Song after song was belted out, from his new album as well as past tracks, as Cooper charged up and down the stage with an energy and force of a true performer. In pure Cooper rock horror style, there were theatrics that made everyone’s blood curdle with delight. Dramatic props including a blood-soaked crutch and stack of money bayoneted on a sword—and a live boa constrictor that Cooper wrapped around his neck—sent the crowd into a frenzy. But the highlights were a ‘live’ execution that Cooper performed with a guillotine, the awakening of Frankenstein and the release of giant balloons into the audience that Cooper burst with his sword. It was a good hour or so before Cooper took his first break, leaving the stage in the hands of his extremely talented band which did him proud. And when he sang his most well-known songs, Hey Stoopid, Poison and School’s Out (with Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall cleverly mixed in), it was sing-a-long time.
But given Cooper’s legendary status, the turn out was small. Even just before the show started there was plenty of room left in the modest-sized Coliseum which made us wonder how successful a night it was going to be. Fortunately once Cooper got going, people emerged and the venue looked reasonably full. But Cooper has filled huge stadiums many, many times the size of Hard Rock Café’s Coliseum. Even if that was from a different era, Cooper is still hailed as a rock god and his shows in Australia and New Zealand, before Singapore, were massive sell outs, according to news reports. The fault for the relatively poor turnout here appears to lie with the local promoters who really could have done much more to tell people that Cooper was coming.
The upside was that everyone who was there obviously really wanted to be there and gave Cooper their all. The estimated crowd of 2,000 sounded like 4,000 with all the cheering, clapping and singing. And people were able to get right up close to the stage and see every detail of the man and his awesome show.
Cooper saved the night with his brilliant showmanship, perfect performance and stage charisma that gives him the ability to command a crowd and own the space. By the end of the evening we forgot we were in Resorts World, even though its theme-park like architecture surrounded us, and were completely transported to Alice Cooper’s wonderland.
The following pictures are by Lim Han Thon:
