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The Coop could not puttogethtagaintiSmoBv STEVEN IHOMSON Music SiaffPoor A Ik** CooperHe just could not put it all together againNot unlike HumptyI)umpt Alice ( ooper was once the top dog in theatric al roc k w ho felloff his lofty perch about two years ago Now inhis latest tour topromote his new Lace And Whiskey albumAlice tries to resurrectall of his past big bitsinto one greatest skits tour Sadlyenough, it just did notwork outCooper s oncejriginal and shocking jntics now appear tired jnd worn He still hashe energy and stage presence but his show agged and had littleontinuitv And worse , et the skits completey overshadowed the tiusk w hat little thereIt was more liketo the theatrec asjoinghen attending a rock oncertWhat left the most ,our taste in my mouththat the showvbsjsted only around 70 nmutes including one ong encore that w as lit-le more than an exended introduction of11 the various band nembers dancers nd prop men in thehowOf that 70 minutes bout one-third wasevoted to silly movies nd gag “commer-lals projected on a creen that allowed theast to change istumes These often* algar toilet jokesandcommercials forsuch imaginary televi sion shows as TheFamily That Ate Its Dog were funny whenthey appeared on the pages of National Lampoon several years ago, but Satur day they came off look mg stupid Alic e came out at thestart of the showappearing more likeVincent Furnier (his real name) than Alice Cooper He wore no costume or make up and prowled the stage like a cat spitting out the words to I'nderWheels *andMyEighteen From there though the music took a backseat to the theatrics In fact you could not even see the band through the majority of the show as they were hidden behind themovie screen Most everyone is familiar with the now famous Cooper skits Too bad the capacitycrowd in the Coliseumdid not see them done better Alice began by dan cmg w ith his snake but the extremely poor lighting made it so very few could make outwhat was happening He w as then attackedby giant black widow spiders a horde of dancing teeth, and a group of ballerinas But theywere just a mish-mashof their former selvesand not very' well executedI *Even Cooper's most famous bit, where he is guillotined by a masked henchman was totally unconvincingAlice was dropped through the trap door before the guillotineblade even finishedfalling fo use a terri hie pun the skit just didnot cut it There was one brightspot in the show At theend Cooper emerges inthe guise of his latestcharacter InspectorMaurice Escargot from the Lace and Whiskey albumEscargot claims thathe has finally achieved his childhood dream tobe the toughest guv on the block He then claims that all of his opponents are lt;hickent o face hi rnwhereupon the Inspec tor is engaged in a machine-gun battle with four life size chickensThe sheerridiculousness of it allmade the skit hilarious but without a musical background it was too much theatre to effec tively fit in with the concertIn the fitting end of the show Cooper andhis band used their only encore to butcher up his biggest hit School s Out Most of the encore was devoted to introducmg all of the bit players (some two dozen of them) as theband noodled on in thebackground To add to the misery of the show the security was absolutely non-existant during Cooper's set From the opening note, everyone was allow ed to rush thestage and clog all the aisles leaving only the tallest and mostmuscular members of the audience with a clear v lewAnd w uh July Fourth just around the c omer the amount offireworks being tossedaround reached itsbiggest proportion ever The newest in thing to do at concerts it just goes to verify that some people wereright w hen they said toomuch loud music couldSmI ♦ t E t . t)hf ludobA#'r*, aimpair your sanity All they had to do Saturday was count all the loonies who got a big kick out of tossing firecrackers at theSaturday's 1/iVr f oo/x’r Slantuas jar thr Inn Isneighborsl*hnto les Stfcrii llnnn*onCLUBAt socfon a, Texas
Newspaper Details
Pasadena Citizen
Pasadena, Texas, US
Sat, Jul 09, 1977
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
David P.
USA 03 Jul 2022
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