2024 Rock & Roll HOF screechfest

The '80s stuff wasn't great (I liked it b/c it was hair metal-y--Heaven's on Fire is a fucking banger--but it was definitely derivative), but they were whores long before that with the dolls, lunch boxes, etc etc etc. If anything, the music in the '80s caught up to the crass commercialism.

 

That and they developed one helluva theatrical stage show. Their music seldom struck me as more than decently good to mediocre, but if you were a kid in the audience with a bit of altered perception they were wildly entertaining.

Very much agree with this. I was pretty much done with them by the early 80's.

 

For sure. If anything, they belong in the RRHOF for the way they packaged themselves, which was wildly innovative in the 70s and probably helped them overcome whatever musical limitations they had (though I readily admit to liking a lot of their early output). It was almost like they were selling a Star Wars movie with the stage show and the makeup (they sold the kits in stores) and the Kiss Army memberships and the rarely being photographed out of makeup. And again, while Zeppelin et al would only play the EnormoDomes of the era, flying in for the show and then immediately flying out, Kiss had no qualms about not only playing the Fargos of the world while also giving such people a bang-up show. (Rush, a frequent opening act for Kiss in the '70s, would learn well from this.)

And yeah, the 80s were unkind, but they were unkind to a whole lot of legacy rock acts. But then Gene and Paul learned about the selling power of nostalgia and turned Kiss into Kiss Inc., with obviously diminishing creative returns but lucrative financial ones.

 

Playin Kiss covers
Beautiful and stoned

Rockin’ rolling, rolling numbers
Got my Kiss records out

I never was a fan beyond the makeup, but they definitely were a part of the ‘70s.

 

Alice Cooper in his prime did it better. I saw him hung, decapitated, and electrocuted. I saw him chase a giant tooth around the stage with a ten foot dentist's drill. The band and the music was consistently a helluva lot better than Kiss. That's up to maybe "Welcome to my Nightmare" or so. "Billion Dollar Babies" was one helluva tour.

 

And for us dinosaurs who still listen to actual radio stations, Cooper has a revived nighttime radio show ("Alice's Attic") that went back on the air a couple weeks ago.

 

He's still getting guillotined onstage, all these years later. He's got that stunt down cold.

When you see his head fall in the basket, that's because his entire body falls down a couple of feet when the blade falls. Then they pull his "head" out and hold it up.

 

I saw Alice in concert about 20 years ago, well past his prime -- and it was a very entertaining show. Had some young-gun talent in his band, and yes, the guillotine came out.

Somehow they revived him so he could sing "School's Out" for his encore!

 

Alice Cooper, both the Alice show and the band behind him, was tremendous in that stretch from Love it to Death through Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies.

 

I saw Alice Cooper open for Motley Crue on their farewell (snort) tour and he was great. Looked & sounded better than any of those youngsters in the Crue. That guy is/was incredibly talented. Dude hit the top 10 w/"You & Me" and sang on The Muppet Show, presumably while high as a fucking kite. What a legend.

Sorta related, but I've always been impressed by how modest Cheap Trick & Alice Cooper seem & how hard they work. Both have opened for the Crue when they could probably headline theaters. Of course, I'm sure the money as a Crue opener is better than headlining theaters. But still, they were on their way to the RRHOF & in the RRHOF and they are doing the 45-minute opener bit.

 

If you're going to a show with the Crue and Cooper, who are you going to see? For me, it's Cooper.

 

I'm an '80s kid so I was there to see the Crue "one last time." They were fine but I walked out of there thinking they were like the one-time star pitcher throwing junk and giving up piss rockets that land in someone's glove on his way to a 4.50 ERA in his final season. There wasn't anything left in the tank and I had no desire to see them again. Of course, they're idiots so they came back and shit all over Mick, their one decent human and good musician, in the process.

Alice, on the other hand, I'd gladly see again just b/c the guy still has it, even if I don't have most of his discography.