Halloween Hootenanny Tour blows the roof off Nashville Municipal Auditorium

Last night, Halloween came early to Nashville as three generations of Shock Rock superstars descended on Nashville for the touring festival called Halloween Hootenanny.  Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, and the Murderdolls all played sets to a sold-out house at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

Halloween Hootenanny began with the newest of this trio of acts, Murderdolls.  The side project of Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, Murderdolls played a tight half-hour set of horror-tinged heavy metal that pulled heavily from Murderdoll's recently released album Women and Children Last.  Jordison, on guitar with Murderdolls instead of his traditional drums, was in strong form and vocalist Wednesday 13 kept the crowd into the show.  The only knock on Murderdolls set was that it was too short, at barely half an hour, but with two full headlining sets, this was probably unavoidable.  If you get a chance to catch Murderdolls in one of their headlining club acts, definitely do.

Once Murderdolls set had been cleared, the show moved on to the first of the headliners as Shock Rock pioneer and current Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee Alice Cooper brought what is being billed as the biggest stage show of his 40 year career for an hour and a half.  Having seen Cooper 4 times before, I can attest that it was the biggest stage production I've seen out of Cooper.  Instead of the usual 1-2 "Alice Cooper executions" that are the highlight of any Alice Cooper set, concert goers were treated to 3 this show, including some very slick stage effects used for a beheading.

For the music, Cooper was as good as ever, showing that some artists just get better with age.  Cooper's voice was strong and his setlist was an excellent mix of big hits like "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies", crowd favorites like "Ballad of Dwight Fry" and "The Black Widow" and even some deep cuts such as "From the Inside" and "Nurse Rozetta" from Cooper's highly underrated 1978 collaboration with Bernie Taupin From the Inside.  Cooper's band was extremely tight and included a number of music industry veterans including Megadeth's Jimmy DeGrasso and Brother Cane's Damon Johnson.

Closing out Halloween Hootenanny was horror hitmaker and movie director Rob Zombie, who brought a massive stage setup that included video screens playing classic horror movies, dancing robots, loads of pyrotechnics, and some outlandish costumes that helped immerse the audience in a set of songs that included hits from Zombie's solo albums, such as "Dragula", "Superbeast", and "Living Dead Girl", songs from his former band White Zombie like "Thunderkiss '65" and songs from Zombie's new album Hellbilly Deluxe 2 such as "Werewolf Women of the SS" and "Jesus Frankenstein."

Rob Zombie's band easily kept up with Zombie himself, changing costumes frequently and interacting well with the crowd.  Joey Jordison, in his second appearance of the night, was solid on drums and guitarist John 5, formerly of Marilyn Manson's band, was a beast, performing a scorching solo in the middle of the set that saw Rob Zombie run out into the crowd to provide him with his own spotlight.

Halloween Hootenanny was a true Halloween party from beginning to end and was well worth the money paid.  The audience was into the show all night and the audience costumes were almost as much a part of the show as the performers.  If you get a chance to catch Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, or Murderdolls at a venue near you, you should jump at the chance.  All three bands are at the top of their genre and all provide maximum entertainment for the dollar.