mushin no shin

On November 25, 1987, a fifteen year old version of me went to my very first “real” concert, to hear one Alice Cooper at the Municipal Auditorium. I pushed my way up through the general admission crowd to hug the barrier for a front row view in spitting distance of Alice. By the end of the show, the “Raise Your Fist & Yell” tour shirt I had purchased was drenched in stage blood which I wouldn’t wash out for weeks.

Well, here we are just shy of 19 years later, and I just got back from a long delayed repeat performance by Mr. Cooper, at the Ryman this time. And while I was glad to see plenty of blood splattering the kids up front, I was perfectly OK with a regular seat back in the crowd, not taking any of that blood home with me : )

The show was fantastic, every bit as good as I remember. The theatrics might have been a touch more extravagent last time — since that was the 80’s way — but then too that could just be the interpreted memory of a 15 year old in awe. In any case the stage show was still a kick. The consumate showman, Alice knows what works and keeps it. He still has the guillotine, the straightjackets, miscellaneous body parts, and buckets of blood. He still weilds the crutch during ‘18′, and wears the white tux for ‘Schools Out’ — just as he did in clips I’ve seen going back to the 70s.

Of course after almost 40 years, he’s built up a catalog extensive enough to guarantee he’s not going to play everything you want to hear, expecially when he’s got new material to plug as well. I told myself that I’d be completely content with the selection if he played one particular song. Well — I guess we compromised. Lemme ’splain.

For those not familiar with his work — Cooper basically has two types of songs: the rock/metal anthems, and the theatrical gothic production pieces. The anthems are his bread & butter, and he got all the big ones: “18″, “School’s Out”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Under My Wheels”, and so on. On the other hand the theatrical stuff is what I like the most — and, well, he sort of did a medley which included parts of the one I needed to hear, “Steven” off of his “Welcome to My Nightmare” album.

So since I got part of the song, I’m basically happy, but get to reserve the right to compain : )

So what did I miss besides the full version of Steven? Well, “Sick Things” and “Dead Babies” are big ones. “I Love the Dead” we also got in medley, the whole thing would’ve been nice. “Halo of Flies”, his masterful step into psychedelia was another notable absence, though I didn’t really expect that one (especially tipped when the recording of it played in the pre-show). And of course I would have loved to hear anything from the “Raise Your Fist” album, since that was my introduction to him, though I understand it getting overlooked since in the scheme of things it wasn’t one of his bigger hits. Still, “Roses on White Lace” and/or “Gail” could’ve easily been worked into the goth medley.

In any case it was a helluva show, and Alice remains a top favorite.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Babble, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.