Live Review: Alice Cooper

                                                                               Photo credit: Jared Van Earle

29 September 2011

by Poppy Reid

Monday September 26
Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW

Alice Cooper is a pervert; and his black-clad eclectic fanatics could not be more happy about it.

Opening with The Black Widow, the 61-year-old icon made his entrance dressed as a spider in a military jacket; firework sparks were flying before he’d even addressed the packed Enmore Theatre.

Renowned for his stage theatrics and deviant train of thought, Cooper’s No More Mr Nice Guy concert was always going to reign supreme as the month’s most mind boggling live show from a rock god. With an oversized crutch under his arm, Cooper let us in on the joke about his age for I’m Eighteen and during Is It My Body he performed to the black sea with a live snake draped across his shoulders; as the serpent crept around his neck and up his face you could sense most of us were looking on with mouths agape.

Each track was a dramatised event as fake executions, simulated sex with a corpse mannequin, Frankenstein’s monster, and zombies galore complimented his lyrics on this bloodied, metal-lovers’ playground. The backing band were clearly headhunted; Australia’s own Orianthi Panagaris chewed gum throughout the whole set, stopping only to sing backing vocals or sear into a guitar solo. Drummer Glen Sobel stole the show on numerous occasions, there was a reason why Cooper elevated his kit above the other players.

:: View all the live shots from the night here.

In final track School’s Out, Cooper included a snippet of Pink Floyd’sAnother Brick In The Wall while his crew emerged to release giant coloured balloons to the crowd. Just before you could say “coloured balloons at an Alice Cooper concert? That’s odd,” the leather-clad singer produced a sword to burst them one by one.

Although Cooper performed just one encore track, he made it worth five as he donned a silver jacket and hat for Elected and cited Wayne’s World by telling us we were “worthy.” As we screamed in delight at the comment that has adorned many a high school conversation, Cooper threw his hat to Sobel, who caught it on the tip of his drum-stick. The No More Mr Nice Guy tour should be a permanent reference for any band wishing to even faintly follow in his footsteps.