overlap

If ever there was a gig where less than immaculate make up mattered any less than when Dee Snider and Alice Cooper are appearing on the same stage, I can't imagine it. So four shades of eye shadow later and a quick slick of mascara - because powder coated lashes in pastel colours is a step into wrongness too far - I hit the venue just in time to catch the second half of Twisted Sister's first song. Even without the logo backdrop, there's nobody else that it could possibly be! Allegedly Snider's just turned 50, but he runs around with all the energy of a five year old, but ten times the volume. TS were never the most sophisticated band, so there's a risk their big dumb schlock-rock could not have aged very well. And musically they remain unsophisticated, but the key thing is the attitude behind it and that hasn't aged at all. They go to great lengths to reminisce about their first show in the UK, supporting Motörhead way back in the mists of time at Wrexham's football ground, and when they later point out that it's the entire original TS line-up not some lame two original members and a bunch of session musos grouping, this seems like not just a nostalgia exercise. For all the TS chat with the crowd - and over a 75 minute set including encore, that's a lot of chat - there's next to nothing from Alice. There's a line in a song changed to refer to the city early in the set, and a 'thank you Cardiff!' at the end, but otherwise it's the slickest, most efficiently choreographed, professional display I've seen in some time, but it has a slight feeling that it could be anywhere at any time. It's more of a touring play where the script is set in solid rock than anything else. But with that many great songs to fit in, he's got a point. I'm not a major Alice fan, but this time I came away having seen a great show. The Be My Frankenstein/Welcome To My Nightmare/Only Women Bleed section builds up nicely to the guillotine stunt, even if you can see exactly how it's done, and the straitjacket is merely one of a huge number of props and costume changes - you get an awful lot of production for your money. And where the Crüe blew almost all of it on pyro, Alice has got the whole damn thing knocked into a top hat. * and if you really want to rock, there's nothing quite like a post-gig trip to the all night supermarket to show off your slightly sweat-bled purple eye shadow and wake up bored night-time till staff!

Labels: Alice Cooper, gigs, rock, Twisted Sister