Alice Cooper At The Calvin Theater
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — I have been following Alice Cooper (Vincent Damon Furnier) since the '70s and clearly remember staying up very late to catch the "Welcome To My Nightmare" movie premiere on network TV. That was Cooper's first of many successful solo albums after breaking away from the original group that helped to cement his name forever in our minds. With songs like "School's Out," "I'm Eighteen" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and several others, Alice was already an established worldwide star.
I am sitting here wondering why it took me so long to get off my duff and catch a concert from the King of Shock Rock, as he was dubbed so many years ago. His influence ranges far and wide — just ask Kiss or Marilyn Manson who their influences were and certainly Cooper's name would be mentioned at the top of the list.
When Cooper sang in "Guilty" that "I'm a dirt-talkin', beer drinkin', woman chasin' minister's son," he was not kidding. It was all true. His father was a minister and Cooper would eventually develop a serious drinking problem but kicked that habit many years ago with the help of his activity on the golf course. The book "Billion Dollar Babies" (named after the very successful album) goes into detail of how insane the life of rock 'n' roll stars really are when things get out of control.
Cooper is one of the lucky ones who survived all of that and is still performing today. At 63, he still has the energy of someone half his age and, as we were all to find out, he can still put on one great show.
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I'm Eighteen The Calvin in Northampton is a nice venue featuring 700 unobscured seats. On Aug. 25, we were in the right orchestra pit several rows back. However, they were excellent seats and I was surprised how good they actually were. After the opening band Livan, a rock band from England who played around six songs, it was time for Alice Cooper. I must say we were more than ready for Livan to finish their set as they were not very impressive and the lead singer had an annoying voice that did not take long to get on your nerves.
A huge curtain with the bust of Cooper adorned the stage then at around 9 the beginning of "Black Widow" started to ring out and the curtain fell to reveal Cooper in a high-rise lift dressed with silver spider legs up and down each arm. The crowd exploded with a wave of energy that can only be explained if you were there to experience it. So the show was on and Cooper was ready to entertain us with all of his characters, props and hard rock music.
Cooper certainly takes a page out of old Vaudeville for his act and he does it all so very well. The return of Steve Hunter on lead guitar has contributed to the intensity and tightness of the band and Cooper sounds very strong and is always in command on stage. The one thing I did notice was that the band liked to interact with crowd and, of course, Cooper was right there up front putting on a show and throwing out props that would become treasured keepsakes for his fans.
It was a lot of fun even though I had to stand through the entire concert; I have to
admit I had a smile on my face the entire evening. Cooper takes you through 40 years of recorded history with his show. Highlights included the opener "Black Widow," "Is It My Body" complete with a live boa constrictor wrapped around his neck, "Wicked Young Man" in which the singer gets beheaded by a guillotine, an incredible version of the monster track "Halo of Flies" and the surprise of the night, "Feed My Frankenstein," when a huge monster comes out on stage and walks around taunting the band. Worthy of mention is "School's Out" when everyone there sang the anthem along with Cooper. And as a special treat, attendees got a glimpse of his upcoming album "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" with the lead-off single "I'll Bite Your Face Off."
Every song was done extremely well and I have to say I did not expect the show to be so good. After watching a video of a concert from last year I was not too sure what to expect, but this performance cast all of my doubts aside and made me realize why I was a lifetime Alice Cooper fan. I would not hesitate attending another performance to see one of our rock legends own the stage and rock the night away.
Pictures courtes Steve Trager; source file here. More reviews at MuzikReviews.com.
