Artist: Cooper, Alice
Label: SMV Enterprises
Release: 1990
After the success of the studio album Trash, a live version of the album followed a year later, named after the tour: Trashes The World. The video recording of the whole show from Birmingham (England), which went down on December 14, 1989, was originally released on VHS video but we recently got a DVD release too, which delivers much better picture and sound quality, something this thing totally deserves. That show is a true legend and hardly anyone hasn’t heard of it.
Twenty songs, great playing and stage design (no guillotine this time). The Intro kicks in, and true to the title, the show starts with a huge trash can (hmmm, wonder why) out of which Alice jumps (without any trash, of course) in his famous red leathers and delivers the opening title track from the album Trash. Two classics follow that get the crowd going with familiar songs like Billion Dollar Babies and I’m Eighteen. The new Trash number I’m Your Gun pushes the atmosphere over the edge with fast rhythms, sexual lyrics and plenty of hip-shaking. Desperado calms the crowd down and lets them catch their breath, because the hit single House Of Fire is a good reason for everyone to be back up in the air. Another classic follows, No More Mr. Nice Guy, and the new and very good This Maniac Is In Love With You. This is where things only really start to unfold, with the classic live numbers Steven, Welcome To My Nightmare, Ballad Of Dwight Fry, Gutter Cat versus the Jets, during which Cooper pulls off a one-of-a-kind combo of music and street-fight acting, which turns into a staged murder and then melts into the unforgettable, mellow ballad Only Women Bleed and on into the cult number I Love The Dead, where they do the classic thing and drag Cooper off in his famous white straitjacket to backstage, from where he escapes in his spider getup, which was forced on him along with the mascara around his eyes, and plays the song of all songs, Poison, which still gives everyone goosebumps today. The euphoria doesn’t let up even for the seventies classic Muscle Of Love and carries on with the new creation Spark In The Dark and the spike-jacket-studded Bed Of Nails, which actually wraps up the main set. Well, almost, because neither Cooper nor the crowd can be done yet, and as an encore we get the eternal classics without which a Cooper show just doesn’t exist: School’s Out and Under My Wheels.
If you want to see Cooper in action, I recommend catching a live show, but if you want to experience what it was like on the Trash tour, buy the DVD Trashes The World, because it’s worth its steep price.
Line-up
Alice Cooper – vocals
Al Pitrelli – guitar
Pete Friesen – guitar
Tommy Carradona – bass guitar
Jonathan Mover – drums
Derek Sherinian – keyboards
Production
Lisa Hollingshead
Track list
1. Trash
2. Billion Dollar Babies
3. I’m Eighteen
4. I’m Your Gun
5. Desperado
6. House of Fire
7. No More Mr. Nice Guy
8. This Maniac’s In Love With You
9. Steven
10. Welcome to My Nightmare
11. Ballad of Dwight Fry
12. Gutter Cat versus the Jets
13. Only Women Bleed
14. I Love the Dead
15. Poison
16. Muscle of Love
17. Spark in the Dark
18. Bed of Nails
19. School’ Out
20. Under My Wheels
