Many people who attended Wacken Open Air 2013 seem to agree that Alice Cooper played a fantastic gig there. Now this blu-ray/dvd release is out to tell if they were right and there's also a version including 2 cds with the audio tracks. It even contains a quality booklet with lots of photos.
The video is probably mostly just a rip-off from Wacken's live big screen feed and it shows for most of the gig that the cameramen/producer had absolutely no plan about who to focus on or when. It is very random to the point of annoying that they usually never manage to film the right musician playing a solo piece. They do focus a lot on Orianthi and granted she is good looking for a hard-rock guitarist.
The quality of the video is fine and the audio quality is just as fine. That said it is a problem that Alice has lost most of his voice in recent years and it doesn't seem to be improving. He sings as best as he can and I guess it was never pretty to begin with but it surely has sounded a lot better earlier in his career. The band is still impressively tight even if there's been a lot of changes in recent years and only Chuck Garric on the bass seems to be a constant there. The theatre gimmics and props are greatly reduced but that is only to be expected at a festival gig. We do get a giant Franken-Alice and Madame Guillotine.
The setlist includes 5 songs from what I see as a dark period in Cooper history from 1986-1991. Dark as in shitty albums. I really hated how the 80s Bon Jovi pop-sound poluted everything cool about Cooper. House of Fire, Hey Stoopid, He's Back (the man behind the mask), Feed My Frankenstein, Poison. 5 songs from that period is at least 3 too many, especially when there sadly are no songs at all from 1980-1982 a most awesome period in Cooper history that could be named his new wave / early 80ties / punk / glam era.
The setlist includes 2 songs from the newest album "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" [2011]: I'll By Your Face Off, Caffeine and they fit in fine even if I would have swapped Caffeine for a better song since there are lots of better songs to choose from on that album.
The setlist includes 4 cover songs. 2 of these are found on the video disc: Break On Through [The Doors], My Generation [The Who]. The audio discs hold a further 2 cover songs: Revolution [The Beatles], Foxy Lady [Jimi Hendrix]. Alice has plans to release an album of cover versions in 2015 consisting of songs by his old drinking mates, who are all dead now. They had a drinking club called the Hollywood Vampires. The album should already be completed and is only waiting to be released.
Last song of the show is a mix of School's Out and Another Brick In The Wall [Pink Floyd] and that works perfectly, maybe because they had the same producer (Bob Ezrin) as Alice explains in a nice interview also found on the video disc.
It is not the best newer Alice Cooper video recording. That price still goes to "Theatre Of Death - Live At Hammersmith" [2010]. But at the end of the day it is still a satisfying package and fans of The Coop will enjoy it.
Runtimes:
Video: 1h28
Audio: 1h35
Interview: 0h19
The band:
Alice Cooper - Vocals
Chuck Garric - Bass
Orianthi - Guitar
Ryan Roxie - Guitar
Tommy Henriksen - Guitar
Glen Sobel - Drums
Sheryl Cooper - Nurse
Rating: 
Band: Alice Cooper
Movie Title: Raise The Dead - Live From Wacken 2013
This Release: 2014
Genre: Concert
RunTime: 88
Movie Format: CD+Bluray
Movie Label: UDR
Content Type: Movie Review
Language: 
Updated: 2014-11-07 22:37
Created: 2014-11-07 22:21
