd choice, but Cooper chose to start the show with “Who Do You Think We Are,” a tune from his 1981 album Special Forces. Cooper himself admitted that record was the start of a three-album stretch where he does not remember much, due to his substance abuse issues at that time, but it was a good choice to get the band, and the audience, warmed up.
From there, it was a litany of memories from Cooper’s lengthy career. A six-song stretch was particularly noteworthy, taking the audience from the start of his career (“Billion Dollar Babies” and “I’m Eighteen”) through some of his later hits (“House of Fire” and “Hey Stoopid”). What was most impressive about the show, however, was the comfort that Cooper still has on stage with his audience and his material, and his willingness to turn the stage over to his fellow artists.
The show seemed to his full throat by the time the band performed the 1989 hit “Poison.” Cara stepped up after that performance, and Cooper seems to have once again struck gold with his selection of guitar heroes. When you must step into the shoes of such guitar masters as Glen Buxton, Kane Roberts, Strauss, Roxie, and Henricksen, it would be easy to be overwhelmed. At only 22, however, Cara possessed a powerful mastery of her instrument and proved she was more than up to the task of performing with the legends in the Alice Cooper Band.
A perfect example of this came across in one of Cooper’s more obscure efforts. The 2000 album Brutal Planet and its title track was not exactly a milestone for Cooper, but it provided a chance for the trio of guitarists to step forth and let their instruments rip. Henricksen, Roxie, and Cara were all given lengthy solos at this point, and it proved to be a highlight of the show for this writer.
Even the lovely Mrs. Cooper got in on the show. Sheryl Cooper, Alice’s longtime spouse (the duo celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary earlier this year), proved she, too, is a highly skilled dancer, ahead of Cooper’s decapitation by guillotine after “Only Women Bleed.” It set up a strong finish, with Alice working Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” into the middle of “School’s Out,” a cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (performed excellently), and “Under My Wheels” closing out the evening’s festivities.
Cooper has said he has no plans to step away from the stage, and we who are fans of his are grateful for that fact. The current leg of the Alice’s Attic Tour is heading to other beaches, this time on the Atlantic coast, with stops in Richmond on October 30 and a Halloween performance in Atlantic City on Saturday. We do not get the opportunity to honor the legends while they are still in their performing prime, so if you have the chance to see Alice Cooper and the rest of this version of the Alice Cooper Band over the next couple of months (the U.S. side of the tour will close with a six-night residency with illusionist Criss Angel in Las Vegas in November and December), it is a must see!
PHOTO GALLERY
- Enter the Attic: Alice Cooper Brings Rock History to Sold-Out Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater - October 29, 2026
- Punk Royalty on the Beach: Rise Against, Alkaline Trio and Teen Mortgage Rock the BayCare Sound in Clearwater - September 27, 2026
- Blackie Lawless’ W.A.S.P., KK’s Priest Bring Metal Madness to the Staid Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater - September 24, 2026
