Alice Cooper--Brutally Live: Collector's Edition

Filmed live at London's Apollo Hammersmith theater on July 19, 2003, glam/shock rock legend Alice (“the Coop”) Cooper brings his woman-abusing, guillotine-beheading, baby-impaling act to an appreciative audience along with a 25-song set comprised of hits (“I'm Eighteen,” “School's Out,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Only Women Bleed”) and misses (no less than seven cuts from his then-current heavy metal dud, Brutal Planet). Despite the lurid themes of Cooper's stage show, this is all pretty mild (and more than a little musty) stuff, firmly played with a KISS-length tongue-in-cheek (best visual: Cooper's T-shirt front reads: “Britney Wants Me,” with the back finishing the thought, “Dead”). Early fans (full disclosure: I own all of Alice Cooper's 1971-1974 CDs) will not be disappointed, as he serves up “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” “You Drive Me Nervous,” “Under My Wheels,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” and “Elected,” among others--the whole shebang in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.0, and stereo. As a bonus, the second disc is a CD featuring 19 of the live cuts here. Recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)