Alice Cooper's Halloween Night Of Fear – No More Mr Nice Guy Tour 2011
Opening the show with the chillingly spooky Vincent Price intro, taken from the original Welcome To My Nightmare album, followed by classic hit The Black Widow, Alice kicks the night off in style. As the curtain drops he’s found standing at the top of some stairs dressed (in character of course) as a black widow – this might sound a little odd, but this isn’t exactly your ordinary show. Tearing into an array of killer songs including Brutal Planet, I’m Eighteen, Billion Dollar Babies, and Hey Stoopid, Alice parades around the stage like a demon possessed. He glares into the crowd with looks of sheer menace, waving his cane like a slightly deranged conductor, whilst the crowd go mental for it. Alice certainly has quite a stage presence, and he plays his character to an absolute tee.
Mid-way through the show Alice takes to the stage (after yet another costume change!) wearing a jacket sporting the words ‘New Song’ across his back, proving he doesn’t really take himself too seriously – but it was nice of him to keep the crowd up to speed with the proceedings! Yes this was the only new song played into the set from the new album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, but it certainly hit the spot. I’ll Bit Your Face Off has all the elements of a classic Cooper song (just by the name itself really), and Alice really gave this one his all, literally spitting the words out to the chorus. He also busted a few rather interesting dance moves during this number, which of course was in keeping with the over-the-top theatrics of the show. Following a sombre rendition of Only Women Bleed, which Cooper sang whilst sat upon a trash can, he then launched into old favourite Cold Ethyl during which he serenaded an old rag doll (the doll being the corpse of cold Ethyl of course!). Alice waltzed romantically about the stage arm in arm with the doll, before the song took an abrupt turn for the worst as he proceeded to beat the life (quite literally!) out of poor Ethyl. Indeed it was like watching Jekyll and Hyde on the stage. The song closed as Alice wraps the doll in an embrace, and plants a kiss, much to the delight of the crowd.
It was at here that the theatrics really got into full swing, as Cooper emerged dressed as a mad scientist in a long white coat splattered with blood, before a gigantic Frankenstein monster burst onto the stage. To say this thing was gigantic is by no means an exaggeration, but what really finished it off was the fact the monster sang along to Feed My Frankenstein after chasing Cooper off the stage.
The band then broke into old hit Clones (We’re All), during which guitarist Tommy Henriksen and bassist Chuck Garric adorned plastic face masks, and ‘acted out’ the song through robotic movements, which I must admit made very entertaining viewing! Wicked Young Man followed and Cooper re-emerged dressed in what looked like a police hat, and took to marching about the stage before “spearing” a photographer (obviously not a real one!) right through his belly with a giant silver cane. He then received his comeuppance by getting beheaded by a giant guillotine, after which his band (all fantastic musicians in their own right I might add) launched into a rather jolly rendition of I Love The Dead much to the crowds delight.
The night was topped off by a raucous sing-a-long to all-time favourite hit School’s Out, which included a short breakdown of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall, whilst balloons were thrown out into the crowd which Cooper proceeded to stab with his sword to unleash showers of confetti. Returning for the encore in silver jacket and top hat, Alice closes the set with Elected, during which he paraded around waving a huge Great Britain flag.
As you can probably guess, Alice Cooper doesn’t do a show half-heartedly. He puts everything he’s got into it, resulting in a show that’s extremely over-the-top, full of bizarre and eccentric theatrics, and one that is completely unique. Cooper’s show is undoubtedly one of a kind, and he gives his audience so much more than your average rock show – indeed it’s more like a piece of theatre. Alice proved once again he is the shock rock king, and he doesn’t look like he’ll be slowing down anytime soon.
