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Monsters of Rock: Alice Cooper - Manchester Evening News Arena 20th November 2002
Setlist: Sex, Death and Money-Brutal Planet-Dragontown-Sex, Death and Money (reprise) / Sanctuary / I'm Eighteen / Welcome to My Nightmare / Go to Hell / Billion Dollar Babies / Feed My Frankenstein / Wicked Young Man / Nurse Rozetta-Dead Babies-Steven-Ballad of Dwight Frye-Killer-I Love the Dead-Devils Food-Black Widow-Drum Solo-Ballad of Dwight Frye (reprise) / No More Mr Nice Guy / Is It My Body? / Fantasy Man / Trash / Lost in America / I Never Cry / Only Women Bleed / Poison / Band Intros / Under My Wheels / Schools Out // Elected / Cold Ethyl / Department of Youth
Come on, you can't fail to be impressed by that setlist! If you are, well, you're just being unreasonable, or unrealistic, or you're just a goon.
Come on, you can't fail to be impressed by that setlist! If you are, well, you're just being unreasonable, or unrealistic, or you're just a goon.
For me, this was my fourth Alice Cooper tour, the first being twenty-one years ago: Special Forces. That one was a minimalist stage show, back in the days when we all thought Alice had lost it a bit. He performed the entire show with, what appeared to be short hair, had a fridge with a snake, I think called Arnold, in it and a dustbin full of swords and junk. After his "death" he reappears to the strains of Schools Out, long black hair everywhere and says, "Aren't ya glad I didn't cut it?" to wild applause. Ah, the heady days of my misspent youth.
For some reason, which I cannot even remember, I completely missed the Trash tour, but caught the Hey Stoopid tour, which was back to the full stage show and all the illusions and effects. The next one I caught was Fistful of Alice, another minimalist stage show but an excellent, kickass, rockin' set. I missed the Brutal Planet tour, but was overjoyed when my wife won two tickets, courtesy of Total Rock, to the Monsters of Rock, even though only myself and firstborn are Alice fans. This Descent into Dragontown Phase II stage show falls somewhere between the amazing, mind-boggling ones and the minimalist ones, which Alice has toured with in the past.
The stage is nicely decked out with an oriental motif and Alice's entrance is flash (literally) and sudden and immediately drags the audience into the show. The Sex, Death & Money-Brutal Planet-Dragontown medley opens the show in impressive and thunderous style. Sanctuary is more of the same and I was convinced that the first forty-five minutes or so would be a sort of Brutal Dragontown, the sort of stuff that got my daughter into Alice. However, much to our surprise, that was practically it for the newer songs. The rest of the show was almost entirely older material, of varying vintages. Some of the choices even surprised me. My joy at the choice of songs was mirrored by my daughter's dismay at the lack of late era Alice. I think that this was probably felt by many of the audience, which attended this and the other shows around the country. What is billed as 'Dragontown' features only three songs from that album and only three from Brutal Planet. He didn't even do Triggerman. I'm not complaining, I enjoyed the set immensely, but I can imagine that a lot of the younger audience members, who have discovered Alice more recently, would have been completely lost when Nurse Rozetta started up, for example.
For me this was great, I'm Eighteen, Nightmare and one of my personal favourites, Go to Hell, it was just one classic after another. The show whips along at a fair old pace, Alice, being his usual menacing self and the usual procession of men with straight jackets come along and try to whisk Alice off to the nut ward, with varying degrees of success. Alice always seems to get the better of his opponents though and becomes one stage more wicked with each little victory, creating his own Frankenstein from random body parts scattered around the stage. Naturally, there is one important part missing.
Nurse Rozetta, played by Coopers 'own little nightmare', Calico, gets a beating from Alice for her troubles and gets stuffed inside one of Alice's little hidey-holes. In a beautifully segued Dead Babies-Steven, the out of control Coop impales a baby on the end of his sword. Orderlies come out with straight white vest and wheelchair and restrain the bad man and he tries to escape towards the end of the Ballad of Dwight Frye, but not this time, Mister! Alice is grabbed, the guillotine is wheeled out and, to the strains of Killer-I love the Dead, he must pay for his heinous crime.
With Alice now out of the way, the guitarists have a field day with Devils Food-Black Widow, the ubiquitous Pete Freezin' making yet another appearance in the Alice band, before Eric Singer delivers a blistering drum solo.
The Ballad of Dwight Frye is reprised as a dishevelled Nurse Rozetta escapes and, in what must be one of the best jobs on the [brutal] planet, Calico gets to parade her dead daddy's severed noggin around the stage, before sticking it on the torso of the Frankenstein that Alice lovingly created earlier in the show. There are loads of lights and all unholy hell breaks loose as the regenerated FrankenAlice steps out into the spotlight, all white tux and boy next door, singing No More Mr Nice Guy. This entire segment of the show is so beautifully crafted and flows so beautifully, it is a veritable masterpiece and a joy to behold. Obviously, its effectiveness is lessened if you do not know some of the songs that make up the sequence.
From then on the show just rocked, Is It My Body being the song that I was most surprised to see in the set. One of the highlights of the show was the storming rendition of Lost in America, which is such a great song. Then the tone is softened and you can catch your breath as sensitive Alice comes forward with I Never Cry and Only Women Bleed. Poison soon wakes you up again though and the set is drawn to a close with two solid gold classics, Under My Wheels and Schools Out.
After the obligatory, wandering off stage for a few minutes, whilst the audience does the necessary, Alice reappears, and sings Elected and Cold Ethyl, all the time adorned in a T-shirt bearing, on the front, the legend BRITNEY WANTS ME, and on the back, DEAD. So it is no surprise that in the call and response section of the final song, Department of Youth, that when Alice asks of the audience who gave it to you, the response he wants is Britney Spears. He actually achieves this by answering his own question but lo, and behold, Calico Spears miraculously materialises. Alice slaps her around a bit, she knees Alice in the groin, he slaps her a bit more and drags her, kicking and screaming, back stage. Moments later, Alice appears atop the stage, holding Britney's severed head triumphantly aloft to loud cheers from all points of the compass. This alone is worth the price of admission!
And so it ends, some 105 minutes after it all started, with a disembodied voice imploring us to 'Get Out!'
I enjoyed this show, as I have every other Alice show I have seen. Each one has been different, both in the stage show and the setlist. Not just the same songs in a different order, but completely different songs. Last time, example, there was Gutter Cat and Desperado, this time Is It My Body, Devil's Food, Black Widow and Nurse Rozetta. Obviously, certain songs have to go in the set or Alice would never make it out of the building alive, but the fact that you know that each tour will be nothing like the last, makes Alice such an exciting prospect to see live. Thirty-five years after he used to crash out under Frank Zappa's table, get drunk with Jim Morrison and generally offend the denizens of Lost Angeles, Alice Cooper is still one of the most innovative and creative showmen in the business.
Considering the fact that he was written off as having lost it completely in the mid 70s and made several albums in the 80s that he just doesn't remember, his re-emergence in the 90s and noughties, bigger than ever, is nothing short of amazing. Alice is an icon, a survivor and a legend in his own lifetime and really, you know, there is no one else, quite like Alice, no matter how much the imitators might try.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
22nd November 2002
For some reason, which I cannot even remember, I completely missed the Trash tour, but caught the Hey Stoopid tour, which was back to the full stage show and all the illusions and effects. The next one I caught was Fistful of Alice, another minimalist stage show but an excellent, kickass, rockin' set. I missed the Brutal Planet tour, but was overjoyed when my wife won two tickets, courtesy of Total Rock, to the Monsters of Rock, even though only myself and firstborn are Alice fans. This Descent into Dragontown Phase II stage show falls somewhere between the amazing, mind-boggling ones and the minimalist ones, which Alice has toured with in the past.
The stage is nicely decked out with an oriental motif and Alice's entrance is flash (literally) and sudden and immediately drags the audience into the show. The Sex, Death & Money-Brutal Planet-Dragontown medley opens the show in impressive and thunderous style. Sanctuary is more of the same and I was convinced that the first forty-five minutes or so would be a sort of Brutal Dragontown, the sort of stuff that got my daughter into Alice. However, much to our surprise, that was practically it for the newer songs. The rest of the show was almost entirely older material, of varying vintages. Some of the choices even surprised me. My joy at the choice of songs was mirrored by my daughter's dismay at the lack of late era Alice. I think that this was probably felt by many of the audience, which attended this and the other shows around the country. What is billed as 'Dragontown' features only three songs from that album and only three from Brutal Planet. He didn't even do Triggerman. I'm not complaining, I enjoyed the set immensely, but I can imagine that a lot of the younger audience members, who have discovered Alice more recently, would have been completely lost when Nurse Rozetta started up, for example.
For me this was great, I'm Eighteen, Nightmare and one of my personal favourites, Go to Hell, it was just one classic after another. The show whips along at a fair old pace, Alice, being his usual menacing self and the usual procession of men with straight jackets come along and try to whisk Alice off to the nut ward, with varying degrees of success. Alice always seems to get the better of his opponents though and becomes one stage more wicked with each little victory, creating his own Frankenstein from random body parts scattered around the stage. Naturally, there is one important part missing.
Nurse Rozetta, played by Coopers 'own little nightmare', Calico, gets a beating from Alice for her troubles and gets stuffed inside one of Alice's little hidey-holes. In a beautifully segued Dead Babies-Steven, the out of control Coop impales a baby on the end of his sword. Orderlies come out with straight white vest and wheelchair and restrain the bad man and he tries to escape towards the end of the Ballad of Dwight Frye, but not this time, Mister! Alice is grabbed, the guillotine is wheeled out and, to the strains of Killer-I love the Dead, he must pay for his heinous crime.
With Alice now out of the way, the guitarists have a field day with Devils Food-Black Widow, the ubiquitous Pete Freezin' making yet another appearance in the Alice band, before Eric Singer delivers a blistering drum solo.
The Ballad of Dwight Frye is reprised as a dishevelled Nurse Rozetta escapes and, in what must be one of the best jobs on the [brutal] planet, Calico gets to parade her dead daddy's severed noggin around the stage, before sticking it on the torso of the Frankenstein that Alice lovingly created earlier in the show. There are loads of lights and all unholy hell breaks loose as the regenerated FrankenAlice steps out into the spotlight, all white tux and boy next door, singing No More Mr Nice Guy. This entire segment of the show is so beautifully crafted and flows so beautifully, it is a veritable masterpiece and a joy to behold. Obviously, its effectiveness is lessened if you do not know some of the songs that make up the sequence.
From then on the show just rocked, Is It My Body being the song that I was most surprised to see in the set. One of the highlights of the show was the storming rendition of Lost in America, which is such a great song. Then the tone is softened and you can catch your breath as sensitive Alice comes forward with I Never Cry and Only Women Bleed. Poison soon wakes you up again though and the set is drawn to a close with two solid gold classics, Under My Wheels and Schools Out.
After the obligatory, wandering off stage for a few minutes, whilst the audience does the necessary, Alice reappears, and sings Elected and Cold Ethyl, all the time adorned in a T-shirt bearing, on the front, the legend BRITNEY WANTS ME, and on the back, DEAD. So it is no surprise that in the call and response section of the final song, Department of Youth, that when Alice asks of the audience who gave it to you, the response he wants is Britney Spears. He actually achieves this by answering his own question but lo, and behold, Calico Spears miraculously materialises. Alice slaps her around a bit, she knees Alice in the groin, he slaps her a bit more and drags her, kicking and screaming, back stage. Moments later, Alice appears atop the stage, holding Britney's severed head triumphantly aloft to loud cheers from all points of the compass. This alone is worth the price of admission!
And so it ends, some 105 minutes after it all started, with a disembodied voice imploring us to 'Get Out!'
I enjoyed this show, as I have every other Alice show I have seen. Each one has been different, both in the stage show and the setlist. Not just the same songs in a different order, but completely different songs. Last time, example, there was Gutter Cat and Desperado, this time Is It My Body, Devil's Food, Black Widow and Nurse Rozetta. Obviously, certain songs have to go in the set or Alice would never make it out of the building alive, but the fact that you know that each tour will be nothing like the last, makes Alice such an exciting prospect to see live. Thirty-five years after he used to crash out under Frank Zappa's table, get drunk with Jim Morrison and generally offend the denizens of Lost Angeles, Alice Cooper is still one of the most innovative and creative showmen in the business.
Considering the fact that he was written off as having lost it completely in the mid 70s and made several albums in the 80s that he just doesn't remember, his re-emergence in the 90s and noughties, bigger than ever, is nothing short of amazing. Alice is an icon, a survivor and a legend in his own lifetime and really, you know, there is no one else, quite like Alice, no matter how much the imitators might try.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
22nd November 2002
