Gig review: Alice Cooper

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 19:40

ALICE COOPER *** CLYDE AUDITORIUM, GLASGOW

LIKE panto season come early, or Halloween come late, Alice Cooper's Theatre of Death rolled into town, promising lashings of fake blood, make-up and camp amateur drama, and delivered all of that and more. The once-controversial American heavy metal icon's ability to shock these days doesn't extend far beyond the astonishing tackiness of his stage props. But this was a solid rock show that – unlike those staged by some of his peers – was well aware of its inherent lameness.

Cooper was killed and resurrected no less than four times – by guillotine, by gallows, by iron maiden and, come Poison, by a scantily-clad nurse wielding a giant syringe. She later started angle-grinding her chastity belt, sending sparks flying across the stage, before Cooper dispensed fake necklaces to the crowd during Dirty Diamonds, then beheaded a plastic doll with a fake sword. No chickens were harmed in the making of this production, but that's perhaps only because it's tricky biting the head off poultry made out of latex.

Highly watchable stuff, then, from an idiosyncratic entertainer. Cooper's phlegmy croak still sounds like it rumbles from somewhere down near deepest hell. The set-list spanned his 40-year career – from breakthrough hit I'm Eighteen to numbers from 2008's Along Came a Spider.

Cooper judiciously left his one truly immortal song, School's Out, until last. The clichs had flowed by then – including abundant twiddling guitar solos from his two snake-hipped axemen, and enough black leather to make a three-piece suite. But probably no-one went to this gig wanting or expecting any less.