23-10-2011 Alice Cooper

Supports: The Treatment; Venue: Silverdome, Zoetermeer (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Alice Cooper has a wild reputation, safely build on years of giving shows. With this reputation and the songs that are released in the past he is touring and right now he is in Europe with the “No More Mr. Nice Guy” tour.

The support act of the evening is The Treatment. These British guys seem quite young but fully passionate with the classic rock music. Earlier this year the band released the album “This Might Hurt” and now they are on the road with Alice Cooper. The guys seem to have a little sleeze over them, but not taking it to an overkill. This style is not exactly awakening the audience though. The start of their shows appears to be messy, a lot of headless running around as if the pressure to conquer the audience have become more important than their joy in playing. While this was drifting away during their set and the tense came off it seems easier to catch what the guys are after. The songs they play do not really hit the audience, not even when they try to get them to participate at several times. Hardly any response came back to them, seems like it just would not work today.

When the lights in the ice hall go off and the face of Alice Cooper on the banner begins to shine some cheering arises. “Black Widow” is what starts the set while Alice Cooper himself stand high above his audience showing everyone that a show may be expecte and with a bunch of talented musicians around him, who modestly let the show up for their frontman while they focus on their skills and only draw attention with that it all goes smoothly. In the 1,5 hour set that is given a lot of the most known songs are played, it is not a show to promote new material. A long solo is included as well and right in there you can enjoy the individual talents of the other musicians, their time to shine.

As well as the support had some tame response, during the Alice Cooper the audience was quite tame. When songs like “Only Woman Bleed” are played people mainly listen and watch rather than sing along. A little chance in that came when “Poison” was played at the final part of the set. It seemed a bit of an undressed version which was probably not what everyone expected, but soon the audience got pleased when “School’s Out” got played. Waving a Dutch flag and wearing an orange shirt he received a well-deserved applause. Alice Cooper shows that he knows what makes a good show and it is just a pity that the audience remained as cold as the ice that is usually on the floor in this hall.