I have to come clean here and admit that in the run up to tonight's show I wasn't exactly what you might call "excited" about attending the second night of Alice Cooper's latest UK tour.  I'm not sure exactly what it was causing me to have such negative thoughts, perhaps it was because the last few times I'd seen him in my opinion he'd had his arse well and truly kicked by his support acts (Joan Jett and Twisted Sister respectively) or it might be that I'm not exactly blown away by his frankly average 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare' album.

Things were also not helped by the fact that on the smaller shows that started this UK jaunt (Sheffield and Bristol) the support for the rest of the tour, the much more uber friendly New York Dolls were replaced by recent Spinefarm Records signings The Treatment.  Don't get me wrong I love seeing new bands being given a chance to impress with the big boys but when the NY Dolls carrot was waved in front of me ahead of presales for this 'Halloween Night Of Fear' tour, David Johansen and Co's possible presence in such an intimate venue as Colston Hall played a huge part in me actually clicking that "buy" button.

Anyway, whatever it was that was bugging me, I honestly could have thought of better things to be doing on a Wednesday night, than driving around a jam-packed Bristol city centre as I entered what I like to call "Welcome To My Parking Nightmare - Part 5".

By the time I'd actually parked up tonight and walked the mile or so to the venue, tonight's opening act The Treatment were already well into their set and plying their wares to what appeared to be a huge chunk of the audience. Having heard good things about this five piece from Cambridge, I quickly made my way down the front to find out if seeing them live might in fact, as they threaten on their album sleeve, leave me needing medical assistance. And you know it just might, as the 20 or so minutes I did end up witnessing left me so bored I needed an adrenaline shot just to wake me back up.  The band themselves are certainly workmanlike enough in their approach and singer Matt Jones leads the line well in a sort of "I've seen a few Bruce Dickinson DVD's" type of way, but it is all so bloody nice, and rock 'n' roll was never supposed to be that. 

Couple with it the fact that the lads manage to play two covers from the More album 'Warhead' ('Road Rocket' and 'Way Of The World' having been written by the drummer's father Laurie Mansworth) without once referencing their origins, and I'm starting to wonder just what it is my colleagues have seen in The Treatment.  That's not to say the band didn't go down well with the rest of the crowd, they did, they left the stage to a huge round of applause and no doubt won over a fair few new fans in the process, but I was only shook out of my fast becoming perma state of average rock slumber by a rumbling in my back pocket that heralded the arrival of a text message from another Uber Rock scribe elsewhere in the same building that simply said the following - "KID ROW".  And you know what?  Fraser Munro might just have a point there.

With one of the quickest band changeovers I've witnessed in recent months it was only the distraction of the nightly Halloween fancy dress competition that kept me from marvelling at the fact that the between band muzak being played over the PA, was in fact Alice's most recent album 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare'. With not one person around me appearing to be aware of this, I guess this spoke volumes about Alice's target audience these days, no doubt the diehards pressed up stage front would be singing every word of 'Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever'...just like I was...Yeah right.

On the stroke of 9 O'clock the lights went out and the dulcet spoken tones of Vincent Price welcomed us into the darkness, a solo spotlight pinpointing Alice's face on the huge curtain that covered what spooky treats lay in store for us.  Then suddenly as quick as a flash the curtain dropped to reveal the arachnid king Alice high above us as 'Black Widow' opened the show in true vintage Cooper fashion.

With his eight arms high above his head recognising the enthusiastic crowd reception afforded his entrance, everyone was soon clapping along in unison and any doubts I may have had about Da Coop having lost some of his musical mojo on my past meetings were discarded as quickly as victims at Camp Crystal Lake by the welcome return of 'Brutal Planet' to the live arena. Some fans may not like this era of Alice but personally I loved the spiritual rebirth this album afforded Alice, so the airing of 'Wicked Young Man' later in the set more than made up for the late Eighties stuff most people seem to come to an Alice show to hear these days, the renditions of 'Hey Stoopid' and 'Trash' still leaving me as cold as a night out with a cenobyte might.

Which is certainly a spooky analogy as the cenobyte stood just a few people away from me, (I'm not kidding here folks) appeared to be having the time of his eternal damnation as classic after classic was drawn out of Alice's musical box of tricks. 'I'm Eighteen', 'Under My Wheel' and 'Billion Dollar Babies' all following in quick succession before the aforementioned 'Hey Stoopid' went and cooled my ardour with its sampled backing vocal tapes....Boo!!!!! It still mystifies me how Alice can actually sing the line "This Ain't What Rock 'n' Roll Is About" in this song without the merriest hint of irony given the pedigree of what was to follow.

And what a veritable cornu-coop-ia of frightful horror themed music we had to endure next as 'Is It My Body', 'Halo Of Flies', 'Muscle Of Love', 'Only Women Bleed' and Cold Ethyl' all segued into one another to make the perfect soundtrack to Halloween albeit a few days early. It was left to the Stonesy swagger of new cut 'I'll Bite Your Face Off' mid way through this spooktacular line up of tunes to restore some normality to proceedings and being the sole new number, (and probably the best track on 'Welcome 2' along with 'Caffeine') aired tonight it gave everyone enough time to catch their breath amidst all the usual on stage theatrics that accompany your archetypical Alice Cooper show.

With the snake, the doll, the fake photographer and the female effigy all promptly dispensed with along the way, tonight it was the arrival of the 20 foot plus lobotomised Alice midway through 'Feed My Frankenstein' that really upped the ante show wise, and then when the drum machine intro to 'Clones (We're All)' suddenly ticked and tocked its way out of the PA, I for one was beaming from ear to ear (just like that bird off 'Fright Night').  Alice can always be relied on to give the diehards a treat and this electro pop gem from 1980's 'Flush The Fashion' album more than made up for the in comparison pedestrian sounding 'Poison' that immediately followed it.

I should at this point perhaps mention Alice's current band, as right now he really has assembled one of his best supporting line-ups in a very long time.  Their most recent recruit Orianthi, the female guitar protégé, is perhaps the most remarkable as she seldom tippers or tappers and even the mildest of widdles during her solo spot within 'I Love The Dead' turned out to be a bit of classic Eddie Van Halen sounding blues. Alongside the rock solid rhythm section of drummer Glen Sobel and long serving bassist Chuck Garric, it's also great to witness the tasteful guitar interplay of Tommy Henricksen and Steve Hunter.  Hunter and Henricksen may posses the most polar opposite onstage personas seen in a Cooper band since the rocking vicar stood alongside Kane Roberts. But somehow the Toilet Boy meets Leather Bear work well together, and as I said this merely adds visual stimulation to what really would be the perfect line up to finally send old (he is 64 next year after all) Alice off to Hell.

Finishing his main set as only he can playing the perfect "kid catcher" for a rousing run through of 'Schools Out', Alice and his band were soon back and firing the confetti cannons for a remarkable rendition of 'Elected'.  I say remarkable because Alice can still make this song sound like it was written yesterday (not nearly 40 years ago as it really was) and that is the true testament to his longevity within the rock 'n' roll elite.

I left Colston Hall tonight grinning and wondering how I could ever have not wanted to see Alice Cooper live ever again.  The man is a legend, his music is timeless and me.... I need to play 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare' a few more times and get my head out of my arse.

Long live Alice Cooper, a true genius of the scene.