Alice Cooper

Finally, on June 22nd, I was able to see the shock rocker Alice Cooper at the Jahrhunderthalle Frankfurt as part of his Detroit Muscle: Live Tour 2022. The last time he was on the road in Germany was in 2019, this time songs from the current album Detroit Sories, a musical homage to his hometown, were performed live for the first time. With the record he even reached the top of the german charts. As support and special guest, Michael Monroe (ex-Hanoi Rocks) and his band came with him. Michael is regarded as an icon and pioneer of hair metal.

Michael Monroe

You can see, that he already has a few years in the music business behind him. Absolutely experienced and in the best Rock’n’Roll manner, he jumped across the stage with an energy that would make many younger people green with envy. Always with the microphone stand in one hand, he ran across the stage or jumped on the speakers, only to be suddenly slowed down by a micro cable which is too short. But that didn’t bother him in the least. Sometimes the stand just flew into the corner and had to be replaced. His band mates also played their set with absolute routine and without incident. The old stager in the business didn’t have to make any great effort to entertain the audience and heat up the atmosphere. A highlight was the use of the saxophone, which the singer wore to play part of the song live. In addition, he insisted on coming off the stage towards the end of the last song in order to finish the song on the barrier, held by security and fans. The mood after Michael Monroe was already relatively relaxed and the anticipation of the old master of shock rock was great.

At the beginning, the back part of the stage was still concealed with a large front banner, on which a pair of eyes could be seen. These began to glow red on time and with the words “Welcome to the Alice Cooper Horror Castle” the curtain fell and revealed a really beautiful horror castle. A large gate guarded by a skeleton, a zombie in a garbage can, a walk-in tower and a sword construct that vaguely resembles a ship’s steering wheel, except that it was studded with skulls. As the first tacts of Frankenstein sounded and the band, including horror master Alice Cooper, entered the stage, there was no stopping the audience. There was singing and clapping along. The old master of scary rock definitely hasn’t forgotten anything. Confident in style and lyrics, as always, they delivered with the first song. During the performance, a giant Frankenstein puppet came onto the stage. It continued with songs right through the band’s history. In Man behind Mask, a masked man tried to stab the two girls walking around on stage. Which he succeeded in one case. When Poison hit, the audience sang along. At Billion Babies, a huge baby appeared, which at the end of the song shot confetti snippets from a catapult at the listeners. After a solo by the lead guitarist Nita, which she initially played on the walk-in tower, the shock rocker returned to the stage with the following song Roses on White Lace. Here his wife had her first appearance, in the form of a walking zombie bride, including a blood-smeared dress and a bridal bouquet of red roses. This was followed by a longer drum solo by Glen Sobel, which was due to the grand old man’s costume change. For the song Dead Babies / Love the Dead, the shock rocker came back wrapped in a straitjacket. He was led by two people wearing large baby heads and uniforms. In addition, his wife had her second big appearance here, pushing a stroller decorated with skulls. At the end of the song, Alice Cooper was led under a guillotine and seemingly beheaded. The severed doll’s head, which looked really similar to the original, was then extensively presented to the audience. Escape and Teenage Frankenstein followed before everyone left the stage to play an encore to applause. As usual, this was the song Schools Out. For this purpose, soap bubbles were blown onto the stage and there were huge balloons filled with confetti which Alice stabbed during the performance. After that, this truly unique show was unfortunately over far too quickly, leaving only happy and satisfied listeners.