Alice Cooper / Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction

For the first time at Halloween, the shock rock veteran has ventured out of the Mighty USA for a couple of nights at the Roundhouse.

The start of the night's entertainment was from a few nutcases with a thing for pain. First off, a guy decided that holding helium balloons on a ribbon was a little too much effort. Stapling it to his arm was a far better idea… Then up came a nice lass who between putting cigars out on her tongue and sticking nails in her nose was swinging a briefcase from a piercing in her mouth.



Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction were the first band to the stage. Playing some home grown American heavy rock. Arrogant and lost in their own egos they didn't seem to care about anything. A few good riffs but nothing that really stood out for me.

Next up was the fancy dress competition. Very quickly narrowed down to two people, the close winner did have a distinct likeness for Mr Vincent Furnier. Possibly the funniest moment of the night followed, where none of the contestants managed to hit the human dartboard! Better luck next time.



A couple more painful looking performances including a dancer on point pushing needles with flowers on through her arm set the stage for what the night was about - Alice Cooper. 'School's Out' opened the show with a fright. Managing to get through the first few songs without being killed was a good run for him. A guillotine, being institutionalised, hung, put in an iron maiden and a lethal injection were just some of the impressive deaths he went through during the set. If you hadn't guessed, 'Poison' featured one of these... guess which!

Its hard to pull songs out that really shone out above the rest because its easily as much about the show as its about the songs. The extra touches of having stage crew – dressed up as ninjas - part of the act and getting stabbed and knocked around the cobwebby stage full of smoke and pumpkins just made it all work.

Although vocally its rougher than on record, that just adds to the show. Growling lyrics is something you cant do for show without living it and there's no doubt Alice Cooper has. Whether shock rock is your thing or not, it makes a Halloween to remember. Well worth seeing when he next comes back to the UK, spooking us out again!

FUTURE GIGS

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