Review Summary: A must-see for every Alice Cooper fan!
Alice Cooper, known as the "Grandfather of Shock Rock" , whose shows include such props as guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors, swords(real and fake) and a brutally beaten-up baby with half of a werewolf head sewn on...(fake of course, and not seen until a very later tour). His live performances for years have brought attention to sick and twisted kids everywhere and sending their parents on a rampage. His style of music have been anything from Hard Rock to Experimental Rock and Industrial as well. During the late 60's into the 70's, Alice Cooper was the most hated band in California because no one could understand them. They signed under Frank Zappa's records..."I'm only signing you guys because I don't understand it", Zappa told Alice. Not until they traveled to Detroit Michigan they finally wrote their radio hit "I'm Eighteen", and then in 1971 the album "Love it to Death" gave them the fame they wanted. Well enough of the life story...I'm here to interview this show!!!
The Nightmare Returns Tour was shot On Halloween Night in Detroit Michigan (where Alice became huge), 1986. This tour was to support the album "Constrictor" using "Welcome to My Nightmare" themes such as, the song "Years Ago" can be heard playing over the stage between the first three or four songs. The show is also to include all of Alice's greatest hits of course! The show starts off with a fog screen stage and the erie guitar riff to "Welcome to my Nightmare", you hear Alice singing but he's no where to be found. All of a sudden the band builds up and BOOM, red lights flash and Alice comes out of this jail cell that leads from the back...and the crowd goes crazy! Alice performs new songs such as "The World Needs Guts" and "Give it Up", along with all the classics like "School's Out", "Under My Wheels" and "I'm Eighteen".
Alice does every song perfect, with a new band consisting of Kane Roberts and Devlin 7 on guitars, Kip Winger on bass, Ken Mary on drums and Paul Horowitz on keyboards..it gives each song a new sound. I was very impressed with Kane Robert's guitar playing, he was able to play ever song just like the original and slide in additional solos. During "I'm Eighteen", Roberts uses a guitar shaped like a machine gun...nothing special, just a cool design. Well as he goes into solo, Alice holds his arms out and sparks come flying out of the guitar! At the end of the show Alice lets everyone solo so that everyone had the spotlight, which then goes into "Under My Wheels" as Alice and the band give it their all to end the show.
This concert is Alice one hundred percent. During his performance of "I Love the Dead" , a huge guillotine is wheeled onto stage and used to kill him. The woman that kills him, holds the head of Alice up and spits blood into the crowd to add more spark. Other things like during "Teenage Frankenstein", Alice goes crazy, builds a robot that comes alive and then destroys it. He takes his performance to a whole new level during "Go to Hell", as he extended the version of the song by which he is interrupted twice. First by a woman dressed in black leather with a mask and whip(played by Sheryl, his wife), where he steals the whip from her and starts to chase her around the stage with it. This was not good enough for an Alice show...next he called a camera man onto the stage. He grabs a microphone stand, put it to his chest and pushes it straight through his chest! You can clearly see both ends and as this happens, the camera turns straight to the crowd where a girl can be seen covering her eyes and screaming in shock. A guest appearance by Jason Voorhees can be seen swinging a machete, and a bunch of slimy, ugly monsters that drag Alice to the guillotine.
The show is great, I recommend it to any Alice fan...you have to see it if you haven't already! Another reason I enjoy this show is because it was the first concert of sober Alice. For those that don't know, Alice battled years with alcohol. He came to the point where he was literally dying slowly until he was admitted for it. Alice said he was scared this show would be horrible because he was sober..and well, you be the judge! Like I said I highly recommend this live show to everyone...it's on VHS and DVD.
