There was a time when Alice Cooper’s brand of horror show theatrics wed to caustically tuneful hard rock was considered a threat to public morality. These days, of course, his act is unthreatening enough to headline the Wisconsin State Fair. What’s changed?
The answer could take doctoral dissertations in musicology and sociology to hazard an answer. What counts is that Cooper, his band and assorted extras still brought a show on par with the extravaganzas of his 1970s heyday when they headlined the fair Friday night.
The retrospective genius of Cooper’s aesthetic of mascara, guillotines, power chords and sick humor as sly social commentary has been the launch point for numerous genres and musical tribes. Punk, goth, black metal and industrial number among the most obvious descendants of Cooper’s outrageousness. The current genius of Cooper’s ghoulish stage character is that it’s become a persona he has grown into, even as a teetotaling Christian known to play the celebrity golf circuit when not plying his shock schtick to enraptured crowds.
In a way, it makes more sense for Cooper to be a currently 70-year-old singing monster/master of ceremonies than the young buck he was when Frank Zappa signed him (or them, as Alice Cooper started as the name of the band itself) to his label in the late ’60s. Through a two-hour show replete with a series of costume changes that could frazzle a man half his age, Cooper delivered nigh everything that could have been expected of a performer of his seniority and influence.
Though commercial hard rock radio has been loath to play anything from it, the tracks he sang from his 2017 album for which his current tour is named, Paranormal, wouldn’t sound out of place in rotation with Seether, Shinedown and Ghost. The wilderness of strangeness and silliness between his last pop-charting single, 1989’s acerbic “Poison,” and the present yielded tracks he saw fit to include this evening, such as “Lost in America,” “Brutal Planet,” “Woman of Mass Distraction” (really!) and “Feed My Frankenstein.” The last one provided the setup to bring an enormous, cartoonish zombie figure on stage who sort of lip-synced the end of the song.
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The first of his dubiously advised balladic hit singles throughout the later ’70s, “Only Women Bleed,” set off the plot structuring the second half of the show. Cooper’s wife, Sheryl, dolled up as a nurse in exaggerated death mask makeup that King Diamond could envy, suffers at the hands of her murderous other half. Villainous Alice gets his comeuppance, first in a straightjacket and, finally... well, not to spoil anything, but a severed Alice Cooper head would make for a sweet trick-or-treat mask.
Cooper still wields fierce command of the early-’70s odes to teen ennui, confusion and frustration that made him a household name, too. “No More Mr. Nice Guy” appeared early on in the set. “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out” still pack at least as much punch, too. The latter became part of a medley with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” that made for another natural audience sing-along.
Generous bandleader that he is, Cooper allowed his guitarist and drummer accomplished solos. However, neither player could steal the spotlight from the absurd, regal presence of their boss. Long may his horror and humor entertain.
Read more of our coverage of the Wisconsin State Fair and enter to win a 4-pack of tickets here.
