ALICE COOPER
HEINEKEN MUSIC HALL 12 NOVEMBER 2002 AMSTERDAM

Of course I missed - again because of those nerveracking traffic jams in The Netherlands - LA Guns, the opening band of this evening. I never really liked this band; so who cares...

Just five minutes after my arrival in the hall, Alice and band kick off with a medley consisting of “Sex, Drugs & Money”, “Brutal Planet” and “Dragontown”. This excellent start proves that Alice (who is in his mid-fifties!!) is still not ready to retire. The crowd gets its money worth with a lot of golden Alice Cooper “oldies” : “18”, always on the set, the mysterious “Welcome To My Nightmare”, a swinging version of “Billion Dollar Babies”, the rock and roll-like track “Under My Wheels” and of course the inevitable “School’s Out”; which turns out to be a real crowdpleaser again!

As always we can enjoy a perfect rockshow with lots of entertainment and drama. Alice does his utmost and he has trouble with the well-known nurse (a role played by his daughter), he struggles with “Dead Babies” and he is killed by the guilllotine. The AC-band, which, among others, consists of Pete Friesen (guitar) and Eric Singer(drums), play like young gods and that loud that in the middle of the set they blow up the sound equipment!!!

From his last two albums we have the pleasure to listen to “Sanctuary”, “Wicked Young Man” and “Fantasy Man”. During the ballads “I Never Cry” and “Only Women Bleed” the tempo slows down and Alice can get his breath back to stun the audience after that with pure rock songs like “Feed My Frankenstein”, “Lost In America” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy”. The encores are “Elected” and “Department Of Youth”. Alice then wears a T-shirt with “Britney Wants Me”(front)and on the back: “DEAD”; his daughter turns up as a Britney look-a-like, and Alice chops off her head. The crowd of course love this and shout like hell and are pleased that Britney is dead...

Alice can go on like this for many years and I hope he does because he still ROCKS!!!!!!

Martien Koolen

Review: Martien Koolen,
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