Alice Cooper @ Manchester Apollo 30/10/11

[Earl]

What better way is there to celebrate Devil's Night than an evening with Alice Cooper?

The old rocker gave a smashing performance with all the usual theatrics and pantomime, a little gore, and the guillotine, of course. Last time I saw Vince was a couple of years back when he played the arena, supported by Twisted Sister.

Things might not be going as well for him now, the Apollo is a lot smaller then the arena he packed out, but it does suit him better. As good as his show is, it's just not grand enough for an arena, but works perfectly in a theatre.

The support this time were the New York Dolls. I didn't bother watching them, I'll acknowledge how influential there were, but I never really liked them. Plus, I'm pretty sure most of the original members are dead!

Alice kicked off with The Black Widow, wearing some ridiculous spider outfit, which was fabulous. He did a lot more songs I didn't know at last night's show. I'd be happy hearing Welcome to My Nightmare and Billion Dollar Babies from start to finish and forget the rest, but his newer stuff is still very entertaining. When he performed his latest single, I’ll Bite Your Face Off, he came out on stage with "New Song" written on the back of his jacket, which he then removes and on the back of his shirt is the title of the actual track.

I didn't actually realise Alice had any new material to promote, but all was well, he still knocked out a bunch of classic hits, No More Mr Nice Guy, Cold Ethyl, I love The Dead, Elected, Poison, and a mash-up of School's Out and Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall!

On top of all that there were loads of people in fancy dress, not sure whether that was a Halloween thing, or just an Alice Cooper thing, but it was fun.