Alice Cooper, that's who. Vincent Furnier. The Coop. The man who changed the course of rock 'n' roll forever, and looked mighty fine doing it.
Yes, I am fully aware that this blog is LONG overdue, but this intrepid blogger has been busy with other commitments.
On August 29th, Alice Cooper himself graced the fair Thebarton Theater, bringing his latest rock spectacular, the Theatre of Death tour, to Australia. The atmosphere was nothing short of electric, the crowd eagerly awaiting the first glimpse of this superb performer.
The banner fell to the floor, and Alice emerged to wild cheers, immediately launching into School's Out - a peculiar choice for an opener, but a good one nonetheless. Disregarding the security staff's warnings to stay seated for the first four songs, the audience opted to follow the advice of the guitarists, dashing from their seats to lean on the stage and dance to further hits like Department of Youth and the classic I'm Eighteen.
Stalking around the stage, Alice proved he can still rock with the hardest with the industrial stomper Wicked Young Man and reminded us that he can hold his own better than those forty years his junior. After all, when you're seeing a man whose career has lasted since the tail end of the sixties, and is continuing into the new milennium and his own sixth decade of existence, you expect nothing but the best.
Though the acoustics were a let-down - Alice's microphone was barely audible over the music and general excitement at times - the crowd more than made up for it, belting out the anthems as loud as Alice himself. The master of darkness chose to play it safe for the night, selecting "classic Alice" - inclusions like The Ballad of Dwight Fry and Go To Hell cemented the fact that this was anything but an albumsupport tour. In fact, only one song from latest offering Along Came a Spider was selected - the sneering Vengeance is Mine.
With four executions, numerous constumes, an angle grinder, evil masks, spider arms, a wheel-on staircase, a gallows, iron maiden, guillotine and lethal injection as big as Alice himself, this was clearly a show as memorable as the man himself. From the opening (anthem School's Out) to the closer (er... School's Out, again, this time delivered in a silver and white suit complete with coattails and top-hat), Alice delivered song after song, throwing everything to the crowd - fake money, balloons, confetti, guitar picks, pearl necklaces, and even his cane. The old man certainly proved he's got at least one more tour in him yet!
Rock on, Alice. You keep coming, we'll keep going.
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So I'm insanely jealous that I didn't get to go to this *sigh*.
ReplyDeleteCooper is always amazing; it's the truth. So much energy! It'd be impressive in someone half his age.
You should have been there, my friend. He was nothing short of incredible.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping he's got at least one more tour in him. I need to see him again, and so do you!