Hollywood Vampires have spent the last few nights tearing through Europe with Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen delivering crunchy originals and classic covers.
The Hollywood Vampires started in the early 1970s as an informal drinking club organized by Alice Cooper who'd invite fellow rock stars to the Rainbow Bar on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood.
Cooper, the self-proclaimed club’s president found himself in the center of all night carousing among actors, musicians, and friends of friends including John Lennon during his Los Angeles “Lost Weekend” period in 1973 and 1974.
Decades later, Cooper revived the Hollywood Vampires name as a rock band starring Viper Room owner and actor Johnny Depp and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. In 2015 they dropped a self titled debut album where Alice gave love to dead rock stars and old friends.
Among the originals were also classic rock covers of The Who, The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.
At Parco della Musica outside Milan on Tuesday (9/1), the Vampires rocked for nearly two hours, opening with originals “I Want My Now” and “Raise the Dead” before diving into Cooper’s iconic “I’m Eighteen.”
The current lineup is Cooper (lead vocals, harmonica), Depp (guitar, vocals), Perry (guitar, vocals), Tommy Henriksen (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Chris Wyse (bass, vocals), Glen Sobel (drums), and Buck Johnson (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals).
Depp, who is a better guitarist than people assume, took the lead vocals on The Velvet Underground's “Venus in Furs,” Jim Carroll's “People Who Died,” Killing Joke’s “The Death and Resurrection Show” and David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
Perry led the way on Johnny Thunders’ “You Can’t Put Your Arms Round a Memory.” And of course they played some Aerosmith: “Bright Light Fright,” “Livin’ on the Edge” and “Walk This Way.”
Henriksen paid tribute to Bon Scott and Malcolm Young for AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” which briefly veered into Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”
Alice took over for a back-to-school ending of the set with “School’s Out” into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.”
"I hope we played some of your favorite bands tonight," Alice said to the crowd before their last song of the night. "Now we're going to be a little selfish and play our favorite band, The Yardbirds."
They kicked into "The Train Kept A-Rollin’” which was originally written and recorded by Tiny Bradshaw in 1951 and covered by the Yardbirds in 1965.
After the Yardbirds broke up, one of its former members, Jimmy Page, started a new band who would open their shows with it. Led Zeppelin would eventually played it 105 times during their career.
The Hollywood Vampires have now played it 106 times. They still have a ways to go if they want to catch The Yardbirds who treated audiences to it 162 times, which is second only to Aerosmith who have played it on 1,037 occasions, including on that double live album Live! Bootleg (1978).
A documentary about the band, Unleashed Spirits: The Rise of the Hollywood Vampires, plays the Boston Film Festival in a few weeks. Get tix at the BFF website.
Meanwhile, the band has four more stops on their European Tour. Get tickets off their website.
9/5 VAZ St. Pölten, St. Pölten, Austria
9/6 Sportovní hala Fortuna, Prague, Czech Republic
9/8 Papp László Budapest Sportaréna, Budapest, Hungary
9/10 Atlas Arena, Łódź, Poland
