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Alice Cooper - Raise The Dead - Live From Wacken

Published October 25 2014


*
=Staff's pick

DVD:
Hello Hooray
House Of Fire
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Under My Wheels
I'll Bite Your Face Off
Billion Dollar Babies
Caffeine
Department Of Youth
Hey Stoopid
Dirty Diamonds
Welcome To My Nightmare
Go To Hell
He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)*
Feed My Frankenstein
Ballad Of Dwight Fry*
Killer
I Love The Dead
Break On Through (To The Other Side)
My Generation
I'm Eighteen
Poison
School's Out/Another Brick In The Wall

DVD bonus material:
Interview

CD 1:
Hello Hooray
House Of Fire
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Under My Wheels
I'll Bite Your Face Off
Billion Dollar Babies*
Caffeine
Department Of Youth
Hey Stoopid
Dirty Diamonds
Welcome To My Nightmare
Go To Hell

CD 2:
He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)
Feed My Frankenstein
Ballad Of Dwight Fry
Killer
I Love The Dead
Break On Through (To The Other Side)
Revolution
Foxy Lady
My Generation
I'm Eighteen
Poison
School's Out/Another Brick In The Wall*


Genre Hard Rock
Alice Cooper
Vocals
Tracks DVD 22/CD 24
Orianthi
Guitar
Runningtime DVD 105 Min./CD 95 Min.
Ryan Roxie
Guitar
Label UDR/ADA
Tommy Henriksen
Guitar
Release 20 October 2014
Chuck Garric
Bass
Country USA
Glen Sobel
Drums
Similar artists ---

Captured here is Alice Cooper's performance at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2013. Primary a DVD / 2 CD set and also the first issue of UDR's Legendary Recordings series, which is linked to the notable Wacken Foundation. My version of this set has kind of a different approach with the CDs comprising 2 additional songs in comparison with the DVD and therefore I haven't been able to have the pleasure to watch the cover versions of The Beatles' Revolution and Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady.

Alice Cooper isn't really in his prime anymore, but when taking his age of a solid 65 on the recordings in concern, I think that he still does a satisfactory presentation of his music during this kind of best of-set. Since his voice never was one of rock music's absolute finest, he however doesn't have the disadvantage of losing too much of his capacity as time passes by. With three guitar players to back him up, he takes on the songs with a great amount of supplement from behind and he continues to bring forth his old tricks on stage. A few of his theatrical props, like the money on the sword in Billion Dollar Babies and the whip in Go To Hell, are definitely close to being totally out of time and nowadays his live performances are in fact more amusing than shocking.

The DVD is recorded more or less at sunset and therefore the stage lighting doesn't come out fully utilized. It's filmed like most Wacken productions, meaning an immensely excessive and obsessive focus on the large crowd from all different angles and from all corners. From the back to the front and from behind the band and also from both stage left and stage right, we see the audience cheer for Alice and his band. A band of 5 that really has to stand strong behind its undisputed frontman, in order to get some well-earned moments of time in the limelight and although the vocalist definitely is the eye-catcher and the center of attention, I think that his crew comes out rather successful at the end of the day.

The bonus material on the DVD is a pretty modest creation and solely includes a less than 20 minutes long interview with Alice. It mainly focuses on his influences, his live shows and the current lineup of his band in 2013 and the questions are asked with proper manners to let the person in focus highlight his excellence a little. In total I see this set as a rather pleasing document of what Alice brings to his audiences in this day and age. Most of the classic songs are definitely still something to be reckoned with and I believe that this rocker still has a few more years of satisfying live performances at hand.

See also review of: Welcome 2 My Nightmare , Along Came A Spider , The Eyes Of Alice Cooper

Production
Vocals
Compositions

5

5

8

Extra material
3
Summary



6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.alicecooper.com
www.facebook.com/alicecooper