Gig review: Alice Cooper - Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow

IN THEATRICAL terms, Alice Cooper’s live show is still unmatched after 27 albums and 40 world tours, and Halloween seemed like the perfect night to catch the veteran shock-rocker doing what he does best.

The performance featured a never-ending parade of grim and gory props: a live boa constrictor, a guillotine and, on Feed My Frankenstein, a giant, lumbering monster. The audience had anticipated such an extreme exhibition, and in the main were dressed accordingly in lurid costumes, hailing the snake-hipped 63-year-old with fist pumping adoration and baby dolls on spikes.

Having long ago settled into cult status without threatening critical acclaim, Cooper offered a straightforward romp through fan favourites, initially emerging in a multi-legged spider costume for the raucous metal pyrotechnics of The Black Widow. Spitting out the lyrics of the hard rocking Under My Wheels, he left the musical flash to his accomplished trio of guitarists, indulging himself in a gleeful cabaret of doling out personalised dollar bills to the crowd during Billion Dollar Babies.

The set-list was a bit chuggingly one-speed, notwithstanding the mawkish ballad Only Women Bleed, but he was shrewd enough to follow that with the aforementioned, daftly amusing Frankenstein number. Snarling belters like No More Mr Nice Guy, the inspired pop metal of Hey Stoopid and irresistible chart troubler Poison garnered a huge reaction, the stomping encore of School’s Out segueing into Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall, before Cooper, swathed in a Saltire, departed demanding to be Elected.

Rating: ***