Down the Rabbit Hole with Alice...Cooper that is

So what’s a married with children couple to do on a Sunday night? Well, if you are married to an Alice Cooper fan, like I am, then you were at the LC last night to see the 60 year-old shock rocker. Believe me…I never thought I would be at an Alice Cooper concert, but Brian really wanted to go so I used some connections to swing a couple of free tickets. He was thrilled – I was less so.

Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect accept for some rumors that he liked to eat the heads off bats…oh, wait that’s Ozzy. Well, I knew that religious groups liked to picket his shows…oh, wait maybe that’s Marilyn Manson. Hmm…I guess I didn’t know a hell of a lot about him. As it was, I went into the show only knowing a handful of his “hits,” and he played two of them within the first 15 minutes of the show. Just my luck!

I was a bit naive to think most people were like me when it came to Alice Cooper and made the incorrect assumption that the show would be sparsely attended. Instead I was floored when we walked in during his opening number (“No More Mr. Nice Guy”), and we were greeted by a sea of fans banging their heads and raising their fists in rock anthem fashion. It was packed! After three (plus) decades in the business, Alice can stick pack them in.

Honestly I was overwhelmed by the sights all around me…or perhaps it was just a contact high from the two dudes smoking a bowl in front of us, or the couple to our right dragging on a doobie. Regardless of the reason, my eyes kept flitting from the stage to the audience. I was amazed at the variety of people around me. There were old Grateful Dead-style white guys, tons of Hooka-types, preppy college guys and gals, old “marrieds” like me and Brian & children…lots of children!

I was distracted all night by the two very unhappy looking kids to our left who were about my own kid’s ages and by the fair haired boy on his father’s shoulders way down in the front. That kid was maybe 5. I was very surprised that the show was an all-ages event. It shouldn’t have been. It was a totally inappropriate environment for any child to be in, and the parent in me just couldn’t dial it back enough to truly enjoy the show. What were these parents thinking? Before you dismiss me as being too old to rock n roll…let me just give you three examples of the antics going on onstage: there was a realistic hanging, Alice slices the throat of a mother and steals her baby carriage away from her and finally he stabs the baby in the chest with a stake! Sound like something your five year-old should be watching?

There were so many high, falling-down drunken people wandering the lawn area that I lost count. Three ladies plowed into us on their way down the slopped walk way. I kept waiting for someone to fall over or drop their bucket-sized beers on those two kids who were sitting on the walkway. Their parents were oblivious. Like I said…it was all very distracting. Plus, I could barely breathe from all the smoke. I had forgotten how nasty concerts were before the smoking ban took effect. Unfortunately they do not apply to outdoor shows. Apart from that, I thought it was great fun to see ladies tossing their underwear on stage and lifting their shirts for some beads. I lost count of how many devil horns I saw waving in the air. Now I can truly say I’ve been to an old school rock show.

As for the show itself, I thought it was pretty good. Alice still looked good and his voice sounded great – although there were some technical sound issues throughout the night. He used lots of props to engage the audience, which was fun. His band was pretty awesome. In particular, I really enjoyed the extended (three-person) drum solo and a separate acoustic guitar solo. His stage show had its ups and downs. He had stage actors portraying lots of different zombie-like characters. They were very entertaining and obviously had professional dance back-grounds.

The one-moment of the show which really ruined the night for me, however, involved one of these actors. During the performance of “Only Women Bleed” (which I thought was a song against violence) Alice repeatedly beat, slapped and finally choked a girl to death. As a survivor of domestic violence, I was profoundly disturbed by this “show.” Yes, I know it is a “shock act” and I know that Alice likes to be the villain in his show – but there comes a time when a performer has to realize what their actions might insight others to do. I lost a lot of respect for Alice after that and honestly would have walked out at that point had it been my decision. Oh, stabbing the baby and then holding it up for all to see was just in bad taste too. (When Alice later sang in his rock anthem “School’s Out” that they “had no class” – well, I had to agree.)

Overall – I still have to say that I enjoyed the concert. Brian was happy that he got to see him, and that’s all that really mattered to me. I’m glad to be able to say that I saw a rock legend in concert. We walked out next to a guy who had just seen Alice for the 35th time…for me though, once was enough.