MUSIC: Honest, my last Alice Cooper post
So after interviewing the man for a cover story, I of course had to check out Alice Cooper's show at the county fair last night. Am I glad I did - it was a bombastic, rocking and hilarious blast, with the wacky folks in the audience almost as captivating to watch as the show itself. At nearly 60, Cooper's still a hell of a showman, a decadent ringmaster to a carnival of rock excess. I had never been to a show quite like that one, with all the props and swords and so forth, but it was a ton of fun. Musically it wasn't bad either, a retro blast of classic glam/schlock rock (drum solo!) led by a really tight band and Cooper's tremendous stage presence in front of a crowd of thousands. Scenes from the Alice Cooper show jotted down in my notebook:
Overheard: “Everybody thinks that he is Satanic but he’s not.”
Estimated time after entering fair before seeing fan in complete Alice Cooper makeup: 3 minutes.
Estimated number of people at show wearing some kind of Alice Cooper makeup: 50
Number of people who kind of missed the point and appeared to be made up like Gene Simmons from KISS: Three
Most expensive merchandise on sale at Alice Cooper booth: Hooded sweatshirt, $55
Cheapest: Beer cozies, stickers or keychains, $5
Number of people wearing T-shirts hand decorated with “Alice for President” slogan: One
Most enigmatic T-shirt spotted repeatedly: “Coop is the Poop.”
Overheard: “I don’t know Alice Cooper, do you know any of her songs?”
Props used onstage: Swords, canes, giant fake guillotine, scantily-clad backup dancers, reanimated “Frankenstein” corpse, “torture” chair, straitjacket, whips, white masks, coffin.
Number of times Alice Cooper “died” onstage: Twice (once by guillotine; once in a mysterious assault by a succubus).
Things Alice threw into the audience: “Dirty diamonds” necklaces; “Billion dollar baby” fake money; several giant confetti-filled balloons.
Most popular number: “School’s Out,” performed immediately after Alice was "resurrected" in a blast of light and smoke and featuring a giant audience sing-along of the chorus.
OK, and now I'm off to California! See you next week.
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