{"id":8891,"date":"2019-10-17T05:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T05:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=8891"},"modified":"2019-10-15T10:09:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T10:09:24","slug":"alice-cooper-the-stranglers-mc-50-motorpoint-arena-cardiff-12-10-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=8891","title":{"rendered":"Alice Cooper \/ The Stranglers \/ MC 50 – Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff – 12\/10\/2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019d witnessed every Alice Cooper show in Wales… until the last one. Why the sabbatical? It was an all-seated affair – the anathema of the true rock \u2018n\u2019 roll fan. So why, a number of years later, did I find myself taking a seat in the very same venue to attend the final show on the UK leg of the Godfather of Shock Rock\u2019s \u2018Ol\u2019 Black Eyes Is Back\u2019 tour? Well, after squinting my RnR morals and convincing myself that Alice\u2019s legendary live show fusion of vaudeville and Grand Guignol would be the one thing that would suit an all-seated affair, and questioning just how many more times I would get the chance to see the artist formerly known as Vincent Furnier, I conceded that there were worse things to do on a Saturday night in the run-up to All Hallow\u2019s Eve than watch one of the most iconic performers of his generation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cKick out the jams, motherfuckers!\u201d A curious choice of term to administer to the auditory canals of hundreds of ageing rock fans sat down at around teatime, you\u2019d think. Not when it\u2019s coming from the MC50, the alternative supergroup of sorts put together by the legendary Wayne Kramer to honour the legacy of his original band, the MC5. With Kramer, bedecked with red, white, and blue outfit and matching guitar, flanked by guitarist Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, bass player Billy Gould of Faith No More, with Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty bringing up the rear and Zen Guerilla frontman Marcus Durant finger-snapping front and centre, this would be a true rock \u2018n\u2019 roll spectacle to see based on line-up alone; if, of course, the band didn\u2019t have a slew of time-honoured tunes to back it up.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Kick Out The Jams\u2019 came early (second song in, following a Kramer-fronted \u2018Ramblin\u2019 Rose\u2019) but it was a lighting of the touch paper of an incendiary nine-song set that didn\u2019t shave an inch off the original MC5\u2019s legendary status. A classic one-two-three of \u2018Come Together\u2019, \u2018Motor City is Burning\u2019, and \u2018Borderline\u2019 was given a riotous rock \u2018n\u2019 roll run for its money by the similarly pulsing \u2018Everything\u2019, \u2018Call Me Animal\u2019, and \u2018Sister Anne\u2019, before Durant – a masterstroke of frontman recruitment, it has to be noted: towering in both stature and vocal prowess – took off his seemingly perma-shades for a set-closing \u2018Looking At You\u2019. \u201cFight The Power!\u201d a Trump-baiting Kramer shouted as the band left the stage, victorious… and I fought the urge to tell the clod-eared jokers around me who had retreated to the bar to swill overpriced beer down their insipid, Planet Rock-loving necks that they had turned their backs on probably the best band to ever open a three-band-bill at the ungodly hour of 7 pm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The gentleman seated next to my good self was witnessing The Stranglers live for the thirty-fifth time and, it soon became very clear, a lot of people were there to see the veteran act. It\u2019s almost thirty years now since Hugh Cornwell left the band, but his current replacement, Baz Warne (as featured on a lengthy list of former Toy Dolls band members), is more than a worthy successor to the position; the singer\/guitarist more than at home alongside original members, bassist\/vocalist Jean-Jacques Burnel and keyboardist Dave Greenfield, plus (baby-faced in comparison) drummer Jim Macaulay.<\/p>\n

\u2018Relentless\u2019, from 2016\u2019s \u2018Suite XVI\u2019, reminded everyone in attendance that this band isn\u2019t just a nostalgia act on the retro tour circuit, but the core of the setlist (as many would have expected\/hoped of a shorter, eleven-song support set) was culled from the most famed corners of the band\u2019s back catalogue. From opener \u2018Toiler On The Sea\u2019 to the set-closing \u2018No More Heroes\u2019, via \u2018Nice \u2018n\u2019 Sleazy\u2019, \u2018Peaches\u2019, \u2018(Get a) Grip (on Yourself)\u2019, and, of course, \u2018Golden Brown\u2019, The Stranglers did nothing but impress upon those not already converted that they had been spectators of a classy performance from one of the truly great British bands. It may have lacked the adrenalin kick of the MC50\u2019s set, but the Meninblack produced something as cool and slick as black ice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All-seated? Pah! The curtain hiding Alice Cooper\u2019s latest stage set – his Nightmare Castle – hadn\u2019t hit the deck before almost every single person in the floor seating area was on their hooves, bolt (in the neck) upright, raising fists and yelling in the direction of opener, \u2018Feed My Frankenstein\u2019. That opener (culled from 1991\u2019s \u2018Hey Stoopid\u2019) was an early indicator as to the tone of the show, with many tunes pulled kicking and screaming from that mid-eighties onwards cock shock rock period of the Alice Cooper story. Guitarist Nita Strauss, a whirling dervish throwing out, at times, Vinnie Vincent-like numbers of notes, was perfectly suited to paying the utmost rocking respect to this era; her hard-hitting shredding style underpinning \u2018Bed Of Nails\u2019 (from 1989\u2019s \u2018Trash\u2019), \u2018Roses On White Lace\u2019 (from 1987\u2019s \u2018Raise Your Fist And Yell\u2019), and the \u2018Constrictor\u2019 duo of \u2018Teenage Frankenstein\u2019 and \u2018He\u2019s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)\u2019. The latter was, of course, featured on the soundtrack of 1986 horror sequel Friday the 13th, Part 6: Jason Lives, and this unashamed Eighties horror obsessive loved hearing it in the set. Jason himself made an on-stage appearance too; goring the throat of a teen with a plastic machete before revealing that the man behind the mask was none other than – yep, you\u2019ve guessed it – that fella whose face was on those thirty quid T-shirts in the foyer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The song choices weren\u2019t purely focussed on big hair and big scares, however: \u2018Raped and Freezin\u2019 made a most welcome return to the setlist, a true highlight to be honest, and \u2018My Stars\u2019 and \u2018Muscle of Love\u2019 checked the same box too. \u2018Fallen in Love\u2019, from 2017\u2019s \u2018Paranormal\u2019, appears to be a mainstay in the set nowadays and fits in perfectly and, writing of mainstays, \u2018Poison\u2019 appeared surprisingly early at the mid-point of the set, following a seminal one-two of \u2018I\u2019m Eighteen\u2019 and \u2018Billion Dollar Babies\u2019.<\/p>\n

Babies, you say? Arguably the most ludicrous yet entertaining of Alice\u2019s stage props appeared after a breathless \u2018execution\u2019 section where a twisted fusion of \u2018Steven\u2019, \u2018Dead Babies\u2019, \u2018I Love The Dead\u2019, and \u2018Escape\u2019 saw the Coop rid himself of straightjacket, cleaver a baby\u2019s head off, lose his own head via tried and trusted guillotine, then burst back from the dead via a coffin adorned with his legendary eye make-up: interspersed by a giant inflatable baby toddling around with his severed head, of course.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There was a Chuck Garric-sized hole on the stage – the bass player temporarily replaced by Hollywood Vampires four-stringer Chris Wyse, who certainly has the pedigree (The Cult, Ozzy, Ace Frehley) if not the same stage presence – but Strauss attempted to fill it at every available opportunity. Glen Sobel remains one of the finest drummers hitting the skins today – that punters didn\u2019t return to their seats during his drum solo says a lot – and the \u00fcber cool six-string pairing of Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen never fails to impress, inspire, and make a little jealous, even if the latter has added a meta twist these days by channelling his inner Andy McCoy and looking not unlike Electric Angels era Roxie.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After the aforementioned \u2018Teenage Frankenstein\u2019 closed the main set, Alice reappeared for the two-song encore wearing a Wales football shirt – with Cooper and the number 18 on the back, obviously – and parked the proverbial bus for an understandably incredible run through the classic \u2018Under My Wheels\u2019. Only one song could have brought the night(mare) to an all-too-early conclusion. Original Alice Cooper band bass player Dennis Dunaway had joined the stage for \u2018School\u2019s Out\u2019 earlier on the tour, but for the Welsh date it was first Wayne Kramer, then Kim Thayil who stepped up; the latter half-inching Henriksen\u2019s guitar and having to be guided through the now-expected mid-song segue into \u2018Another Brick in the Wall\u2019. Before class was over, the rest of the MC50 and all of The Stranglers were on the stage for proper throwback end-of-tour hijinks in keeping with the Eighties feel of the setlist.<\/p>\n

I have never seen a bad Alice Cooper show, and nothing changed on an October night in the Welsh capital. In fact, if the stewards employed at the Motorpoint Arena had been as torch-happy as the cinema ushers of my youth (when I first experienced some of these Cooper tunes) then I would have found myself on the edge of my seat…<\/p>\n

Author: Gaz Tidey<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Nev Brooks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d witnessed every Alice Cooper show in Wales… until the last one. Why the sabbatical? It was an all-seated affair – the anathema of the true rock \u2018n\u2019 roll fan. So why, a number of years later, did I find myself taking a seat in the very same venue to attend the final show on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[63,3743,3744,1048],"class_list":["post-8891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-alice-cooper","tag-mc50","tag-motorpoint-arena","tag-the-stranglers","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8891"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8933,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8891\/revisions\/8933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}