Originally, the gig should have been in Basel. I suppose, they were looking for a smaller venue due to low advance ticket sales and the Eulachhalle in Winterthur happened to be available. Alice has played the Z7 in Pratteln a few times, but even that venue would have been one or two sizes to big this time. The Z7 holds around 1500 people and, a good guess, there wasn't a full thousand present in Winterthur. And the Eulachhalle is really a sports hall and it looks the part. Rock'n'Roll is the furthest from your mind when you're there. Although the original ACG has played there as well. Never mind, The Coop is just not drawing masses of fans anymore.
Special guest from the U.K. was The Treatment. A hardrockband that sounded like a leftover from the 80's. Not bad, but really, we've heard this kind of music. Some good songs, but who really needs the antics of a band like this. They were certainly not used to such a big stage and you could be forgiven to think, that they were in training for the New York marathon.
Alice Cooper. Strange that they would be playing AC's new CD during the break between The Treatment and the headliner. Usually you just don't do it. But that was maybe because it was also some sort of marketing, at least you could buy the new LP/CD at the merchandise stand. AC in top form. The band, with the new woman guitarist, smoking. Hard hitting and precise. But, and this is a big but, it was one of these greatest hits shows. I've seen one of these last year and it was actually one of the most forgettable events involving The Coop. I was afraid something like this was going to happen again, and I was right. One hit song after the other makes this fan a bit tired. Mr Cooper can do better. I've seen (and heard) him do it, so no excuses here. About halfway through (around "Halo Of Flies"), I thought of the whole shebang as a toned down show. Once more getting the cheapo version in Switzerland. You can always tell, because Alice does the cane pointing and posing far to often. I was really surprised when he got beheaded, because just minutes before that, I told someone that they could forget about Alice being killed that evening.
This was the "No More Mr. Nice Guy" tour, so there were not a lot of new songs on offer (from his album "Welcome 2 My Nightmare"). Having seen Alice Cooper on stage more than I can remember, I was still pleasantly surprised about a few things. One song in particular. "School's Out" with "Another Brick In The Wall" thrown in somewhere in the middle. Although I'm not a fan of Pink Floyd and I believe "A Brick In The Wall" to be a mediocre album at the most, I was grinning. Us Alice working such a ditty into one of his classic songs. Chapeau, Mr. Cooper, an excellent idea and it fit your own song like a glove. At around 2200hrs it was all over and once more Alice Cooper had paid his annual visit to the land of cheese and chocolate. Next time, it's probably going to be a club gig, because even less people will attend.
A very nice evening, good music, although the whole gig was more or less without a red thread, which made it a bit unremarkable. I wouldn't call this a highlight of all the AC gigs I've been to, in my list, this is rather somewhere at the bottom, but I'm complaining on a high level here, because I just know, AC can do better. And I missed "Be My Lover". Well, maybe next time, but then we can expect more songs from his current album. And yes, the lady on guitar is a nice looking gal.
Cheers
Devon
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