Alice Cooper Does Sideshows

Alice Cooper is returning to Australia for the first time since 2009 to tour alongside Van Halen, Bad Religion, Hole, Sister of Mercy and more, as part of the Soundwave Revolution Festival.

However for those fans that might struggle with the concept of 70+ hard rock bands in a day Alice will being doing a couple of sideshows.

The last tour here was a ripper as my review suggested. Here’s an excerpt for those who weren’t paying attention.

“When Alice Cooper first started his/their shock rock act some thirty something years ago I’m certain no-one, least of all Vincent himself, was thinking about its potential relevance in 2009. But whether it be by luck or grand design ‘Alice’ made a couple of very shrewd early moves.

Firstly the character of Alice was and remains virtually ageless. Once the make-up goes on and the costumes are donned there is virtually nothing that makes Alice look any older now than back when school really was just out. Cooper has maintained his part of the bargain by keeping himself lithe and fit so that the costumes didn’t look silly (well ‘silly’ is of course a relative term!). And even if he did look a little older there is nothing inherently ‘young’ about the creation of Alice anyway. The fight between evil and more evil isn’t necessarily a young mans war.

The other stroke of good planning was that they created an Alice Cooper repertoire that would age extremely well. The songs were never metal, they were never punk. They were simply loud, theatrical, rock n’ roll and as such have never been desperately fashionable and hence they weren’t prone to fall out of fashion spectacularly, a difference that say Adam Ant may have done well to appreciate.

Alice Cooper didn’t give us any time to build any negative immediate impressions at the second of his Melbourne shows, launching a devastating right-left-right flurry of punches to open the concert. Schools Out, Department of Youth and I’m Eighteen had the audience sold from the get-go, before any overt ‘theatricality’ needed to be introduced.”

Alice Cooper Soundwave Revolution sideshows:

Mon 26 Sep Enmore Theatre NSW

Thu 29 Sep Palais Theatre VIC

On sale THU 14 JUL from Ticketek / 132 849

 

Soundwave Revolution Springs Some Surprises

While the Soundwave Festival usually has a lot of bands that readers of this website probably don’t know (cos the author of this website has no idea either!), it usually throws up a couple of rock legends that we will want to see.

Now there is a new Soundwave Festival, this time called Soundwave Revolution and it has also provided a few big names that will be of huge interest to “older punters”

Headlining Soundwave Revolution are Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Hole, Sisters Of Mercy, Danzig, Kevin Devine, Bad Religion, Machine Head and Alter Bridge.

There is a couple of remarkable announcements in there. Van Halen will be touring with David Lee Roth out front, the first time he has ever toured Australia with the band. Alice Cooper is in great form recently as his your from last year showed and Hole is always going to be of interest with Courtney Love being a compelling character at the very least. But the one that particularly interests me is Sisters of Mercy. I must admit that is one band that I simply assumed I’d never see live. They will definitely be worth the price of a ticket on curiosity value alone.

Those headliners join these already announced acts:

All Time Low | Attack! Attack! | Black Veil Brides | Cro-Mags | Dashboard Confessional | Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows | Devin Townsend | Every Time I Die | Face to Face | Four Year Strong | Framing Hanley | Funeral For a Friend | Gojira | Hatebreed | Hellogoodbye | Hellyeah | Hollywood Undead | Holy Grail | In This Moment | Kvelertak | Madina Lake | Make Do And Mend | Panic! at the Disco | Relient K | Set Your Goals | Skindred | Steel Panther | Story Of The Year | Street Dogs | Sum 41 | Terrible Things | The Acacia Strain | The Damned Things | The Dangerous Summer | The Swellers | The Used | The Word Alive | This Providence | Thrice | Thursday | Times of Grace | Unearth | Watain | We Are The In Crowd | We Are The Ocean | Whitechapel | Yellowcard | Young Guns | Zebrahead

The dates:

Brisbane – 24th September

Sydney – 25th September

Melbourne – 30th September

Adelaide – 1st October

Perth – 3rd October

 

Tickets are on sale June 2.

 

Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders – Red Light Fever (RCA/Sony)

Taylor Hawkins is the drummer from the Foo Fighters and the Coattail Riders is a side project that actually has a history that goes back to 2006 when they released a self titled debut album. I never heard that album, but I doubt it could be any more entertaining that this throwback collection.

Let’s face it – this is one of the most deliciously retro albums I’ve heard in years. The influences…no the “inspirations” … are pure classic rock gold. The greats are all there in the record collections that inform this album – Slade, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Bad Company and T Rex just to name a few.

There’s double tracked guitar solos, stomping rhythm tracks, synthesised washes of strings, echo and reverb by the boatload handclaps and even a couple of killer ballads. It’s just great fun and whether the collective tongues are in the collective cheeks or not, it hardly even matters.

Hawkins sings really well, sounding very English at times, even reminding me of Ian Hunter on a few songs. He and the band (Chris Chaney, Gannin Arnold, Nate Wood and Drew Hester) deliver these songs with an almost wide –eyed innocence that indicates they either a) don’t get or b) completely get just how referential and reverential this album is. As a listener it just doesn’t matter. Just enjoy the ride. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor wander in and play on a couple of songs and The Cars Elliot Easton even makes an appearance.

The album art also gets in on the act by graphically adding the ring on the cardboard sleeve that a vinyl record used to make.

Red Light Fever takes me back to a time when rock n’ roll was new, different and a great source of escapism. This is an album that says (to a 40 something year old) summer holidays, my imaginary big brothers panel van, Big M girls (in my dreams), Chiko Rolls, EON-FM and sneaking in to see The Angels and Divinyls playing at the Sandy Commodore.

Good times.