Concert review: Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie make shock rock a blast at Xcel Energy Center
Halloween arrived early to St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center Sunday night when the double bill of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie brought two generations of shock rock to a gleeful crowd of about 10,000.
From the early days of the Alice Cooper band to his solo career that began in 1975, the man born Vincent Furnier has enjoyed his position as one of the most-loved musicians in the business, thanks to his hard-driving songs, spirited live performances and comically ghoulish persona that earned him the title of the Godfather of Shock Rock.
Cooper has influenced countless musicians who’ve followed him, including Zombie himself, who inducted the Alice Cooper band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Now 76, Cooper has said he’s six years younger than Mick Jagger and that whenever the Rolling Stones frontman retires, Cooper figures he’s got six more years left in him: “I will not let him beat me when it comes to longevity.”
Sunday night, Cooper felt as ageless as ever, from his barking voice to multiple costume changes. He has continued to record new music, including his most recent four albums which he worked on with Bob Ezrin, the mega-producer behind Cooper’s biggest records from the ’70s.
Not that Cooper played any of the new stuff, though. In his tightly paced hour-long set, he focused on his early hitmaking days (“No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Elected,” “I’m Eighteen”) and his successful second act during the hair metal era (“Poison,” “Hey Stoopid,” “Lock Me Up”).
Of course, he also found time for his famed theatrics. Cinematic serial killer Jason Voorhees showed up on stage during “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask),” a giant monster joined him for “Feed My Frankenstein” as did a whip-cracking demon in a bikini during “Go to Hell.” Cooper’s most famous bit took place during “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” which opened with him wearing a straitjacket and wrapped with his head on a guillotine.
The crowd ate it all up and showered love on his terrific band, which includes three guitarists. Fan favorite Nita Strauss even got her own solo.
Zombie, 59, first found fame in the ’90s as the leader of the metal band White Zombie. After a pair of hit major label albums, the band split and Zombie went on to pursue a solo career. He’s also become an accomplished director of horror films inspired by the likes of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” “The Shining” and “A Clockwork Orange.”
As such, his show offered plenty of visual spectacle with custom graphics, vintage film clips and heavily treated live footage flickering on the numerous screens that decorated the stage. One of the most effective combinations of audio and visual happened during “The Satanic Rites of Blacula,” a track from his most recent album “The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy” that blended footage from the 1972 cult classic with pentagrams and blood red washes of color.
Zombie’s solo songs can get a bit murky, but “Living Dead Girl,” “Superbeast” and “Dragula” helped make the night a blast.
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