ALICE COOPER – Live At Montreux 2005

Dirty Diamonds was released in the summer of 2005, however, the summer of 2006 still sees Alice Cooper aggressively touring North America, making this tour one of the longest journeys ever embarked upon by modern-day Alice Cooper. In the middle of the itinerary was a stop in Montreux, Switzerland for the 2005 Montreux Jazz Festival. Funny thing is that Jazz evidently has become less and less of a focus for this festival, evidenced this go around when Alice Cooper invaded the pristine Montreux stage for the first time in his 35+ year history!

To what appears to be a jam-packed, “healthy” crowd, this historical show was filmed in High Definition (HD) for this DVD release, and was recorded for a live CD. The HD clarity of this Alice Cooper show is actually an unusual concept. Obviously, the color and picture are crystal clear … almost too clear. Part of the ambience of an Alice Cooper show is its eeriness, lighting schemes, and veiled images. The HD resolution tends to take some of this “uncertainty” out, causing, to a certain degree, some of the shock aspects of the show to be a tad less shocking, but if you’re a fan of HD video, you’re probably going to dig the way this concert displays itself.

Overall, the Dirty Diamonds Tour returns Alice to a much more theatrical show compared to The Eyes Of Alice Cooper Tour, and Alice just seems much more invigorated and “into” his performance during these gigs than he has been in a good 10 years. He’s spry, witty, in control, and in command of the audience from the point he first enters the stage.

The show is basically divided into 3 parts: The Hits, A Return To Alice’s Nightmare, and The Biggest Hits. Starting with “Department Of Youth,” Alice rips through 12 songs that most music fans are going to recognize, and splices in 4 songs from his last 2 releases. Then, the mood changes in the lap of “Welcome To My Nightmare,” where Alice shows why he has always been regarded the true king of theatrics; able to pull off one of the most entertaining stage shows in all of Rock ‘n’ Roll. With the help of his daughter’s talents, Calico Cooper, Alice proves to be a naughty boy, destined to meet a horrific encounter with Mademoiselle Guillotine! Fun with fun. After his gory death, Alice is resurrected in an upright coffin to the start of possibly his most recognizable anthem, “School’s Out,” followed by his mega-hit “Poison.” “Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills” from his underrated From The Inside album follows, and the energetic “Under My Wheels” closes out the set.

It’s really hard to take your eyes off of Alice Cooper when you see him live, but the camera, of course, forces this to happen quite often. That’s always going to be a “weakness” in any video recording of a Cooper concert … in the end, it might provide for a better effect to just perch a camera in the middle of the audience and keep it there, enabling the watcher to successfully soak in the ambience of the entire stage show, though some critics may see that as a “cheap” way to produce a DVD video. Still, by doing so, nothing going on stage would be missed.

There is one effect during the show … a camera trick … that was really slick. During “Ballad Of Dwight Fry,” somehow the producers of the show were able to take all of the color out of Alice Cooper, and only Alice Cooper, while retaining the color in the rest of the stage and lighting. Seeing Alice in black and white during the performance of this song in his straight jacket added a powerful, secluded-psychotic effect, which, in the end, is what this song is all about. Very cool … almost makes you wonder how a black and white rendition of an entire Alice Cooper concert would come off … after seeing this song performed colorless, one would be led to think such a concept would be an awesome route to go.

The DVD comes along with a CD of the show. Due to time constraints inherent to CDs (can only handle 80 minutes), the theatrical songs of the set have been excluded. Still, as one of the best shows Alice has put on in the last 10 years, this DVD/CD package is a great value for all Alice fans and for anyone who wants to include an important piece of Rock ‘n’ Roll history in their collection. Alice Cooper – Live At Montreux 2005 is definitely a set that should be in your video archives for many years to come …

Band Members:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Ryan Roxie, Damon Johnson – Guitars
Chuck Garric – Bass
Eric Singer – Drums
Calico Cooper – Various Theatrics

Concert Footage:
Department Of Youth * No More Mr. Nice Guy * Dirty Diamonds * Billion Dollar Babies * Be My Lover * Lost In America * I Never Cry * Woman Of Mass Distraction * I’m Eighteen * Between High School And Old School * What Do You Want From Me * Is It My Body * Go To Hell * The Black Widow * Gimme * Feed My Frankenstein * Welcome To My Nightmare * The Awakening * Steven * Only Women Bleed * Ballad Of Dwight Fry * Killer * I Love The Dead * School’s Out * Poison * Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills * Under My Wheels

CD Track Listing:
Same as above, with Go To Hell, The Black Widow, The Awakening, Steven, Only Women Bleed, Ballad Of Dwight Fry, Killer, and I Love The Dead excluded.

DVD Run Time: 93 minutes