With a combined 117 years in the music business, can you just imagine the crazy stories that would be heard on their tour buses? I didn’t get to experience any of those stories, but being 10 feet away from them, you can feel the aura of greatness. Coming to the end of the U.S. portion of their tour, Alice Cooper and Judas Priest bring the greatest hits of both bands, with opener Corrosion of Conformity pumping up the crowd before they hit the stage. The night was loud and fast, and the amphitheater was packed under a beautiful New Mexico sky. 

Corrosion of Conformity brought the energy level up as soon as they hit the stage. COC was formed in 1982 in Raleigh, North Carolina’s punk metal scene. As they developed their style, they came down to more of the heavy metal sound. COC has released 12 albums, with the latest being in 2021’s Blind Extended Version, which is a re-release of a 1991 album titled Blind with six extra songs. There are rumors that there will be a new release in 2025, but as of this being written, I could not find any confirmation of that. So, we will have to see what the last few months of the year bring us from COC.   

COC opened the show with “Bottom Feeder,” followed by “King of the Rotten,” both from their 1996 release Wiseblood. The third song was “Seven Days” from the 1994 album Deliverance. They gave us a full tour of their work, with a good mix of music for everyone. If you had never heard of them when the night started, by the end, people were googling their name and adding them to their playlists. They had a great sound, and their presence on stage was top-notch.  

If you wanted to know more about COC, you need to go to the following links:

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Judas Priest, a British heavy metal band formed in 1969—that’s 56 years of touring—has changed members multiple times over the years, with no original members of the band presently touring. But one thing they have done is make sure that, as they continue the name, all members reflect the Judas Priest sound that every generation has grown up on. Rob Halford, lead vocalist; Ian Hill, bassist; and Glenn Tipton, guitarist, have all been with the band since the ’70s and have appeared on most of their albums. Scott Travis, drummer, and Richie Faulkner, guitarist, round out the band. They have released 19 albums, the most recent being 2024’s Invisible Shield. 

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, they were honored by Alice Cooper. They have won numerous awards over the years, and several bands have even named themselves after Judas Priest songs. I could list all the bands that have been influenced by them, but the list is longer than the number of songs many bands have written. The band has been labeled ‘Metal Gods,’ and that title rings true when you see them perform live.

When the canned music stopped just before they came on stage, the crowd erupted with cheers and shouting—they all knew what was coming. The members of the band filtered onto the stage in the dark while Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” blared through the speakers. The lights came up, and Halford stepped on stage singing “All Guns Blazing,” with the crowd singing along to every word. They followed with “Hell Patrol” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” moving quickly from one song to the next. Hits like “Breaking the Law,” “Night Crawler,” “Painkiller” came one after another, building the energy. The performance closed with two encores: “Hell Bent for Leather,” and “Living After Midnight.” At the very end, the band tossed guitar picks into the crowd before moving to the center of the stage for a long bow.

It was truly an experience and pleasure to capture their show. Here are a few links to more work and information about their next tour:

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Alice Cooper is a legend and master of horror metal, also known as the grandfather of shock rock. His raspy voice and theatrical performances gained him fame and set him apart from many of the artists of his day. His music career began in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1964. At that time, he went by his legal name, Vincent Damon Furnier, which he changed to Alice Cooper in 1975 when his original band disbanded and he launched his solo career. He rapidly climbed the charts with songs like “Poison” and “School’s Out,” which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015. He helped shape the sound and look of heavy metal and has been described as the artist who first introduced horror imagery to rock ‘n’ roll, with stagecraft and showmanship that permanently transformed the genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. In the ’70s, Cooper’s band really began to hone his style with theatrics and a focus on fun, sex, death, and money in the midst of the love-and-peace generation.

Fast forward to the 2000s, Cooper had gained great success with anything he touched, even as his life was falling apart with substance abuse, a rocky marriage, and legal battles. But just like a phoenix rising from the fire, he overcame and kept producing music. He did some acting and even had his own radio show. His radio show can still be heard around the world today, revamped and in syndication as “Alice’s Attic with Alice Cooper.”” His live shows have been labeled some of the best out there. He is well known for being a killer artist to tour with and ride the success train alongside.

His band has produced and released eight albums, the latest in 2025, The Revenge of Alice Cooper. He has had 22 solo albums, with the latest in 2023, Road. He has completed 42 tours and has won 31 awards from multiple countries and across multiple forms of art, from singing to acting.

The crowd went absolutely crazy as the curtain dropped and the band took the stage. Everyone was standing and jumping up and down, chanting, as the band entered, and then Alice Cooper walked through the center curtain singing “House of Fire,” Who Do You Think We Are,” and “I’m Alice.” During his performance, he always had something in his hands—from a cane to a sword to a crutch—something he is well known for in all of his shows. He performed many fan favorites, from “House of Fire” to “Muscle of Love,” and at the end, he played his famous, all-time crowd favorite, “School’s Out,” with the entire audience singing along.

There’s no place in the world where you’ll get a show as killer as an Alice Cooper tour. Maybe you’ve been living under a rock and have never heard of him—but even if you’ve been a lifelong fan, I highly suggest following these links to dive into the crazy, theatrical world of Alice Cooper:

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