Dennis Dunaway & the Snake Charmers at Theatre 80

Dennis Dunaway

Who would have imagined that a boy born to a farm family in Cottage Grove, Oregon, would turn out to be a founding member of America's pioneer shock rock band, Alice Cooper? After moving with his family to Phoenix, Arizona, Dennis Dunaway in high school befriended cross-country teammate Vincent Furnier. Soon after, the duo formed several bands: the Earwigs, the Spiders, the Nazz, and finally, the band became Alice Cooper and moved to Los Angeles, California. The original Alice Cooper group sold millions of records and was on the cover of Forbes for having the largest grossing tour in 1973. In 1975, the band split, Furnier took the name Alice Cooper for himself, and Dunaway joined numerous bands, including Billion Dollar Babies, Deadringer, Bouchard Dunaway & Smith (BDS), Ant-Bee, and in more recent times, Hollywood Vampires, 5th Avenue Vampires, Blue Coupe, and Dennis Dunaway & the Snake Charmers.

To celebrate the release of Cold Cold Coffin, a short film based on a song by that name by Dennis Dunaway, Fixer Productions hosted a double feature and a concert at Theatre 80. Attendees saw Cold Cold Coffin plus Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper, a documentary about the 2015 reunion of the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band, both followed by question and answer sessions. Finally, Dennis Dunaway & the Snake Charmers performed a brief set, with a different lineup on almost every song. Most of the set featured Dunaway on lead vocals and bass, Ryan Roxie and Nick Didkovsky on guitars, Chuck Garric on bass, Russ Wilson on drums, and Tish Bellomo and Eileen “Snooky” Bellomo on backing vocals. (Roxie and Garric are members of Alice Cooper's current band, Didkovsky and Wilson are members of Dunaway's band.) Alice Cooper's daughter, Calico Cooper, who is a dancer and actress in her dad's stage show, danced to Dunaway's "Cold Cold Coffin," and sang her dad's "Feed My Frankenstein." (She and Garic lead a band called Beasto Blanco.) Satellite radio personality Keith Roth joined on vocals for Alice Copper's "I'm Eighteen." The tight, driving rock and roll with its dramatic flair begged for Dennis Dunaway & the Snake Charmers to continue as a touring band, possibly with the two films as the opening act.