Alice’s New Show Lust, Greed & Dental Hygiene

Alice Cooper’s latest and most appropriate symbol is a dollar-sign, “S” transformed into a two-headed snake. This design graces the tail of the private jet which will carry the group and its entourage to each of the 56 cities on its current tour. The tour is, organized around its new album Billion Dollar Babies It will oei tainly bring tn more than $4,000,000 and while $4 000,000 isn't a billion, it's more than the: Rolling Stpnes made t: last time they raped Ameiica.

According to myth, such. grosses are gross, because Mice Cooper is a no-music hype who&e record-hreaking career ex ploits tawdry sh;ow1114:flshi[[) and ado lescerd gullibility in more-or?le~. equal PPt?*i00~ But if tt;$ grqss, U:~$~tflhlt. tQ be grS...:, like the g~:~ natioui. product, and anyway, it does have, content. Hync andshowrnsr.ship have ceflainly b:~p~. -. the group s manager Shep Gordon,_has linessed and hiazened Alice's predi led ion for tasteless outrage into the kt nd of media at ten uon that turns tust anothet rock hand into superstars. But Alice would never have begun to fill sports arenas without a couple of classic hard -rock singles, ``I'ni I 8" and ``SchooFs Out ." both vritten by Alice himself. and a ltn of hard touring, too. ihe only way lie `,ill coffi inue to t'~ll them is by con tinuing to exemplify the good old America ii work ethic. l'he Rolling Stones could hake iaked in S4,000,000-plus if they'd been willing to strain themselves. Ti c'~ declined.

The group's new show. emphasizes new materia' from li/lion G~QUpS Wt~iCh organize tQ.u~ a±ound un faLm~: music: are usually either uii compromising aesthetically sup~ naturally arrog~int In Ahee Cooper these two s, .a:re identical.. NQthi~Ig AJi~i::: has conc )et ed in a a reer based on I asteless out rae,e equals the Ira ok. sW~?at\ greed I his current SUeee~s and his act is designed accent ate I hIS. \o t that A lice doesn't run h roneh his usual numbers. He pla~ w tb his boa constrict or, he skewers dolls a sword. he enilloitnes hiinsell as tincou~ inenuzi as •e user! to hang hinr~~elf. lie e~en has a new son~z about necrophilia. \iercy inc.

But he justifies this sieko toniioolerv by makiwz fun of ii Unlike niost iock showme i A ice (tn `per does n t pit' -tend to pttt out for his audience. In steid. he extends jib 11311(1 11)1 he fans at the edge of the stage. then draws it awn `heii someone night actually totwh Ii nu. lIe ml Is a iveu way poster arid indnces some screaming payee lii snatch ii in tin bet ween his legs. In one triumphant sequence, he attacks a dancing tooth with an: enormous toothbrush, satirizing in one swipe the complimentary banality of rock advice ("Alice Cooper says, brush your teeth") and rock sadomasochism t4entists hurt, too). Pius,. the silliness of rock phallic symbols. Not . mention. the ultimate antisepsis of his whole bizarre trip But the best moment comes after the guillotine sequence when the whole band disappears from the stage and the music continues on tape... You don't really need rne~fl all, Alice says, b.dt you'll be bstk and so will I. At the end, there is anc.ther t.ape,...Kate Smith: singing God Bless Ameiica " 1 he Stai s and Stripes: are~ lowered. Do they burn The flag,. spit .oii it,.tun it through with a sword? Me you kidding? These ate good Am enema, folk& The band salutes, and walks off in modified goose step.