Alice Cooper

Andy J Ryan Mar 27, 2023

Alice Cooper - Enmore Theatre, 6 July 2007
An Alice Cooper show could comprise anything from music, murder and monsters, but who would've ever anticipated how utterly rocking it would be.†
Cooper, clad in leather, studs and cold hard steel, is whippet thin and looms over a stage with a dark imposing presence. Tonight he surrounded himself with an intensely fierce young band, and the result had more leather-clad excitement and noise than a night at the Hellfire Club... er, I would imagine.
Cooper is undeniably influential, leaving a mark on generations of musical trends and styles. But he also possesses such dynamic energy that the performance of his songs, some of which are almost three decades old, reduces most of today's pale imitators into a sooky pile of fringes and smeared eyeliner. While there is an ever-present sinister and sexual undertone to Cooper's songs, he also astutely observes and makes a mockery of modern life in tracks such as 'Woman of Mass Distraction' and 'Lost in America'.
It was a performance in two halves. The first half was all about the music, a bludgeoning trawl through some of Cooper's searing '70s hits; the second more devoted to shock-rock, horror and theatrics.
An epic 'Halo of Flies' ushered in the theatrical portion of the evening, featuring a lengthy, bombastic drum solo by ex-KISS drummer Eric Singer that would have made Neal Smith proud.
'Welcome to My Nightmare' saw a troop of masked, dancing goons invade the stage before Cooper serenaded a blonde dummy with the ridiculous ode to necrophilia that is 'Cold Ethel'.
It seems not only women bleed - babies did too, after Alice had his way with them. But justice on the night was swift and Alice was confined to a straitjacket for the claustrophobic 'Ballad of Dwight Fry', then hung by his neck before our very eyes.
But the show must go on, and 'School's Out!' and 'Billion Dollar Babies' lead into a deliriously received 'Poison'. And finally Cooper staked his political credentials with 'Elected', fronting his Wild Party as a troubled man for these troubled times. After 27 cracking songs in almost two hours, he won my vote.