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Rock 107 bringing Alice Cooper, Buckcherry to Mohegan Sun Arena for long-awaited show

Author: Gia Mazur

Like most people, Alice Cooper learned a new skill over quarantine: tap dancing.

It may be hard to imagine the legendary musician, also known as the Godfather of Shock Rock, outside of his onstage persona and his theatrical concerts that typically include a guillotine, taking up tap. But Cooper spent lots of time with his family over the 28 months he didn't tour. He and his wife invited all their kids and grandchildren (they welcomed their fourth grandchild in July 2020) to their Arizona home so no one would be lonely.

"We were all locked down here," Cooper said during a recent phone interview. "My wife and two daughters, they're all trained ballerinas, so I decided to learn to tap dance. You know the commercial where the whole family is clogging? That was us, tap dancing, for about two months."

While there's no word whether Cooper will bust out his newfound moves during his upcoming stop in Northeast Pennsylvania, he plans to give fans a full-scale part-horror, part­vaudeville, part-Broadway musical production, and with some more blood.

Cooper will headline a concert featuring special guest Buckcherry on Wednesday, March 23, at 8 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, 255 Highland Park Blvd., Wilkes-Barre Twp. Tickets start at $46.25, plus fees, and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com, AliceCooper.com, SLPConcerts.net or at the box office. VIP packages also are available at AliceCooper.com.

Presented by Rock 107, a Times-Shamrock Communications radio station, the show is two years in the making, according to Mark Hoover, station program director. Cooper was supposed to headline the radio station's 40th-anniversary celebration in 2020, which also coincided with the kick off of Cooper's syndicated radio show, "Nights with Alice Cooper," airing weeknights from 7 p.m. to midnight on Rock 107. Thanks to the pandemic, the concert was postponed and then canceled, but Hoover feels confident this new concert will be worth the wait.

"I have seen Alice live in NEPA several times, and I've also got to see the show on 12 different dates when he toured with Mötley Crüe," Hoover said. "Alice is always great and always plays all the hits. The theatrics are over the top. Alice usually 'dies' a few times during the night, and it's really just a full-scale stage show... Alice never disappoints."

While Cooper is famous for stage shows that mix aspects of theater, vaudeville and horror films with rock 'n' roll, he loves when fans and critics alike praise the music. Cooper noted his band is tight, and each musician is top-of-the-class. They all bring immense talent to the show as well as their own unique flair, like guitar player Nita Strauss, who Cooper said "looks like a Victoria's Secret model and plays like Eddie Van Halen."

"I always say, the theater is the icing on the cake, and the music is the cake. And you have to have the cake," he said. "The music has to be good, and every night I'm just so impressed with these musicians... We don't do anything less than 1,000%. When we're on stage, we're putting in all we have."

The 74-year-old rocker, who has toured since he was 15, hadn't spent much time off the road before the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to enjoying time with his family over the last two years, he also wrote and recorded music. When he and the band found out they would go back out on tour, "it was like a bunch of kids going to Disneyland," he said, with everyone excited to return to rehearsals.

Cooper said they picked it up seamlessly as if they'd only missed a day or two, which he attributes to the positivity and camaraderie of the group. On their nights off during tours, they're known to all get together for a trip to the movies or dinner.

"That's the thing about this band, there's no egos. Everyone wants to work together," Cooper said. "They're never focused on anything other than the event at hand. It's all about putting on the best show."

Fans can expect to see the high-octane stage show Cooper is known for, including intricate sets (a haunted horror castle) and wild antics, like being dragged out in a straitjacket, murdering a baby doll and, of course, getting executed by a guillotine as he has in the past. Though it sounds gruesome, Hoover said Cooper's shows are more like Broadway productions than slasher movies, and he's taken his nephew (who loves the shows) to see Cooper play live several times. It's as tasteful as a 9-foot-tall fake baby can be. That's all part of Cooper's mission when it comes to his stage shows. With so much heaviness in current affairs today, people deserve to be distracted for a few hours, he said.

"I want (the show) to be a vacation from CNN," Cooper said. "For two hours, you can walk away from the news, come to the show and just escape into the music. It'll be there when you get back, but for now, we're going to put on this show for you."