Alice Cooper @ The Riverside Theater
Aug. 31, 2010
For nearly five decades Cooper has been pioneering an off-shoot of hard-rock
frequently called shock rock, and has lately taken on a particular fascination
with death. His latest album, Along Came
a Spider, is about a serial killer, so it made sense that his show Tuesday
at the Riverside Theater was part of his Theater of Death tour.
The show began innocently
enough, as Cooper and his band fired into two of his best known hits, “School’s
Out” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” which got the packed crowd roaring with cheers.
Soon enough, though, things turned more sinister, when a masked character in a
skeleton costume got in the way of Cooper, who stabbed him with a microphone.
This started a mini-drama throughout
the set, where Cooper battled several of the skeleton minions and a menacing
yet enticing woman. Sometimes Cooper’s character struck first, but often he was
the one killed. He was imprisoned in a strait jacket, injected by a huge
syringe of poison, hung by a hangman, beheaded by guillotine and sliced and
diced by a dagger-filled box. But every time Cooper came back, intent for
revenge. Sometimes he progressed the story with a related song.
Between his deaths, there were plenty
of other antics: Cooper showed an obsession with a chopped-off plastic head; a
monster stole his love interest/nemesis during “Feed My Frankenstein,” and
later the singer donned spider arms while on top of a ramp overlooking the
stage and the crowd.
Beyond the
entertaining stage show, Cooper provided a good mix of older and newer songs,
playing songs like the angst-ridden “I’m 18,” the sinister “Poison” and
“Vengeance Is Mine,” and others like “Elected.” He ended the set the way he
started, with an encore of “School’s Out,” which seemed like an odd choice
given his wealth of material, but maybe he just really wanted to party on a
school night.
Opener Brent James
& the Contraband offered a good set of their own hard garage rock.
Photo by CJ Foeckler
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