Description
Hard rocker Alice Cooper has carved a highly original niche for himself in the world of rock ‘n roll. Mixing a horror/gothic aesthetic with a heavy metal sound, Cooper managed to gain a dedicated, long-lasting cult following. Brutallity Live was filmed at Hammersmith Apollo in London, England at the beginning of 2000 Now, the title ‘Brutally Live’ tells you already that the DVD was recorded while promoting the album ‘Brutal Planet’ and the title track from it is opening the set. Boy, what opening it is! Alice looks fine as a half-witch, half-samurai and the song itself – one of the heaviest ever in his career – puts you in a trance that won’t stop soon. Then comes the dark and catchy ‘Gimme’. After that, one of my favourite Cooper’s classics – ‘Go To Hell’, re-arranged a little to fit the darker sound of the previous tracks. Then ‘Blow Me A Kiss’. Then ‘I’m Eighteen’… I could go on, you know – almost all of the songs here are treasures. And even when Alice goes for the tracks that I thought were a bit weaker when listening to the cd’s, they all of a sudden start to make much more sense here – either because of the new guitarists playing the riffs or just because of Alice’s additional body language that helps you understand what he meant when writing them. Take ‘Blow Me A Kiss’, for instance: Cooper performs so much acting here that you can’t do otherwise but start appreciating the song after all – complete with the politically incorrect lyrics. Other highlights? ‘It’s The Little Things’, for one, with Alice’s introduction (pointing at a fan standing close to the stage): ‘What pisses me is that this guy here in the first row is wearing a Marilyn Manson T-shirt… ’cause, you know, it’s the little things… that drive me MAD!’. Also ‘Under My Wheels’, ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ stand out – the usual killer songs are here supported by Alice doing tricks with his hat, destroying balloons with an epee or throwing fake dollars amongst the audience; much more fun than you could imagine just reading my bland description of it – I can guarantee that! During the whole performance you can choose alternate camera angles (so that it only shows Alice and ignores the rest of the band, for instance) but that doesn’t do much to me. I’m happier to find the spooky video for ‘Gimme’ here: can someone please explain why I never saw this on TV? Never ever? One hot DVD, this. If you’re an Alice fan you should start saving money for it right now. Or if you can’t save – just get yourself one more job or something. This is a must-have.
Track listing:
1. Brutal Planet
2. Gimme
3. Go To Hell
4. Blow Me A Kiss
5. Im Eighteen
6. Pick Up The Bones
7. Feed My Frankenstein
8. Wicked Young Man
9. Dead Babies
10. Ballad Of Dwight Fry
11. I Love The Dead
12. The Black Widow
13. No More Mr Nice Guy
14. Its Hot Tonight
15. Caught In A Dream
16. Its the Little Things
17. Poison
18. Take It Like A Woman
19. Only Women Bleed
20. You Drive Me Nervous
21. Under My Wheels
22. Schools Out
23. Billion Dollar Babies
24. My Generation
25. Elected
26. Gimme-video