Poor and Weird

I'd like to offer you all some free home improvement advice. No matter how much it may sound like a good idea at the time (and I can't fathom what sort of fever addled brain would think it is), gluing vinyl down onto a hardwood floor is not a smart thing to do. I got to spend Saturday prying up vinyl from our entryway, as you can see from the picture I've posted here. When we bought our house, the owner had just put down new carpeting through the main floor. Okay, carpeting makes sense - some people like carpet. But gluing down vinyl onto a hardwood floor? When we asked her about it she said it was done in preparation of having the entry tiled, which she never got around to doing. So it stayed - even better, the vinyl had a fake hardwood design on it. Yep, she replaced real hardwood with fake vinyl hardwood. Smart, huh? It's gone now, but we still have plenty of glue to scrape up. Yuck.

This is the same person who thought it was a good idea to glue carpet down over the tile floors in the bathroom - its removal was a project we tackled a year or so ago. "Tile is so cold in a bathroom, it’s so much nicer to step out onto carpet" was her brilliant reason for that decision. "Why not just buy a bathmat?" I wanted to ask her. You can throw a bathmat in the washing machine when it gets dirty, and replace it when it gets worn. Carpet in a bathroom is hard enough to keep clean - and we found that glued down carpet is more or less impossible to even vacuum effectively. Between the entryway, the bathroom, and the basement project in our old Seattle house, the li'l woman figured that she has quite a few pictures of me with a scraper in my hand. Ah, the pride of ownership.

We went out to see Seattle punk band The Briefs at the Bluebird on Friday. Even better, we received email freebies for the show- that's always a plus. The Briefs are a band I saw numerous times in Seattle, and who I've seen quite a few times in D-town as well. I've always enjoyed them, and Friday was no exception. No real surprises, just a fun show with all of the usual suspects - Rotten Love, Sylvia, I'm a Raccoon, New Shoes, Silver Bullet, Knife, Poor and Weird, (Looking Through) Gary Glitter's Eyes, We Americans, and many more. This is the second show I've seen where Lance Romance wasn't on bass, I don't know if he still in the band. Maybe their next album will provide some clues. Warming up was Brain Failure from China. After a few songs, I leaned over to my wife and said "hey, it's Chinese Rancid!" They were fun and spirited, if not overly original (kind of like, well, Rancid). The Cheapskates, some local kids, also played. I think all of their songs were about skateboarding, except for their cover of Black Flag's Rise Above. The li'l woman thought they were "cute." I'm not sure if that was the effect they were going for!

Q: Are We Not Men?

A: We are Devo, and we may be getting older and fatter, but we're still Devo and we're still awesome!

The li'l woman and I went to the Coors Amphitheatre (formerly Fiddler's Green) to see the "Lost 80's" concert. As you can guess from that name, the lineup was comprised of old bands from that magical decade that seems to be so hip with people who aren't old enough to have experienced it the first time around. Here's the rundown:

Dramarama - The music started at 5pm, and we got stuck in heavy traffic for the drive to the south end of town. It became a running joke for the drive - "get out of my way, don't you people know that I'm going to miss Dramarama??!!?? I wonder if all of these people are on their way to see Dramarama?" Seeing as I was never a fan of this band, I really wasn't agitated, but it was fun to pretend I was. We got there in time to see their last 3 songs - the dreaded song "something from our upcoming album," plus their two hits Last Cigarette and Anything, Anything (I'll Give You). They didn't make any real strong impressions, but they weren't annoying, and it was funny to see the singer sipping on a Tab (now, that's rock n' roll!). My friend JT once described the singer as looking like "a guy who would be really excited by his new lawnmower." He still looks like that guy; maybe he's doing this tour to finance a really nice riding mower. For the record, 3 of the 5 guys on stage were original members.

Missing Persons - I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for this group. I saw them in the fall of '82 at the Rainbow Music Hall - my first new wave concert, and my first ever concert at the Rainbow (RIP). Nowadays, singer Dale Bozzio (she of the squeaky voice and fishbowl brassiere) is the only original member. I'm sure she tours with whatever studio/for hire guys she can find. The li'l woman and I saw her/them 10 years ago in Seattle, which was kind of fun and a bit sad. Same story this time around. Dale is skinny again (she was really chunky in Seattle), but she doesn't look very good. Our new acquaintance, Randy the sports writer, summed it up best: "that woman has a lot of miles on her." Em described her as having "bedraggled Barbie doll hair," similar to a doll whose hair was ruined from being styled too many times. Never a great singer, it sounded like Dale was really having problems over the first couple of songs. She always sounded out of air (I was wondering if she was missing a lung), and her once quirky squeaks were sounding more like shrieks. However, a funny thing happened - the longer they played, the better she sounded. She never sounded great, but her voice got a lot stronger and the old squeaks returned. I'm not sure what happened there, maybe she just needed to warm up or get used to the altitude. I haven't listened to Missing Persons for years, so I was amazed at how many of their old songs I recognized - Destination Unknown, Words, Mental Hopscotch, Noticeable Ones, It Ain't None of Your Business, Windows, Walking in LA. Oh, and did I mention that Dale Bozzio is now batshit insane? During her ultra long introduction to Destination Unknown she rambled on and on about how we all need to save every extra nickel to send our kids to college. Did you know she lives in New Hampshire and had 16 cats? And that, if she wanted to, she could go out and shoot bears and cock-a-doodle-doos because it's legal there? Well, now you do. Who knows, maybe she had a few drinks before hitting the stage. Either way, her commentary was very bizarre. Still, their set ended up being enjoyable if nothing remarkable.

Guess who was throwing out guitar picks during Missing Persons set? Snakemannn!!! You read that right, freakin’ Snakemannn!!! He was just tossing them out to his fans, and they have an autograph on one side and his website on the other – awesome! If you had ever told me in the past that someday I’d be seeing the legendary Snakemannn in person, I wouldn’t have believed it. I have no idea who this guy is; I think he was a roadie or something. People would pick these things up, look at each other, and just shrug.

Flock of Seagulls - For those of you keeping score, the only original member in this band is vocalist Mike Score. His once sweeping hairdo is no longer in the band either, replaced by a ponytail and a wool cap. This was not a band I really ever cared much for, and their performance was pretty dull. I only remember 4 of their songs - I Ran, Space Age Love Song, Telecommunication, Wishing - all of which were duly trotted out. During the chorus to I Ran, the audience sing-along was louder than the band's vocals. Oh, and they had a new song which provided the evening's most cringe worthy moment. I can remember part of the chorus - "she lives in a hole, wrapped up in silver paper, she's out of control..." It's easy to remember, as the song was nearly 10 minutes long and they repeated that line about 100 times. At least it felt that way.

The English Beat - Okay, I had a few issues with this. This evening, the only original member of the Beat was singer Dave Wakeling. I'm willing to cut a certain amount of slack to groups that lack some (or most) of their original lineups. I'm not going to begrudge somebody's attempt to make a living out of former glories. Everybody needs to eat. Bands like Missing Persons and Flock of Seagulls were pretty inconsequential to start with, mostly remembered for one or two hits and some silly haircuts. The English Beat does not fall under this category - The Beat were a terrific band that put out 3 great albums. Every member played an integral part in their sound. Most importantly, they were a band with two vocalists - Dave Wakeling and toaster Ranking Roger. I saw the Beat twice in '83, at the Rainbow and at Red Rocks, and they were truly breathtaking (I still rate the Red Rocks show as one of the best concerts I've ever seen). A few years ago in Seattle, we saw a solo Dave Wakeling show. He played English Beat and General Public numbers, and he even had a fake Ranking Roger on stage, but at least it was billed as a Dave Wakeling show. Which is how he should be billed - I think he now bills himself as either the English Beat or General Public, whichever name he thinks will be a bigger draw in the town he's playing in. Griping aside, the man still does have a great voice, and it's hard to complain too much with songs this catchy - tunes like I Confess, Best Friend, Mirror in the Bathroom, Save It for Later, Doors of Your Heart, and the General Public hit Tenderness. Still, his backing band was a little too sterile for my tastes, and the cheesy keyboards covering the horn parts grated on my nerves. The general admission "pit" in front where we were was at its most crowded during this set, and we saw a fight break out. People were talking about how great the band looked; I don't think they even knew there was only one original guy on stage. I did hear one or two people ask "where's Ranking Roger?" Maybe I'm too cynical, or being too hard on Dave Wakeling, but this set left me a bit disappointed despite my attempts to enjoy it.

At this point they had the audience choose who had the best 80's hair - they had been running a contest all day. The kid who won was too young to remember anything about the 80's. I think he got his look from watching old John Hughes movies. Lucky little twerp got to sit on stage for the main act…

Devo - Okay, this is the reason we shelled out the big bucks. Without the Spudboys headlining, we wouldn't have bothered. I had only seen Devo once before, in ‘88 when they were touring behind the Total Devo album. That concert, while enjoyable, was nothing compared to this show. The band, much older and bigger around the middle (except for guitarist Bob 2, who looks pretty darn good), came on stage decked out in yellow radiation suits and red energy domes. The only non-original member was the drummer - they had Josh Freese (from the Vandals, the new Guns and Roses, and tons of session work) providing the backbeat, he did a terrific job. They opened with That's Good, getting things off to a rousing start, followed by Going Under and Girl U Want. Surprisingly enough, their biggest hit Whip It was next, during which they tossed energy domes into the crowd. After this, they pretty much stuck to their first three (and best) albums - Satisfaction, Uncontrollable Urge, Jocko Homo, Mongoloid, Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA (they nailed this one!), Blockhead, and Gates of Steel. During Uncontrollable Urge Mark Mothersbaugh ran around shredding the other members' radiation suits - revealing Devo t-shirts and boxer shorts, plus knee pads. Emily couldn't stop laughing, seeing guys onstage who looked like they could be her dad behaving in such fashion. The encore was terrific - Freedom of Choice, Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy, Wiggly World, and Come Back Jonee. During the last song, Mark Mothersbaugh wore a giant foam cowboy hat and fake mustache - he reached into his boxer and pulled out more boxers which he threw into the crowd. Then he started pulling out handfuls of superballs, which he bounced off of the stage into the audience. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in some time. Then it was over - I wish they would have played a bit longer, but I really can't complain. Devo put on a great show, much better than I was anticipating, and I had high expectations. We had a great time, and feel fortunate to have been witness to such convincing proof of the theory of de-evolution.

Yes, I bought an energy dome. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Put the crimson in me, Jimson

The other day at the Wax Trax used vinyl store I came across an album (well, only 6 songs, so more of a mini album/EP) by Nervous Norvus. I remembered a few of his songs - Transfusion and Ape Call to be specific - from one of those old K-tel or Ronco albums of novelty songs that a friend of mine had when I was a kid. If you're an old guy like me, you might remember these albums that seemed so prevalent in the 1970's. They always had a title like Funky Favorites or Looney Tunes, and featured old novelty songs like Witch Doctor, Charlie Brown, Purple People Eater, and more than a few Ray Stevens "classics." If you were lucky, the album would have a few more (then) contemporary tunes like The Streak, Mr. Jaws, or Junk Food Junkie. They even advertised these things on television, you could find them in drug stores, and some were available by mail order.

When I was 7 or 8 years old I received a tape recorder for Christmas. It was a neat little red Panasonic, square with rounded edges, and I was incredibly proud of it. My best friend also received a tape recorder that year (a black rectangular one, not nearly as cool), and we ran around taping everything. For whatever reason, lots of kids thought it was neat to tape television shows back then. I remember taping both nights of The Six Million Dollar Man adventure where Steve Austin battled Bigfoot! Not that I ever listened to it, or any of the other TV shows I taped. More understandably, it was also really common to tape your favorite songs off of the radio – you’d just hold your tape recorder up to the speaker and press ‘record.’ In this same fashion, I made a tape of my friend's album of novelty songs. I'd wander around happily playing this tape of novelty tunes on my little red tape recorder - this was prior to my discovering the Beatles and Kiss, so at the time I thought these tunes were the greatest. This was before boom boxes and walkmans were available, so I remember it not being that uncommon seeing people out in public playing their crappy little tape recorders (or AM transistor radios - I had one from Radio Shack shaped like Batman).

One evening I took my tape player to choir practice. Yes, you read that right, choir practice. Against my will, my mother had insisted that I join our church's youth choir. It gets worse - the name of the choir was The Joyful Generation. How awful, no wonder I’ve suppressed memory of it for so long! When I look back, it served mainly as another opportunity for me and several of my friends to misbehave and get into trouble. When practice was over that particular evening, I walked outside with my friends to find our ride home. I had turned on my tape player, and I even remember that it was playing Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow by the Rivingtons. One of the other kids said something like “look at Hamp, he thinks he’s so cool” and tried really hard to push me down. I caught myself before I fell, put down my tape player, and ran up and punched this kid in the face! Looking back this is pretty surprising, as this guy was one of the older kids in choir. He was 3 or 4 years older than me, and nearly a foot taller. I remember his glasses flying off (yeah, I know, you should never hit a guy with glasses, but he almost made me drop my red tape player so he had it comin’!), and he started blindly groping around for them. Seeing that, I immediately felt guilty – it was one of the first and only times in my life I threw a punch. At this point our ride showed up, and nothing else happened with this kid. He never tried to get even with me, and I don’t recall that word ever got back to my parents about the incident.

I hung onto that tape player all of the way through college, and it still worked and looked great (I remember using it for a school project, and being told by an interviewee that it was one of the coolest tape recorders he had ever seen!). When I moved to Seattle, I put it in a box and hid it for safe keeping in a drawer in an unused room in my parents’ house. When I looked for it a few years later it was gone – I asked my parents about it, and my mom said she had given it to my niece who had broken it. Oh, I did buy that Nervous Norvus album – Transfusion is still a hoot, but the rest of the tunes aren’t all that great. At least it dredged up this goofy story from my past – just thought I’d share it here.

By the way, Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow is still awesome.

Remembrances of a Lamestain

Over the weekend I watched Hype!, a 1996 documentary about the Seattle music scene. I hadn’t seen it since it originally came out, and was happy to see it has aged really well. The film is a thoroughly entertaining look at the overblown grunge phenomenon, and it brought back a flood of memories for me. I thought I’d share a few of them here.

When this film was being shot in and around Seattle, it was common knowledge and reported in the local media. Local promoters hastily arranged several shows for the filmmakers, and several shows were advertised as being for a documentary. I remember me and my buddy Paul were ticked when we found out about the Fastbacks show – we read about it 3 or so days after it occurred, there hadn’t been time to advertise it. We weren’t upset that we weren’t there for the filming; we were just upset to miss a Fastbacks show. We never missed a Fastbacks show! They played at the Colourbox in Pioneer Square, a very atypical venue for them, warming up for the Posies. We weren’t upset about missing the Posies.

The Blood Circus and Love Battery footage was shot at the Off Ramp. The Off Ramp was an absolute craphole, the ultimate “grunge” venue. At the time, there was nothing grungier in the city of Seattle than the restrooms at the Off Ramp! The lineup that evening also featured Chemistry Set, and admission was only one dollar – this was, no doubt, to assure a big crowd for the filmmakers. But what really brought out the masses that evening was the rumor that Soundgarden would also be playing (not that I really cared, I was never a fan). My friend Paul insisted he had heard this from someone he knew who worked at the club, so maybe they started the rumor themselves? Who knows, but when we got inside (a real chore – the place was mobbed), even the set lists on the soundboard showed “??” listed as the fourth and final act. Watching people come in, we couldn’t help but notice that this wasn’t the usual crowd – too many backwards baseball caps, and way too many sorority girls who apparently had never been anywhere near the Off Ramp in their lives. The rumor, along with the prospect of being in a movie, no doubt brought in these people – under normal circumstances, there would not have been a sellout line down the block for this lineup. Blood Circus, an older band who had just reformed due to a compilation CD being issued, played first. They announced to the crowd “if you haven’t heard of us before, look at the latest issue of The Rocket.” The Rocket was a local music paper, and there was a picture of an old flier in the recent issue showing Blood Circus headlining over Nirvana. Well, there’s a reason you’ve heard of Nirvana but have never heard of Blood Circus – they weren’t very good! Still, that didn’t stop the crowd from moshing it up and performing for the cameras. Next up was Chemistry Set. During their set they asked the crowd “How many of you are here to see Soundgarden?” Then they started laughing – hoax exposed! At this point, people started leaving. By the time Love Battery came on, half of the capacity crowd had already left. We found that to be pretty amusing.

The Mudhoney and Dead Moon footage was from an all ages show at the Oddfellows Hall in the Capital Hill neighborhood. This was the only show I ever saw at that venue, except for a Fastbacks show we saw in the same building but in a different room. It was a benefit for C.U.R.S.E., an organization dedicated to saving the local commercial free radio station. This show wasn’t advertised as being filmed, but we all noticed the cameras – the rumor was that it was being filmed by the police department, so it was a surprise seeing these performances in the movie. I’ve actually spotted myself and a few of my friends in the Dead Moon footage. The Fall-Outs also played that evening. It’s a shame they aren’t featured in the movie, they were (and still are) a great band. In my opinion, they’re better than the majority of the bands featured in the movie.

There is also footage of several bands (Hammerbox, the Gits, Seven Year Bitch) filmed at Rock Candy – I honestly can’t recall if I was at any of these shows! I know I saw these bands many times at Rock Candy, but whether or not I was at these shows is something lost to the mists of time (not to mention the passage of many brain cells). The li’l woman was at the Mono Men show filmed at the 3B in Bellingham, where she was attending college at the time. She had a friend who knew the owners, and was allowed to hang out afterwards with the filmmakers and help herself to their cooler of beer.

There is plenty of other great footage, and many informative interviews, in this film. Most amusing are highlights from the Young Fresh Fellows Japanese tour (check out the kids doing the synchronized dancing!). Gas Huffer, the Supersuckers (long before their cowboy shtick), the Melvins, Seaweed, and Some Velvet Sidewalk all put on entertaining performances. Flop is seen in the studio recording demos with Kurt Bloch. Shaky footage of Nirvana’s first ever performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit is featured. The Seattle music scene is tracked from regional phenomenon, to overblown national obsession, finally resulting in media overkill and eventual backlash. Most importantly, you get the whole story on the infamous “lexicon of grunge.”

Personal memories aside, this is an interesting look at one of the great blips on the pop culture radar of the 1990’s. The DVD has some cool extras, and I’m looking forward to watching it again with the director’s commentary. Well worth your time, unless you’re a cob nobbler.

Wanna buy a Bat?

To whom it may concern,

I would like to purchase some bats for a bat house I have on the side of my house...

If you could ask me all the question necessary to make sure the bats are going to be safe and secure that would make me feel better...also how do i go about obtaining "bats" for my bat house?

My cell phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Thank you,

This is an email that was received at the zoo. I have no idea if or how this was responsed to. According to my wife, the whole purpose of a bat house is that you put it up if there are already bats in the area. By putting up the bat house, you are attempting to make the bats take up permanent residence on your property. The idea being that they'll act as pest control - eating mosquitoes and other insect pests. You don't actually do anything to "care" for the bats, all you are doing is putting up a place for them to live.

I have no idea if the bat house comes with a utility pole.

ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Cherry Bomb!

I braved an all age show two Wednesdays ago, and caught the Von Bondies at the Larimer Lounge. In the past, all ages shows I've caught there have been segregated - if you wanted to have a drink, you weren't allowed to leave the bar and bring it into the showroom. I was surprised to see that this time they were using a wristband system, allowing you to bring your drink in closer to the action. It seemed to work okay.

That said, this was the most annoying crowd I've been around in some time. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't the kids who were irritating - it was the amateur drinkers. I had the misfortune of being surrounded be a group of people who, judging from their behavior, were all getting drunk for the first time in their lives. I was standing next to this group during the opening act, and made a point of moving away from them during the break. Unfortunately, by the time the headliners hit the stage, I found myself surrounded by this same group and it was too packed to reposition myself. Several of these people actually yelled to each other "Dude, I wanna party with you!" No, they weren't being ironic - it's not like they were yelling Free Bird at the band. Yeah, I remember my first beer…

Okay, the crowd was annoying, so how was the show? Great! It was the last night of their tour, and the Von Bondies were in great spirits (despite being stranded somewhere that day for 5 hours with a broken radiator). The tour was for them to test run material that they'll be recording soon, and they played 8 new numbers. They also featured plenty of the older tunes from Pawn Shoppe Heart and Lack of Communication. They've really developed into a solid live rock n' roll band, and I was glad to catch them again. I also enjoyed openers the Moaners, from Chapel Hill. They're a guitar and drums duo, somewhat bluesy - I picked up their LP Dark Snack, and it's good.

Keeping things on the underage tip, the li'l woman and I watched Edgeplay: A Film about the Runaways last weekend. The film was made by Vickie Blue, who was the bass player in the infamous “jailbait rock” group for their last 2 albums. Joan Jett, the most famous member, refused to participate in the making of the film and is the only former member not interviewed (she has always remained tight lipped on this chapter in her career). Unfortunately, she also refused to allow any music clearances, so none of the Runaways original tunes are featured. Due to this, the film focuses more on the emotional effect the experience had on all of the members. Singer Cherie Currie (who my wife described as “scary”) and drummer Sandy West (who ended up spending years working for drug dealers) come off as the most bitter. Guitarist Lita Ford doesn’t seem quite as bitter, but this may be due to the fact that she eventually found some success in the music business (granted, the stuff she put out was awful, but at least it was successful). This may also be due to the fact that she appears to be a little drunk in her interview footage. Bassist Jackie Fox has some bitter memories, but seems to have let it go better than Cherie and Sandy. Vickie Blue keeps her own interview comments to a minimum. Also interviewed is notorious manager Kim Fowley – say what you will about what an insane slime ball this guy is, I always find him entertaining and brutally honest. Interspersed with the interviews are home movies and some performance footage. The story is pretty interesting; the ladies all have some pretty amusing stories about growing up on the road and the parties. However, the constant blame placed on Fowley, the record company, sexual stereotyping, and lack of success as the cause of the member’s eventual emotional and substance abuse problems gets a bit tiresome. At some point you wished they’d take some accountability for their own screw-ups (and why weren’t their parents more concerned about their teenage daughters going on the road?). The two live songs (both covers which Joan had no copyright control over – the Troggs’ Wild Thing and the VU’s Rock and Roll), filmed during their triumphant Japanese tour (their career high point), leave you wanting more. Because of this, the film feels a bit like a missed opportunity. Overall, this is an interesting film and I enjoyed it. I just think it’s a shame that Joan refused to tell her side of the story or allow any of the old songs to be used. It leaves a hole in the story, and will likely hinder repeat viewings.

On the way home from dinner last night, we actually heard the Runaways’ Cherry Bomb on the classic rock station! The li’l woman immediately exclaimed “Hey! I learned all about this song!”

Put on my blue suede shoes...

I guess I'm not the only person who really hates that song Walking in Memphis.

Oooooh...I'm not very nice...

From Power Pop to Shock Rock

We caught a terrific show this past Saturday at the Larimer Lounge – Brendan Benson. I have raved about this guy to anyone who would listen to me since he released Lapalco in 2002 (easily my favorite record of the last 5 years), and his latest The Alternative to Love has been in heavy rotation in our house since it came out earlier this year. A few years ago, a brief snippet of his tune Tiny Spark was used in a Saturn commercial – every time that commercial would come on, the li’l woman would yell “Brendan Benson!” from wherever she was in the house. Since then, she’s done the same thing whenever the first notes from one of his CD’s plays. Here’s another example of how huge this guy is with us – last year, A.C. Newman’s release Slow Wonder was a big favorite of mine. Until Em could remember his name, many times she asked me to “play the CD by that guy who is almost as good as Brendan Benson.” High praise, indeed!

Needless to say, we were pretty excited about the show, and he didn’t disappoint us. His band was tight, and they played a great set of his catchy power pop tunes that had us singing along and grinning like idiots. All of our faves were played – Good to Me, Tiny Spark, Folk Singer, You’re Quiet, Spit It Out, the truly weird Insects Rule…heck, we love ‘em all and enjoyed the whole set. I had never heard the openers, Robbers on High Street, but they were really good as well – a very enjoyable evening, even if I couldn’t get my wife to yell “Brendan Benson!” when he hit the stage.

In a totally different vein, I ended up watching 2 (!) Alice Cooper DVD’s over the weekend. I bought these when I first got my DVD player, back in the early days of internet shopping when coupons were plentiful - and idiots like me felt that you needed to use every coupon you could find. Somehow, I had never gotten around to watching these, so I decided to give them a try.

The first was Welcome To My Nightmare, a 1975 concert filmed in Britain. Despite being “remastered,” the film quality was pretty grainy and at times downright terrible. While not a bad performance, its not exactly exciting either – in fact, some of it is downright corny. There are lots of dance numbers, and extras crowding the stage in goofy rubber monster masks. This stage show was considered an elaborate triumph at the time, but it’s not so impressive now. Also, this tour was the first without the original Alice Cooper group. The backing band, who play well (I think this is the same band Lou Reed used on his terrific live album Rock N Roll Animal from 1974), pretty much stay in the background and let Alice lead the show. I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’d recommend it. My favorite part – a British fan refers to the Coop as “the king of pop.”

Prime Cuts, a documentary from 1991, was the second DVD I watched. I found this one a great deal more enjoyable. This was a history of the Alice Cooper group from its early beginnings (first as The Spiders, then as The Nazz) up through their peak (when Alice Cooper was the name of the band, not just the singer), then through the solo years up to the then current early 90’s. It’s amusing to learn that the genesis of the original group was friends who were all long distance runners on their high school track team – yep, the group that had parents shocked and outraged in the 1970’s was started by clean cut athletes. There is a lot of great footage of the original band performing such classics as Levity Ball, I’m Eighteen, Black Ju Ju, School’s Out, and Billion Dollar Babies. The original Alice Cooper band was terrific and visually fun to watch as well - where is a concert video of this lineup? Alice shares many stories about the original band and what each member brought to the music, how he devised the “character” of Alice Cooper, plus old interviews and home movies are shared. He’s also very frank about his problems with alcohol, which eventually led to committing himself to an asylum. Once the solo years start things start to get less interesting musically, although he still released some decent material. Luckily, his late 80’s/early 90’s comeback doesn’t take up too much time – as nice as it was that Alice got some overdue recognition, the music he released then wasn’t very good. Throughout it all, the former Vincent Furnier comes off as a really nice guy, and you can’t help but have a bigger appreciation for what he and the original lineup did. Highly recommended to fans - or to anyone who might be interested in an unlikely group who really did change people’s perceptions of what rock n’ roll could encompass and achieve.