The Hollywood Vampires are a Hard Rock Supergroup featuring Alice Cooper on vocals with movie superstar Johnny Depp and Aerosmith's Joe Perry as well as Alice Cooper band mainstay Tommy Henriksen on guitars. On their first performances, they were backed by Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum on bass and drums respectively, but now those positions are filled by Chris Wise and Glen Sobel, augmented by keyboardist Buck Johnson. They were named after a drinking club that Alice Cooper used to belong to in the seventies with such legendary drunks as Harry Nilsson, John Lennon or Keith Moon... To be a fly on the wall when these colorful characters got together to imbibe!
The group, as Alice puts it, was started as a tribute to his "dead, drunk friends" with covers of The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks or The Doors, but quickly took a life of its own, with original material and sold out concert tours around the world. And now, for the first time, they are hitting the French capital a few years after their first scheduled was was postponed, then altogether cancelled because of the COVID pandemic. That's right, in just four days, the Vampires are playing the Zénith arena in the North East of Paris!
This provides us with the opportunity to shine a light on Alice Cooper. We talk about him often here on www.ElectricEyeRock.com because he is one of our very favorite rock performers. He is the artist we've seen live the most, even going as far as London or Los Angeles to catch his show. He puts on the best show in rock n' roll, and his catalog of incredible songs is up there with Elton John. He has single-handedly invented the rock show, and has been a defining force in the development of Glam Rock, Hard Rock, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal and more. Artists as diverse and as legendary as the Sex Pistols, Mötley Crüe, The Tubes, Megadeth, Jello Biafra, Tom Waits or My Chemical Romance cite him as a major influence, for both his musical and visual identity.
The reasons he isn't as revered today as contemporaries like David Bowie, Iggy Pop or Sparks are somewhat of a mystery. Like them, he was a musical shape shifter. Like them, he incorporated other art forms into his presentation. Like them, he brought a theatricality to rock n' roll that was previously only hinted at. But I think that at some point, he was content to just be the "horror rock" guy, abandoned a lot of the other aspects of his artistic personality, and is now pigeonholed in this role.
If you are unfamiliar with his discography, or if you only know the hits and classics (of which there are plenty!) then it's time to bridge that gap and take a deeper dive into his impressive discography. Whether you like Psychedelia, Garage Rock, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Ballads, Glam Rock, Cabaret, Symphonic Rock, Show Tunes, Punk Rock, New Wave, Heavy Metal, Hair Metal, Alternative, Industrial Metal, there will be something in his catalog that'll scratch that itch. Click on the button below to start listening to Alice Cooper on Apple Music.
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But listening to Alice Cooper only shows you one dimension of the artist. Granted, it's the most important one: the theatrics, the make-up, the costumes, the visuals can only work if they're added on a solid foundation of great songs. Clever lyrics, killer riffs, loads of melodic hooks, excellent musicianship, intriguing arrangements and compelling production: there is a reason his songs are admired by people like John Lennon, Pete Townshend and Bob Dylan... You know, people who know what they're talking about. But what you need to get the full experience, after you've familiarized yourself with the songs, is to see him live. So, in no particular order, here are a few concert movies featuring the legendary Alice Cooper
A Paranormal Evening was captured live at the Paris Olympia in 2017 and features all of the hits and classics performed by his current top-notch band. It's probably the best presentation out there if you want to see what an Alice Cooper show is all about these days. Among the highlights is an epic version of the quasi-Prog number Halo Of Flies. And, as an added bonus, we were at that show!
Alice Cooper Live at Montreux was recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2005 when Alice was touring behind his Dirty Diamonds record. We had just seen him in Paris the night before! Alice always digs out some deep cuts for the fans and on this one he unearthed Wish I Was Born In Beverly Hills off of the From The Inside album, which sets up one of the greatest visual gags of the whole show.
Good To See You Again Alice Cooper is Alice's first movie. It was recorded on the Billion Dollar Babies tour and is the best document of the original band in action. It serves to show that there was no other band like it. While their songs were pure Hard Rock, thanks to the influence of producer Bob Erin who managed to streamline their more experimental tendencies, the breadth of their influence meant that their sound was unique. Burlesque music, spy movies soundtracks, Yardbirds-like guitar attacks and a rhythm section as unique as The Who's... This is Alice Cooper at its most controversial, satirical, and even political!
Unfortunately, the performances are interspersed with a laughable storyline that is best skipped over... Except for that opening scene of Alice singing The Lady Is A Tramp in a white tuxedo!
Recorded in 1975 on the tour to promote Welcome To My Nightmare, Alice's first "solo" album (before that, Alice Cooper was a band comprised of five individuals), this is an absolute classic and remains one of the most spectacular rock shows ever presented. The magic screen trick alone is worth the price of admission, but everything in that movie is great, from the musical performances to the dance routines. This was a landmark tour that owed as much to Broadway as it did to Detroit Hard Rock and would influence every music performer from Michael Jackson to Rob Zombie.
The Nightmare is a TV special that aired in 1975 that tries to re-create the Welcome To My Nightmare live show for TV audiences. This is where the horror movie aesthetic in Alice's act really takes root. In fact, the TV special (like the album) features Hammer Horror legend V>intent Price. It's all tongue in cheek, of course, and the cheesy B-movie atmosphere only adds to the surreal, oneiric theme of the show.
The Strange Case of Alice Cooper was recorded on the Madhouse Tour to promote From The Inside, and it's a great document for a number of reasons. Firstly, it features a bunch of songs from that record that he would never play again. If you're familiar with the album, you know how great the songs are. Secondly, this is Alice fresh out of rehab and performing sober for the first time. In fact, the album and the show are about his struggle with the bottle and the people he met while in a mental institute he checked himself in to kick his addiction. Frighteningly gaunt, his voice in that movie is an acquired taste: he talks more than he sings, but that's part of what makes this such a fascinating, if rather morbid experience.
The Theatre Of Death show is another somewhat "recent" tour that took place in 2010. It was notable for featuring several on-stage "executions". Alice Cooper often "dies" in his stage show, to atone for his many, many transgressions. Sometimes he is hung, sometimes decapitated by a guillotine, sometimes electrocuted on an electric chair... On this run, he gets all three. Yet somehow, like a slasher movie villain, he always seems to rise from the dead just in time for the encore.
In 2000, Alice released Brutal Planet, an album heavily influenced by Industrial Metal and bands like Marilyn Manson or White Zombie that he himself had influenced. Filmed on the tour to promote that record, Brutally Live is one of the best Alice Cooper concert movies out there for the camera work and the editing, as well as the show narrative. It also features a song that he hasn't played since then and which is one of his best "recent" numbers: Pick Up The Bones, an extremely morbid and emotional song about a family decimated by war.
1989's Trash was Alice's last major commercial success... But what a success it was. Everything in that album was designed to cater to the late 80's Hair Metal masses, and it worked. With the help of Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler, Desmond Child and more, Alice finally returned to the top of the carts with songs like Poison and House Of Fire. Alice Cooper Trashes The World was recorded in Birmingham on the tour to promote the album and is notable for featuring a female backing vocalist to help reproduce the record's intricate gang vocal harmonies. The setlist is fantastic, Alice and his band are full of energy... Another great concert movie that is essential to any Alice enthusiast.
If you want to dig a little deeper, you can also check out these other items:
Produced and directed by Banger Films, the same team that released documentaries on Rush, ZZ Top and Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Super Duper Alice Cooper is a visually innovative journey through one of rock's most important artists and his demons. Establishing a parallel between Vincent/Alice and Jekyll/Hyde, the filmmaker tells the story of a pastor's son getting lost in the sex, drugs and rock n' roll lifestyle before merging victorious. Unfortunately, the story stops when Alice gets sober and returns to the stage as a Heavy Metal villain, which thankfully leaves the possibility of a sequel... All they need is an angle.
Alice Cooper, Golf Monster is Alice's story as told to two biographers, seen through the prism of his addiction to golf. That's right, Alice Cooper is an avid golfer... Some great behind the scenes anecdotes, previously unseen photos, a humorous tone and a fascinating glimpse into American suburbia in the 1950's make this one of the most fun rock n' roll biographies out there. The golf angle can get a little too much at times but that's a small complaint.
In 1994, Alice Cooper released The Last Temptation, a concept album telling the story of Steven, a young suburban teenager confronted with the temptations of sex, drugs, money and violence. This Marvel graphic novel, which was first published by Marvel, is a great companion to a record that is, in my opinion, the last true Alice Cooper masterpiece. He's done some great things since, but this one is on the same level as Killer or Welcome To My Nightmare. The comic book tells the full story and adds another dimension to this great morality play.
Written by original Alice Cooper band bassist Dennis Dunaway, Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group is a great insight into the first few years of Alice Cooper, from the band's inception in high school to their break-up in 1974.
Of course, Alice is still very active and he's announced a new album to be released in August/ You can pre-save it in your Apple Music library by clicking on it below:
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