Review- Iron Maiden w/ Alice Cooper @ DTE Energy Music Theatre, July 18, 2012, Clarkston, MI

It was the fall of 1985 when Live After Death came out. I was 12 years old. I had a meager allowance and a paper route, and was spending all of my money on comic books. Christmas was coming, and so I asked my Mom for the album. She said no. So I did what any resourceful lad would do...I went to my Grandma.

Fast forward to my family's annual X-Mas part the Saturday before the holiday. We are opening presents, and to my Mom's “delight”, I tore open my vinyl copy of Live After Death. When my Mom pressed my Grandma about why she would buy me something that looked like that, she said “I thought that it was like The Monster Mash”. My stoner Uncle Chad, eyes bloodshot and glassed over, was looking at the album, which stated on the back: running time 100 minutes. He said, in his faaaaaar out maaaaaan voice, Woah, that is one long record. Rest in peace, Grandma and Uncle Chad. Oh, and I still have that vinyl copy of Live After Death, right down to the T-shirt order forms. What does any of this have to do with anything? Nothing...and everything. It brings us to this...

Iron Maiden w/ Alice Cooper @ DTE Energy Music Theatre, July 18, 2012, Clarkston, MI

The T-shirts that I didn't buy.

Different merch stands had different designs.

It was strange seeing Alice in the daylight, and also strange seeing him going on first. His showtime was 7:30, and he was the opening act for this tour. Detroit has always been sacred ground for The Coop. He could sell out shows here when he was playing smaller venues across the country. In any case, I was happy to get an opening act of his caliber. 

The Vincent Price introduction was piped through the PA, and the band launched into The Black Widow. Alice now has a triple axe attack, including a female guitarist.

Brutal Planet, while not a favorite of mine, worked well for the Iron Maiden crowd. I'm Eighteen and No More Mr. Nice Guy are standards. They are great songs and need to be in the set, even if the faithful have seen them live time after time. 

Why on Earth would Alice do Hey Stoopid in 2012? Why not do something off of the new album? It makes no sense when you have an album less than a year old out there. An album which he was selling T-shirts for, for crying out loud. Instead, we got Hey Stoopid.

The female guitar player played a solo, and the then full band came out and did Billion Dollar Babies. Alice did the money on a sword schtick as usual. Feed My Frankenstein was up next. At least this one had a prop, a guy in a costume on stilts.

Poison, off of Alice's last commercially successful album, Trash, made sense being in the set. While it is cheesy and schmaltzy, it was a big hit and Rock fans of the late '80s remember it. In a nostalgia tour setting like this, it's a case of “give the fans what they want”...even if it wasn't what I wanted. Ha!

Wicked Young Man was another I don't care for it but it makes sense for the Metal crowd inclusion. The band was in faux Nazi gear for this song, and it just smacked of Marilyn Manson. The album that this song is from, Brutal Planet, was pretty much a response to Marilyn Manson ripping Alice off in the first place, so I guess it makes sense in a roundabout way. 

Then we got the guillotine/ execution medley: the end snippet of Killer and end portion of I Love The Dead. Alice really crammed in a lot of production into a support act slot. 

The props for School's Out were used, which surprised me. What surprised me more is that Alice is still doing the Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 snippet towards the end of the song. That was it. 45 minutes, and no real crowd banter. No “gosh, we love Detroit, blah blah blah” wasting time, just 45 minutes of Rock. 

Sorry about the poor quality of this one, but the energy was there. This was seconds after they took the stage, and Bruce Dickinson was like the Flash.

It was twilight as the intro for Moon Child came over the PA and the band tore into the song. This tour leans heavily on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album and stage set from 1988. I was tired of Maiden by the time that this album was released, so there was no nostalgia for me here. Can I Play With Madness was next, and it is a pleasant song that works well live.

I have waited forever to hear The Prisoner live. The Number of the Beast was the first Maiden album that I bought. 2 Minutes To Midnight is great.

I haven't heard them play Afraid To Shoot Strangers live since 1992. When it came out that year, it was about the Gulf War. Now, it's lyrics can be applied to any number of wars that we have waged in the name of democracy. The more things change...

The Trooper is another classic that the diehards have heard countless times live. Ditto The Number of the Beast. I thought that the beast stage prop was great. This show was jam packed with pyro, bombs, smoke, lights, and props. The turnout for tonight's show was excellent, as the venue was over 90% full. 

I saw them do Phantom of the Opera in 1999. This song doesn't really work well live. I would have rather heard a song off of the new album, honestly. Maiden didn't do anything newer than 1992 tonight. Run To The Hills is not only one of the greatest Iron Maiden songs ever written, but one of the best songs ever written, period. The drum fills on this song just kill me. I never get tired of hearing this one live. 

Wasted Years was my piss break/ get a drink song. Somewhere In Time was such a huge disappointment to me when it came out. It wasn't until No Prayer For The Dying when I started to take the band seriously again. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son was a showstopper, but in a bad way. It is way too long and Prog-Rock-y for a live setting. The crowd just stood there. Maiden has always swayed between the head and the gut, and this is from their more progressive, cerebral era. I prefer the albums where they had more groove and punch. Give me Piece of Mind or Powerslave!

The Clairvoyant was another snoozer for me. Again, I didn't like this album upon it's release in 1988, and I don't like it now. I would have rather heard something off of one of the last few albums or an early deep cut. 

Fear of the Dark has become a live staple over the past 20 years. The song Iron Maiden...what's not to love? It's energetic and punchy. This was the end of the set proper.

The baby in the fetus moved. Awesome. I missed the shot where flames came out of Eddie's head.

The recorded intro Churchill's Speech led into Aces High. I saw them open with this one when Bruce Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999. 

The Evil That Men Do...copy and paste my comments about other songs off of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son here. 

Running Free ended things on a high note. It was nice to see Iron Maiden again. I hadn't seen them live since 2003, and it's always nice to stop in and see “old friends”, and see them still doing well, and looking fit, healthy, and energetic. I'll try not to be such a stranger in the future.

 

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Dark Junk Food For Thought

MOON KNIGHT VOL. 5: DOWN SOUTH (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects Moon Knight (Vol. 5) Nos. 26-30 (cover dates March- July, 2009)

This was another solid read. I really enjoy this title, but fail to see why Marvel axed it just to get the spike in sales for another Issue 1. Marvel seems to be moving in the right direction, restoring the original numbering to their flagship titles, and this seems like a huge step backwards. On top of that, Issue 30 obviously points to the next arc, so why not just keep the series going? I love the Zapata Brothers, both as villains and allies in this arc. Their Facebook jokes were hilarious as well, and it would be nice to see them as a semi-regular feature in the title.

X-MEN: THE SHATTERING (Marvel, 2009)

Collects Astonishing X-Men Nos. 1-3, Uncanny X-Men Nos. 372-375 X-Men Nos. 92-95 and selections from X-Men 1999 Yearbook (cover dates September, 1999- February, 2000).

I wish that this were released prior to the two X-Men Vs. Apocalypse trades that came out a year or two ago, as these issues precede those and would have made for a more enjoyable read overall. Cable, Bishop, and Gambit all suck ass, and I can't stand the sight of them. This whole thing is largely overwritten and has cheesy dialogue all around, which is a shame considering Alan Davis' solid plotting throughout. This isn't as bad as most '90s X-Men, as there some interesting ideas set forth here which would unfold in X-Treme X-Men.

NEW AVENGERS VOL. 10: POWER (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects New Avengers Nos. 48-50 and Secret Invasion: Dark Reign (cover dates February- April, 2009)

Just like fans of the Detroit Lions, I cannot give up on the Avengers, even when they are "losing" because of Brian Michael Bendis' lazy writing. I mean, come on, the whole Secret Invasion: Dark Reign one shot is nothing but a conversation between people with the same lame jokes and wiseass comments that Bendis applies to every single character that he writes. I also despise his condescending attitude towards superheroes. If this jackass is too cool to write superheroes then he should go back to writing "real" comics. I honestly believe that Bendis is a double agent who takes a paycheck from DC and is being paid to destroy the Marvel Universe. He's pretty goddamn close right now, with the uber-retarded Norman Osborn running the show thing.

NEW AVENGERS VOL. 11: SEARCH FOR THE SORCERER SUPREME (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects New Avengers Nos. 51-54 (cover dates May- August, 2009)

More lazy Bendis writing, but at least something happens in this arc. I don't understand the whole "Doctor Voodoo" handle, though, because Jericho Drumm is not a doctor. He's still Brother Voodoo whether he is the new Sorcerer Supreme or not.

SWAMP THING VOL. 9: INFERNAL TRIANGLES (DC, 2006)

Collects Swamp Thing Nos. 77-81 and Swamp Thing Annual No. 3 (cover dates 1987- Holiday, 1988)

The Swamp Thing Annual was the most abysmal thing that I have read in quite some time. The core series remains an intriguing read. Unfortunately, this is the last trade that is available for this run of the title, so I will have to resort to online synopses of the issues following the ones reprinted here in this trade.

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: IN THE BLOOD (Marvel, 2009)

Collects Dead of Night Featuring Werewolf By Night Nos. 1-4 (cover dates March- June, 2009), Tomb of Dracula No. 18 and Werewolf By Night No. 15 (cover date for both March, 1974).

This was the MAX (Marvel's adult imprint) mini-series and, as such, is set outside of main continuity. I am always thrilled to see my beloved Werewolf By Night in any capacity, and this was not a letdown. Super violent and fun, Mico Suayan's artwork is amazing. I also have to give props to Ian Hannin's coloring, as it really complemented the artwork. As I have stated repeatedly, computer color separations generally detract from the artwork, with many colorists going apesh*t with all of the bells and whistles and forgetting that they are there to add to, not replace, the linework. I would like to see more new WBN.

RAY BRADBURY'S FAHRENHEIT 451 (Hill and Wang, 2009)

The term graphic novel is bandied about with reckless abandon. A graphic novel is a book length comic book that has been previously unpublished in a periodical format, like this title. Most 'graphic novels' in fine book stores like Borders are, in reality, trade paperbacks, because they compile issues previously released in a periodical format. Watchmen and Sin City? Trade paperbacks, people! OK, that aside, I was glad to see this solicited simultaneously in hardcover and softcover. Given my hardcover fetish, that's obviously what I went with. I wish that I hadn't. What we have here is a glued, mousetrap binding style hardcover, dubbed as such by me because as soon as you let the book go, *SNAP* shut it goes. A softcover would have been preferable to that. I first encountered this story via the 1960's movie 20 years ago. We had a student teacher in some high school English class while whatever teacher it was had surgery or something. Anyways, he was a very engaging teacher, Mr. Johnson I believe his name was, and he found ways to make books seem cool. This being 1990, the Judas Priest court case over some kid's suicide was in full bloom, and the Parental Music Resource Center (PMRC) was in full swing, slapping those Explicit content stickers on albums and threatening to end life as a 17 year old Metalhead knows it. Censorship seemed like a very real threat to my adolescent way of life. He showed us the movie of this book, which I eventually read the book of, and it left a very real impact on me. Fast forward almost 20 years later, and I saw this solicited and had to order it. This is a wonderful graphic novel adaptation done with Ray Bradbury's blessing and will hopefully find yet another generation of open minded people. This story is the reason that I will never subscribe to the notion of the electronic book. It would take but a few keystrokes to eliminate something controversial, but it is much more difficult to destroy the physical book.

SPIDER- GIRL VOL. 11: MARKED FOR DEATH (Marvel, 2009)

Collects Spider-Girl Nos. 60-66 (cover dates July, 2003- January, 2004)

Another solid, enjoyable read. Spider-Girl and the whole MC2 universe rocks.

Alice Cooper: Love It To Death, Killer, and School's Out 24K Gold disc reissues
I finally got around to picking these up, and they sound amazing. The original CD versions of Love It To Death and Killer were abysmal, sounding muddy with the 1% lag problem that was common on so many CDs mastered in the '80s. These sound crisp and clean without being compressed and punchy sounding. The bass drum doesn't sound like a cannon, it sounds like a bass drum, etc. I would like to see Billion Dollar Babies get this treatment, as they messed up the fade on Hello Hooray into Raped and Freezin' on the remaster earlier this decade, ditto Welcome To My Nightmare, as that remaster actually sounds remixed to me. It's nice to have all of the original packaging elements present as well.
Avatar
One of the most amazing and visually beautiful movies ever made. The CGI and 3-D are flawless and help to draw you in to the storyline. The plot is a bit predictable and it hits you over the head with its message, but it is a good message so I'll let it slide. I absolutely love the fact that this has nice clean edits that didn't rely on nanosecond camera angle changes or rock concert loud explosions, etc. (although there are great battle and action sequences throughout) to keep your attention. This is just an extremely well made and enjoyable popcorn flick that is almost Lord of the Rings good. Almost. It's nice that one of the best movies of the decade came during the final few weeks. No product placement and it hits all of the sweet spots, so it gets a 10/10.