Photographing duties over, I found myself an ideal spot from which I could watch the show up close without any disruption.  Hoisting myself onto the safety barrier that had been in use earlier for the Honda motor extravaganza, I had a perfect view of the stage and a video screen right in front of me.  As the night got darker, the lights and the low flying by the planes landing at City Airport a mere ten minutes away added to the spectacle of the show – actually it did rather look like they would rip the roof of the stage off.   After ‘Lost in America’ there was a pause and a loud heartbeat before Alice stomped zombie-like onto the stage for ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ featuring guitar duelling between Keri and Jason, even sharing the solo which proves how well this yin and yang of guitar partnerships works together - Keri the sinuously athletic rock ‘n roll shape shifter, with Jason as the stoically reliable wingman.  ‘Dirty Diamonds’ caused a scrum each time Alice threw a necklace into the audience, ‘Muscle of Love’ featured a lengthy jam, then a flamenco guitar interlude from Keri introduced ‘Desperado’, with Alice suitably dressed in long western overcoat, hat and gunbelt.  The stage was suddenly plunged into darkness and when the lights flashed on again, Alice was taunting a kneeling, shredding Keri Kelli with his cane.  An oriental temptress was threatened with a knife, but she retaliated with a gun and marched Alice off the stage, allowing the band to take over completely.  Eric’s drumming got louder by degrees, until Keri and Jason downed their guitars and leapt onto the drum riser to give him four more helping hands.  The intensity crept up, the strobes were flashing, Chuck climbed the riser, held his bass aloft and banished the guitarists back down to their rightful place as Eric demonstrated what a phenomenal drummer he is, reaching a frantic and dramatic crescendo.  ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ saw Alice fighting his captors bravely, chasing the last one from the stage only to return with ‘Cold Ethyl’ upon whom he meted out the severest of punishments while Keri shredded his Strat into submission.  The tone changed dramatically for ‘Only Women Bleed’, and the emotion was electrifying.  The fight choreography was superb, and the scream at the end was like a stab in the heart.  

During ‘Dead Babies’, Alice stabbed a ghoulish baby in the heart, only to be forced into a straight jacket as punishment for his evil deeds.  Escaping his bonds as the ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’ drew to a close, the crowd yelled encouragement as Keri dropped to his knees, and Jason prowled the stage beating hooded captors out of the way.  Alice was soon back in the jacket, though, and hung from the gallows.  A few resounding choruses of ‘I Love the Dead’ gave the crowd a chance to exercise its lungs once more, then a bell rang and Alice reappeared in white tails and top hat for ‘School’s Out’ which brought everybody down from the stands for lots of jumping around as the show finished.   The encore provided the hits; ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, 'Poison' and 'Elected', where two dancers wearing Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton masks had a fight and Alice yelled “get off my stage” before announcing the band and ending the show with a flourish.  

I read some reviews of this performance where the perception is that Alice was just going through the motions of playing the songs.  There was nothing from the new album ‘Along Comes A Spider’, but it’s not really his fault as the tour had been booked before the album was finished.  Let’s hope he’s planning a stage set along the lines of ‘Brutal Planet’ and that we’ll be able to hear the new album in all its glory in the not too distant future.