Heavy Metal Addiction

Alice Cooper – Theatre Of Death: Live At Hammersmith 2009 (2010, Alive/Bigger Picture)

1. School’s Out
2. Department Of Youth
3. I’m Eighteen
4. Wicked Young Man
5. Ballad Of Dwight Fry
6. Go To Hell
7. Guilty
8. Welcome To My Nightmare
9. Cold Ethyl
10. Poison
11. The Awakening
12. From The Inside
13. Nurse Rozetta
14. Is It My Body?
15. Be My Lover
16. Only Woman Bleed/I Never Cry
17. Black Widow
18. Vengeance Is Mine
19. Devil’s Food
20. Dirty Diamonds
21. Billion Dollar Babies
22. Killer
23. I Love The Dead
24. No More Mr. Nice guy
25. Under My Wheels
26. School’s Out (reprise)

Band Lineup:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Chuck Garric – Bass
Keri Kelli – Guitars
Damon Johnson – Guitars
Jimmy DeGrasso – Drums
Tiffany Lowe – Stage Performer

Producers: Alice Cooper, Shep Gordon & Rob Roth

Country: USA

Total Time (CD & DVD) = approx. 91 minutes each

Alice Cooper

THEATRE OF DEATH: LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH (2009) is a CD and DVD release of Alice Cooper’s headline performance at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London, England. The Theatre Of Death Tour for 2009 was basically a continuation of the same tour Alice has been doing since 2008 in support of his last studio album, ALONG CAME A SPIDER (2008). The only difference between this tour and the previous one is that only one song from ALONG CAME A SPIDER (‘Vengeance Is Mine’) is featured, although the setlist contains most of the classics that Alice normally plays and a few deep tracks and newer songs from albums he’s released over the last 10 years. I saw the current North American tour (with Rob Zombie) back in October and the difference I can tell between the two is that the Hammersmith show has a few extra songs, but it’s primarily the same set, and the stage show/performance is the same.

What you have here is a two disc package in a regular CD jewel case containing the DVD of the full concert and the accompanying audio CD. Basically, both are one in the same except that one is video and one is audio. It’s nice that the two are packaged together so you spend a reasonable amount of money and you get great value. What you’re buying this set for is the DVD, Alice Cooper has such a theatrical and visual show that the only way to appreciate it is to actually see it. How many other artists kill themselves multiple times on stage? There’s the guillotine, noose and an IV needle all set up to kill Alice but, like the tour slogan says: “They keep killing him…..and he keeps coming back!”. The full performance is truly great with the interaction between Alice and stage performer Tiffany Rowe who plays characters like Cold Ethyl and Nurse Rozetta, the different costumes and props and, as mentioned, the different killings of Alice all up against a great backdrop of music.

As far as the setlist goes, you get the classics like ‘School’s Out’, ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, ‘Poison’, ‘I’m Eighteen’ and a whole bunch of others but Alice and the band really lean heavily on the WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE album from 1975 by playing seven out of the album’s eleven songs. I can’t complain about that because I have been an Alice Cooper fan for a long time and I like all the classic records. What adds to the show for me is the newer songs because Alice has really had a rebirth in the album department since 2000′s BRUTAL PLANET on through ALONG CAME  SPIDER, all of them are really solid records. There’s ‘Wicked Young Man’ from BRUTAL PLANET, ‘Vengeance Is Mine’ from ALONG CAME A SPIDER and ‘Dirty Diamonds’ from DIRTY DIAMONDS (2005) and all three come off great in the live set and fit in well to the stage performance.

Bottom Line:
A solid package overall to have the live show captured on DVD and to have the live album for your stereo, car or iPod. There aren’t any extras here, just the same show on both discs, even the booklet is a little sparse but it does fold out to reveal a tour poster. I would call this an excellent live document of where Alice Cooper and his band are in 2010 and if you haven’t seen Alice in concert it’s a great way to experience it. Like I mentioned, I’m a big Alice fan, and I’m still riding a high from seeing him in concert in October, so this CD/DVD package was a must purchase for me and I’ve really enjoyed it. Great music and a great stage performance makes for a great concert and that’s what Alice Cooper always does.