Gig Review
May. 4th, 2006 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljAlice Cooper Dirty Diamonds tour
Halifax Metro Centre, May 3, 2006
The originator and still Master of Shock Rock, Alice Cooper, played a rousing set at the Metro Centre in Halifax last night to about 7000 fans of all ages. With classic acts like Alice, you often see parents and kids together and last night was no exception with some children as young as 7 or 8 by my reckoning. Lots of people had Alice's signature "Panda eyes" including one rather incongruous dude who was also wearing a striped polo shirt. Yes, people watching is half the fun!
I've never been lucky enough to see Alice live before and I was definitely not disappointed. It was a stage show most definitely and it was a blistering rock concert as well. The only complaint I had is the sound quality at the Metro Center, typically not the best but the sound for the opening support act was worse. Alice has a catalogue of hundreds of songs and did almost all of his big top-40 hits except Elected which I would have liked. He covered most of his career from the 70's up to a couple of cuts off the new cd, Dirty Diamonds including the title track and "Woman of Mass Distraction". They were both good though perhaps not in the same vein as the more twisted earlier stuff.
The opening act was a Canadian "metal" band, Helix. They had a few years of popularity in the 80's and nobody's heard from them since. I only recognized one song, the stadium anthem "Rock You". They were ok but nothing that really moved me at all. I kept getting distracted by the lead singer, Brian Vollmer's antics and clothing. He was wearing what looked like (under the lights) a deep pink with black design shirt and light blue jeans. His shoulder length blonde (maybe grey?) hair and pale face and his solid body shape kept reminding me of Gary Busey in a wig. He flung around the microphone, twirling it on it's cord, extending it and caressing it until you really figured the man was compensating for something. That and the somersaulting across the stage? Not Rawk at all. There was, however, a skinny little rock chick, Cindy Weichman from Newfoundland (rar!), on the stage singing backup and shaking her stuff (including tambourines) and she did a duet on one song which made me wish she was the lead singer. She was pretty good from the little I heard. Looking at the band bios on Helix's website, she appears to have the same last name as the lead guitarist and they are from the same place and live in the same place now so I think it's a pretty safe bet to assume they're husband and wife.
So now they're done their brief set. It must be a thankless job, really, a forgotten (though apparently still touring) 80's Canadian rock band opening for a classic favourite act like Alice! The stage is being transformed for the main event. A pseudo-wall of grey stones and small step risers. The drum set is up there. An upright coffin to the drummer's left and something under wraps on the far left (this turns out to be the famed guillotine!) There are barrels of props, too.
The stage smokes up a bit, the lights go down, and heeerrreee's Alice! He's in black leather with sparkly highlights as befitting the Dirty Diamond theme. The backdrop is a pair of Alice panda eyes with the center alternating between glittering spotlights, red glowing beams and a few other light effects and designs through the night. He starts off with Department of Youth but then blasts into the favourite No More Mr. Nice Guy and the crowd takes off.
The gig proceeds from one hit to another, props are changed, tossed into the audience, used to effect. Every time the lights go off for a minute or so, you know he's ramping up another prop or scenario. There's a female dancer that joins him during some of the sequences. (Edit: She is Calico, Alice's daughter!) Her first appearance is cloaked with a leather head covering, brief black outfit and a snapping whip. Later on she appears in what almost looks like a dream sequence, dancing and twirling athletically in a filmy dress until she is brutally "murdered" by "Steven" in a medley piece that includes bits from the Awakening, Killer, Dwight Fry and concentrates on Only Women Bleed. My friend Tracey found this unsettling. She appeared again in the encore as a Paris Hilton lookalike who gets savaged by her little dog and dogged by the paparazzi in "Wish I Was Born in Beverly Hills", a skewering of pop culture that our Alice does so well!
The guillotine, I think came into play at the end of Go To Hell. Elaborately staged and Calico pranced around swinging Alice's head after the "decapitation". Alice was wheeled off stage with the machinere and then an opening narrative line introduced Black Widow which turned out to be purely instrumental, giving Alice a chance to go off stage and change costume. The song was led off by the bass player, the gloriously tattooed Chuck Garric and then taken up by a blistering guitar duel between Keri Kelli and Damon Johnson, finished off by a drum solo by Eric Singer. The drum solo was hugely impressive and didn't drag on too long like some do. Alice returned to the stage in a red satin shirt after that.
Next time the lights went off, they returned to an eerie Welcome to my Nightmare where Alice was draped with his boa constrictor. I didn't know about the snake and am very glad I don't have a reptile phobia. That sucker is *real*! You could see it's head and tail move around as Alice stroked it and walked around with it. One of the pictures I took that turned out showed a trick of the light, but the snake looks absolutely luminous! The straight jacket made an appearance as did Alice making another entrance in a white tux and top hat from out of the casket near the end of the show. School's Out, shortly after that, brought the house down.
My personal favourite though, came early on. The opening bars of Billion Dollar Babies raised the hair on the back of my neck. That was my first favourite Alice song back in the 70's and probably still my favourite. He did an acoustic "I Never Cry" and donned a leather vest with an American flag on it for "Lost in America". He swashed his buckle with a sword after divesting it of fake dollar bills during "Billion Dollar Babies" and flung "diamond" necklaces into the crowd for Dirty Diamonds. He never spoke to the audience once, aside from the greeting and the good bye, and introducing the band members at the end. Then again, he really didn't have to pump up the fans, did he? Contrast this with the constant urging by the lead singer of Helix earlier, where it came across and really trying too hard. Alice slunk and lurked, gestured at the band members to shift position, played the theatrical illusion to the hilt. He was creepy, aggressive, sly, powerful, flamboyant, and he had the audience in the palm of his leather gloved hand.
They didn't ban amateur fan photos so I'm glad I brought my digital camera. The seats we had were pretty good but still far enough away that I was uncertain if the photos would come out but I seem to have got lucky with a small number and some more weren't too bad either so I've uploaded them here
I found this set list from an earlier slice of the tour that they've filmed for a dvd and if it isn't the same as the one last night, it's pretty close.
01. Department Of Youth (part)
02. No More Mr Nice Guy
03. Dirty Diamonds
04. Billion Dollar Babies
05. Be My Lover
06. Lost In America
07. I Never Cry
08. Woman Of Mass Distraction
09. Eighteen
10. Between High School and Old School
11. What Do You Want From Me
12. Is It My Body
13. Go To Hell
14. Black Widow Jam (Inc. drum solo)
15. Gimme
16. Feed My Frankenstein
17. Welcome To My Nightmare
18. The Piece (includes "The Awakening" / "Steven" / "Only Women Bleed" / "Steven" / "Ballad Of Dwight Fry" / "Killer")
19. I Love The Dead (band vocal only)
20. School's Out
Encore
21. Poison
22. Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills
23. Under My Wheels
Halifax Metro Centre, May 3, 2006
The originator and still Master of Shock Rock, Alice Cooper, played a rousing set at the Metro Centre in Halifax last night to about 7000 fans of all ages. With classic acts like Alice, you often see parents and kids together and last night was no exception with some children as young as 7 or 8 by my reckoning. Lots of people had Alice's signature "Panda eyes" including one rather incongruous dude who was also wearing a striped polo shirt. Yes, people watching is half the fun!
I've never been lucky enough to see Alice live before and I was definitely not disappointed. It was a stage show most definitely and it was a blistering rock concert as well. The only complaint I had is the sound quality at the Metro Center, typically not the best but the sound for the opening support act was worse. Alice has a catalogue of hundreds of songs and did almost all of his big top-40 hits except Elected which I would have liked. He covered most of his career from the 70's up to a couple of cuts off the new cd, Dirty Diamonds including the title track and "Woman of Mass Distraction". They were both good though perhaps not in the same vein as the more twisted earlier stuff.
The opening act was a Canadian "metal" band, Helix. They had a few years of popularity in the 80's and nobody's heard from them since. I only recognized one song, the stadium anthem "Rock You". They were ok but nothing that really moved me at all. I kept getting distracted by the lead singer, Brian Vollmer's antics and clothing. He was wearing what looked like (under the lights) a deep pink with black design shirt and light blue jeans. His shoulder length blonde (maybe grey?) hair and pale face and his solid body shape kept reminding me of Gary Busey in a wig. He flung around the microphone, twirling it on it's cord, extending it and caressing it until you really figured the man was compensating for something. That and the somersaulting across the stage? Not Rawk at all. There was, however, a skinny little rock chick, Cindy Weichman from Newfoundland (rar!), on the stage singing backup and shaking her stuff (including tambourines) and she did a duet on one song which made me wish she was the lead singer. She was pretty good from the little I heard. Looking at the band bios on Helix's website, she appears to have the same last name as the lead guitarist and they are from the same place and live in the same place now so I think it's a pretty safe bet to assume they're husband and wife.
So now they're done their brief set. It must be a thankless job, really, a forgotten (though apparently still touring) 80's Canadian rock band opening for a classic favourite act like Alice! The stage is being transformed for the main event. A pseudo-wall of grey stones and small step risers. The drum set is up there. An upright coffin to the drummer's left and something under wraps on the far left (this turns out to be the famed guillotine!) There are barrels of props, too.
The stage smokes up a bit, the lights go down, and heeerrreee's Alice! He's in black leather with sparkly highlights as befitting the Dirty Diamond theme. The backdrop is a pair of Alice panda eyes with the center alternating between glittering spotlights, red glowing beams and a few other light effects and designs through the night. He starts off with Department of Youth but then blasts into the favourite No More Mr. Nice Guy and the crowd takes off.
The gig proceeds from one hit to another, props are changed, tossed into the audience, used to effect. Every time the lights go off for a minute or so, you know he's ramping up another prop or scenario. There's a female dancer that joins him during some of the sequences. (Edit: She is Calico, Alice's daughter!) Her first appearance is cloaked with a leather head covering, brief black outfit and a snapping whip. Later on she appears in what almost looks like a dream sequence, dancing and twirling athletically in a filmy dress until she is brutally "murdered" by "Steven" in a medley piece that includes bits from the Awakening, Killer, Dwight Fry and concentrates on Only Women Bleed. My friend Tracey found this unsettling. She appeared again in the encore as a Paris Hilton lookalike who gets savaged by her little dog and dogged by the paparazzi in "Wish I Was Born in Beverly Hills", a skewering of pop culture that our Alice does so well!
The guillotine, I think came into play at the end of Go To Hell. Elaborately staged and Calico pranced around swinging Alice's head after the "decapitation". Alice was wheeled off stage with the machinere and then an opening narrative line introduced Black Widow which turned out to be purely instrumental, giving Alice a chance to go off stage and change costume. The song was led off by the bass player, the gloriously tattooed Chuck Garric and then taken up by a blistering guitar duel between Keri Kelli and Damon Johnson, finished off by a drum solo by Eric Singer. The drum solo was hugely impressive and didn't drag on too long like some do. Alice returned to the stage in a red satin shirt after that.
Next time the lights went off, they returned to an eerie Welcome to my Nightmare where Alice was draped with his boa constrictor. I didn't know about the snake and am very glad I don't have a reptile phobia. That sucker is *real*! You could see it's head and tail move around as Alice stroked it and walked around with it. One of the pictures I took that turned out showed a trick of the light, but the snake looks absolutely luminous! The straight jacket made an appearance as did Alice making another entrance in a white tux and top hat from out of the casket near the end of the show. School's Out, shortly after that, brought the house down.
My personal favourite though, came early on. The opening bars of Billion Dollar Babies raised the hair on the back of my neck. That was my first favourite Alice song back in the 70's and probably still my favourite. He did an acoustic "I Never Cry" and donned a leather vest with an American flag on it for "Lost in America". He swashed his buckle with a sword after divesting it of fake dollar bills during "Billion Dollar Babies" and flung "diamond" necklaces into the crowd for Dirty Diamonds. He never spoke to the audience once, aside from the greeting and the good bye, and introducing the band members at the end. Then again, he really didn't have to pump up the fans, did he? Contrast this with the constant urging by the lead singer of Helix earlier, where it came across and really trying too hard. Alice slunk and lurked, gestured at the band members to shift position, played the theatrical illusion to the hilt. He was creepy, aggressive, sly, powerful, flamboyant, and he had the audience in the palm of his leather gloved hand.
They didn't ban amateur fan photos so I'm glad I brought my digital camera. The seats we had were pretty good but still far enough away that I was uncertain if the photos would come out but I seem to have got lucky with a small number and some more weren't too bad either so I've uploaded them here
I found this set list from an earlier slice of the tour that they've filmed for a dvd and if it isn't the same as the one last night, it's pretty close.
01. Department Of Youth (part)
02. No More Mr Nice Guy
03. Dirty Diamonds
04. Billion Dollar Babies
05. Be My Lover
06. Lost In America
07. I Never Cry
08. Woman Of Mass Distraction
09. Eighteen
10. Between High School and Old School
11. What Do You Want From Me
12. Is It My Body
13. Go To Hell
14. Black Widow Jam (Inc. drum solo)
15. Gimme
16. Feed My Frankenstein
17. Welcome To My Nightmare
18. The Piece (includes "The Awakening" / "Steven" / "Only Women Bleed" / "Steven" / "Ballad Of Dwight Fry" / "Killer")
19. I Love The Dead (band vocal only)
20. School's Out
Encore
21. Poison
22. Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills
23. Under My Wheels
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:14 pm (UTC)Nice review and photos!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:56 pm (UTC)Enjoyed the writeup too. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 04:31 pm (UTC)Alice Cooper
Date: 2006-05-04 04:06 pm (UTC)Re: Alice Cooper
Date: 2006-05-04 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 10:14 pm (UTC)Sounds like an awesome gig and I'm totally jealous!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-06 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-06 04:00 pm (UTC)