Alice Cooper - Dirty Diamonds Tour 2005,
Glasgow SECC, Scotland, 12/11/05,
With Twisted Sister.

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Gigs happen all the time. Every town and city in Britain will have a gig of some sort the majority of the year. Gigs can be crap, gigs can be not bad, gigs can be fun, and gigs can be great. It's not every day of the year, however, that a gig like this takes place. The Master himself, Alice Cooper, touring with a near 30-song set of classics, with glam legends Twisted Sister as special guests.

The SECC's biggest hall, number 4, is all-seating tonight, but very few people sit down at all tonight. First, as co-headliners/support, are the one and only Twisted Sister, in their original line-up. This is the first time they've played here in twenty years, so this is a very special occasion indeed. Frontman Dee Snider is as mental as ever tonight, full of jokes and swearing uncontrolably. Someone in the front row is sitting cynically, with arms folded, and Dee seems hell-bent on making this person pay for not 'letting go'. Perhaps ten minutes of their set are spent joking about this guy, and when they're actually playing songs, they're all classics: 'We're Not Gonna Take It', 'Burn In Hell', 'I Wanna Rock', Stay Hungry', 'Destroyer', 'I Am (I'm Me)' and lastly, 'SMF'. They seem too happy to be back on UK stages, and tonight they are truly on fire. They ask everyone to cheer and clap for them at one point, and afterwards Dee says "Hey, I noticed some people not clapping there. That's cool, we're fine with that, (f*ck you), it's cool!"

On that note, Twisted Sister actually had support band Viking Skull removed from this tour, so they could have more time to play (sending Viking Skull vocalist Roddy Stone into a depression and AWOL). That may seem low, but when Sister are this good, it's not much of a problem. Besides, there's only ONE band everyone wants to truly see tonight.

After an interval, the lights suddenly cut out quickly and cheering erupts, and 'Phantom Of The Opera' announces the arrival of Alice. Curtains open to reveal a huge pair of his infamous eyes as the musicians step forward to tremendous applause. Then, from a higher platform, appears The Master, complete with a suit and cane, and the band launch straight into 'Department Of Youth', closely followed by 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'. If the first two songs get the crowd going this much, just wait until the end of the concert, with the likes of 'School's Out'.

Seeing Alice Cooper live isn't like a heavy metal concert; it's like a theatre show, or an opera, only with heavy metal music during it. There is no end to the amount of theatric antics Alice gets up to tonight, including vanishing under a masked woman's cape, having his head cut off (this was AMAZING), having his young daughter run riot on the stage, and popping huge balloons which are thrown into the crowd.

Cutting some songs short to get through the huge setlist and fit in the theatricals, the band fire through all the classics and more: 'Only Women Bleed', 'Be My Lover', 'I'm Eighteen', 'Feed My Frankenstein', 'Go To Hell', 'I Never Cry', 'Welcome To My Nightmare', 'Steven', 'Lost In America', 'Dirty Diamonds', 'Billion Dollar Babies', 'Woman Of Mass Distraction' (both from the new album). All of these are met by amazing applause, screaming and singalongs, and it's literally chaos during the final encore for the likes of 'Poison' and 'Under My Wheels'. 

Alice Cooper can control a crowd like no other entertainer can, and has 10,000 people clapping along with about two claps of his own hands. His pointing at fans in the crowd also drives them crazy. There is no stage interaction until near the end, where the audience hangs on their Master's every word. But this is Alice Cooper - he doesn't have to speak to us if he doesn't want to, because after all - "we're not worthy!"