Alice Cooper @ Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater
Katie 
Sunday night I made my first trip to the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport. It’s a brand new venue and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. What I had remembered from going there as a kid when it was a baseball stadium is there were a LOT of stairs. That memory turned out to be accurate as I had to go up a decent sized flight to get to my seats and then down a few as well. The entire floor is level, so if I go there again, these stairs are something I’ll have to get used to as the 200s sections are probably going to be my go-to spot.
You probably wouldn’t expect me to go see Ace Frehley and Alice Cooper and well, I wouldn’t have really expected it of me either! But a good friend is on the tour w/Ace so I had to go check things out when he told me that I wouldn’t be totally out of place and should go! I ended up getting a front row seat of one of the 200 sections and it was pretty perfect. It was raised up enough that I didn’t have to stand because no one on the floor was bigger than me due to how it was situated and it still had a really nice view of the stage. The guy next to me came down and was like “THESE ARE GREAT SEATS! WE DON’T EVEN HAVE TO STAND!” and while he majority of the floor stood the whole time it seemed like most of the upper levels didn’t. I thought the sound system wasn’t all that great though and a friend that also ended up at the show agreed. Otherwise it’s really close to home and a nice mid-sized summer venue. (But how long until it ends up getting no shows just like the Webster Bank Arena next door?)
Ace played for about an hour and I really only knew one of the songs that he did and only because it’s one the Mets play after they win! (My friend on the tour is a Yankees fan and I believe helped put the setlist together so I texted him to thank him for including it because it had been a while since I had heard it :P)
Then it was time for Alice Cooper. I really didn’t know what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting so many creepy puppet dolls lol The set was a castle and there was a bit of a story line going on throughout the show and it had been a long time since I had seen a stage show like that. His band was awesome and he played for maybe an hour and a half. In the end, I knew 3 of the songs – his bigger singles that my Dad used to play when I was growing up. But I don’t think that not knowing the songs lessened the experience any and I really had a lot of fun!
I am not sure I’ll head back to this venue without a friend to help me out if needed with all the stairs, but I’m hoping next summer they’ll pull some acts that would otherwise have me driving all the way up to the casino. *fingers crossed* (And hopefully they figure out how to enhance the audio system)
