Customer Reviews

Alice Cooper - The Nightmare Returns Tour (1986)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In 1986, Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier) was returning to the rock-n-roll spotlight after a 4 year absence. Yes, Alice did release two albums Zipper Catches Skin & Dada since he last toured in 1981 for his underrated Special Forces album, but those albums were very poorly marketed and hence, unsuccessful. AC was also battling alcohol problems again during the early '80s which hurt his ability to tour. In 1985, AC met the bodybuilding, vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire Kane Roberts. AC also met a then unknown bassist, Kip Winger, and the combination of Roberts and Winger helped to revitalize and energize AC for the heavy metal '80s. AC was able to kick his drinking problem (for good) and really concentrate on his music. In 1986, AC released his first album in two years, Constrictor, to mixed reviews and sales. AC wrote the lyrics, while Roberts and Winger wrote most of the music. Even though the album had a mediocore reception, the anticipation for AC live and in concert was very high! Alice Cooper and his live show was becoming something of a legendary myth in the 80's, and the new, young heavy-metal crowd could not wait to witness and experience the macabre performances the master showman, Alice Cooper, was famous for.
Cue 10/31/86. Halloween night. First AC show in 4 years. Live on MTV in front of his "home town" Detroit. "The Nightmare Returns". This one broadcast did more for AC's career than all the publicity AC had at the time put together! MTV enabled AC to be seen live, nationwide at a time when heavy metal was about to explode in popularity. Needless to say, AC put on a show for the ages! The 20,000 people that sold out Joe Louis Arena in Detroit that night were rabid. The general admission floor crowd was moving en masse and like a human wave. The energy was so strong, that it still emanates from the concert DVD! AC put on his most violent and hard hitting show for the broadcast. The band was pumped, primed and they delivered full force! From the opening "Welcome To My Nightmare", it's evident that this was going to be a special night! AC does it all: mutilating baby dolls, beating up ghouls, impaling a camera man, fighting a giant robot, cutting himself and Kane with a sword, escaping from a straight-jacket and finally being beheaded! The screams of horror from the audience are funny to hear, LOL! THIS one broadcast resulted in sold out shows all over the world, AC was back on top of the rock-n-roll mountain!

Wow! Buy this DVD and witness the triumphant comeback of THE greatest showman in the history of rock-n-roll! I was lucky enough to witness this tour live at the George Mason University auditorium. I was an AC neophyte and one of those people that had heard surreal tales of AC shows; the show made me an AC fan for life. This concert will do the same for you, as long as you enjoy a good horror movie and excellent hard rock music.
FYI, Megadeth opened for AC during the U.S. portion of this tour. AC, after witnessing Dave Mustaine's alcohol problems, helped Dave with this self-destructive issue, and the two have remained close friends ever since. How Cute! Put him on the guillotine!
This DVD has the added bonus of two videos: Teenage Frankenstein and Freedom that are not on the original VHS release.
Set List:
Welcome To My Nightmare
Billion Dollar Babies
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Be My Lover
18 (Little Flower Of Ulysses)
The World Needs Guts
Give It Up
Cold Ethyl
Only Women Bleed
Go To Hell
The Ballad Of Dwight Fry
Teenage Frankenstein
Sick Things
I Love The Dead
School's Out
Elected
Under My Wheels

If you like Alice, you're gonna love it! The Coop returns to the arena where he belongs still to this day! He's still this good live if you haven't seen him in the last couple of years. For a more modern rendering, get the "Brutally Live" DVD & crank it up in DTS! But back to the Nightmare; great show as usual from Alice with Kip Winger on bass & Paul then Horowitz (Taylor, Winger keyboard/rhythm guitarist) on keys & the absolutely phenomenal Ken Mary on drums (by far the best drummer Alice has ever had!). An excellent investment for Alice fans, but the DVD would sound better! The Wolf

This show has been previously available on VHS from Halloween 1986. The DVD has been cleaned up, presented in 5.1 surround and comes with two extra video clips of Freedom and Teenage Frankinstien.

The show if great, sounds great, the songs that Kane Roberts helped write sound good but his solos arnt true to the original solos of the Cooper songs of the past, but it doesnt matter, sit back and bang your head with it.

Tracks

1. Welcome to my nightmare
2. Billion Dollar Babies
3. No more Mr. Nice guy
4. Be My Lover
5. I'm Eighteen
6. The world needs guts
7. Give it up
8. Cold Ethyl
9. Only women bleed
10. Go to hell
11. The ballad of Dwight Fry
12. Teenage Frankinstein (goes into a great breakdown with a cool illusion)
13. Sick Things
14. I love the dead
15. Schools out (goes into break down of solos)
16. Elected
17. Under my wheels

Extra Video Clips
* Teenage Frankinstien
* Freedom

No subtitles.

It has a lot of great theatrics during the show, it's well worth purchasing.

This is a fun concert to watch and worth the price. It's Alice Cooper doing his Constrictor concert. When seeing the stage display you can see how Rob Zombie got inspired to do his shows. Even the Robot/Frankenstein thing reminded me of something that Zombie would use. The crowd is on their feet from start to finish. Alice is constantly running around the stage picking up different props during the guitar solos, even cutting himself with a sword. It looked real enouph. Alice even stabs a cameraman with the microphone stand. The DVD also has two music videos, "Teenage Frankenstein" & "Raise Your Fist And Yell". Enjoy if your a fan of ALice or 80s heavy metal.

This is the best Alice concert I ever watched! It has Alice doing everything he use to with out the staggering! I esspecialy loved the part where the lead guitar player takes out a machine gun guitar and makes it look like its firing! Get this video at all costs!

Not only have I seen this video, but I was fortunate enough to see it live at the Patriot Center in VA, way back in '86. The sound was incredible, the theatrics better than any splatter film, and then there's Alice, the psycho-hero, what more could you ask for, it's shock rock at its purest, from the one who started it all. If you like Manson, then wait til you see the original.

This is a great concert to review Alice in the 80's. He has a little bit of the 70's Alice and 80's ALice combined, however I still miss the Alice Cooper Band from 1968-1974. That was the best. However this video is excellent, any ALice Cooper fan wont be disappointed

Good to see Alice's old video collection re-encoding. A concert so full of energy, theater music, old characteres from horror movies. As part of a huge collection this dvd can't be out of my shelf. His first Halloween's concert on video. Definitively Alice makes a mark in time with these type of shock-theater-monster concert. Excellent quality (What an old record can offer, of course). Dolby, DTS and PCM options are available. Additionally there are two bonus videos: Teenage Frankenstein (live clips from the same concert) and Freedom (Music video).
What can I say? Buy it. Excellent concert and with this store you can be sure you'll get this item safe and fast.

this is the best concert i have ever seen and i was born in 1986. i love the show, and that is what he put on here. i just cant figure out why i could not find it for over 8 years then as soon as i find it on amazon it is big news. just like a cd of his.

This is an absolute awesome show , this was Alice's big comeback in 1986 and boy does he deliver . Soem great hard rock tunes back with a pretty good band. Kane Roberts has stage presence and along with kip Winger and Ken Mary this band rocked . Some great theatrics including the "monster robot" and of course the guillotine. An absolute must have !