Review: Alestorm, "No Grave but the Sea"

I haven’t written much on music this year and, frankly, it’s because not a lot has excited me through the first half of the year. There are a couple of records I’ve liked that I need to catch up on, but nothing has really blown me away. Until, of course, Alestorm’s No Grave But the Sea arrived.

Let’s start at the obvious starting point, the title that probably caught most fans’ attention when the song list was released a while back: “Fucked with an Anchor.” And, yes, it’s even more epic than you imagined. It’s easily the band’s most profane song, and also one of the catchiest in Alestorm’s catalog. It tells the story of a man cursed at birth with an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) speech impediment and his quest for revenge against the witch doctor that put the curse on him.

Review: Alice Cooper Live at Shreveport Municipal Auditorium (May 11, 2017, Shreveport, La.)

When rockers begin to get older, you expect to see it in their performance. But there was absolutely no evidence of a near 70-year-old man when Alice Cooper took the stage at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. There was only Alice Cooper — just as powerful and in command of the crowd as he’s ever been.

I’m not sure that the hallowed halls that once housed the famed Louisiana Hayride have ever seen a spectacle quite like they witnessed on this night.

Alice stormed out of the gate with the punishing title track from his 2000 record Brutal Planet, arguably his heaviest album and one of my favorites. He then proceeded to run through a series of fan favorite tunes – “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Under My Wheels,” “Lost in America” – without giving the audience room for so much as a breath.