HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES Kick Off Spring 2019 Tour In Las Vegas (Video)

HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES — featuring Alice Cooper, AEROSMITH‘s Joe Perry and actor Johnny Depp — kicked off a West Coast tour Friday night (May 10) at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The band’s 17-song set included five original tracks and three covers from HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES‘s upcoming second album, “Rise” — “I Want My Now”, “Who’s Laughin’ Now”, “The Boogieman Surprise”, “Git’ From ‘Round Me” and “We Gotta Rise”, along with renditions of Johnny Thunders‘s “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”, Jim Carroll‘s “People Who Died” and David Bowie‘s “Heroes” — plus several of the covers and three originals from their debut LP. Also included was Cooper‘s own “18” and “School’s Out”, and a cover of “Train Kept A-Rollin'”.

Completing the HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES live lineup are mainstay guitarist Tommy Henriksen (ALICE COOPER), along with rock star musician friends Glen Sobel (ALICE COOPER) on drums, Chris Wyse (THE CULT) on bass, and Buck Johnson (AEROSMITH) on keyboard and vocals.

The setlist was as follows:

01. I Want My Now
02. Raise The Dead
03. Bad As I Am
04. 5 To 1 / Break On Through
05. The Jack
06. Who’s Laughin’ Now
07. The Boogieman Surprise
08. You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory
09. Dead Drunk Friends
10. Baba O’riley
11. Heroes
12. Git’ From ‘Round Me
13. 18
14. Train Kept A-Rollin’
15. People Who Died
16. School’s Out

Encore

17. We Gotta Rise

Unlike HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES‘ 2015 debut record, “Rise”, produced by guitarist Tommy Henriksen and the rest of the band, consists mainly of original material written by the musicians. However, in the spirit of the VAMPIRES‘ original mission, there are three covers of songs originally written and recorded by some fellow rockers who died far too young: an intimate and intense version of “Heroes”, beautifully performed by Depp; “People Who Died”; and “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”, sung by Perry.

Cooper told the the LA Weekly that fans should expect a really different second album from HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES when “Rise” arrives on June 21.

“Johnny and Joe wrote together, while I was out with Glen Sobel who also plays in my band,” Cooper said. “Then we’d bring it together. It really feels like a real band now. Everyone is busy doing their own thing but then we come together and it’s very natural. It was fun to sing somebody else’s angst. Johnny‘s had a rough year, so a lot of his lyrics have been about that.”