Monsters of the Millennium Vol II:
Alice Cooper, Dio, Ratt, Sonata Arctica
Old Icehall 7.5.2001 Helsinki, Finland
Article and photos by Finland's Metal Rules
Team
It
was the second time that the Monsters Of The Millennium tour
package went over Scandinavia. The tour went through Denmark, Sweden and
Finland featuring three old time hard rock and heavy metal veterans on
the bill: Alice Cooper, Dio and Ratt. This kind of tour has been meant
to happen every year.
The domestic power metal hope Sonata Arctica had been hired to open
the night, but unfortunately none of us were able to get there on time
and had to miss which it wasn't that big loss after all. But according
to stories told by other people S.A were allowed to play a couple of
tracks and had utterly crappy sound quality…
But luckily enough we got there in the very last minute to check out
one of the well-known LA hair/glam rock bands of the 80's namely Ratt.
To be honest Ratt's choice to be involved in the MOM tour package was
entirely unexpected and definitely a huge surprise for several people
indeed. The line up of the combo has undergone more than less noticeable
changes during the last few years, basically Ratt of nowadays ain't the
same one as 15 years ago cos the current one consists of only two
original members left from the real 80's line up. The other three
current members are John Corabi - being the former Motley Crue and
Scream guy, Jizzy Pearl - being the former Love/Hate vocalist (and now
Ratt's vocalist) and Robbie Crane on the bass having played in Vince
Neil's band previously. As for Ratt's set, they definitely sounded
really heavy actually, probably a little bit too heavy because
occasionally it became a job to recognize some of old tunes. But the
glam rockers mainly focused on performing a lot of older material from
their 80's outputs from "Invasion of your Privacy", "Out
of Cellar" and "Dancing Undercover". Jizzy's stage
performance was ok as moving all around the stage all the time and
filled the spot left by Stephen Pearcy pretty well all in all. As for
Corabi, that was another thing. Corabi had apparently partied a night
before the gig and at least must have had such a nice hangover when
being on the stage. Before getting on the stage he came out of the
dressing room with a few bottles of Finnish beer in hands and he seemed
to be out a little bit throughout because he rather remained aside all
the time and switched the guitars a couple of times. DeMartini had also
partied last night, but he bravely handled his part very well. To sum
Ratt's set up - they were better than expected in the first place
because of the massive heavy rough sounds and besides got such a nice
reception from the Finnish audience. Frankly they should have already
visited Finland in the mid of the 80's.
Ratt tracklist
Shame Shame Shame
Wanted Man
Back for More
Walkin' the Dog
Lack of Communication
Way Cool Jr.
Loving You's a Dirty Job
Lay It Down
You're in Love
Round and Round
Slip of the Lip
I'm Insane
Ronnie James Dio is like a wine - getting older, but getting better
all the time. That fact was witnessed once again when Dio hit the stage
starting out with rather a surprising choice "Sunset
Superman". Dio has visited Finland quite frequently during the last
four years. He has managed to improve his following quite well and
especially generate an entire new fan base - the whole front of the
stage was entirely packed by young Dio fans singing all the old classic
tunes by heart. It could have been expected to hear some tunes more from
his recent album "Magica", those tunes being "Fever
Dream", "Magica Theme" and "Lord of the Last
Day", but instead the whole set of Dio was a kinda triumphal march
of an excellent cross-section of all time ever greens from Dio's career
without forgetting classic tunes from Dio's days in both Black Sabbath
and Rainbow. It also excellent to see Jimmy Bain back in the rank and
brought the lost vibe back to the live performance of the whole band.
The debut album "Holy Diver" usually gets a special
treatment on every gig. Here in Finland the set included five tunes off
that album. To be honest it would be great if Dio did a couple of other
tunes from "The last in line" besides the title track and also
something from "Sacred Heart". Dio has always been considered
one of the best heavy metal singers ever and even now he didn't let
anyone down as his magical voice filled the dismal old ice hall. Welcome
back on the next MOM tour!
Dio tracklist
Sunset Superman
Invisible
Drum Solo
Stand Up And Shout
Don't Talk To Strangers
Magica Theme
Lord of the Last Day
Fever Dreams
Man On The Silver Mountain
Long Live Rock'n Roll
Guitar Solo/Annica
Holy Diver
Heaven And Hell
The Last In Line
Alice
Cooper….Can't even remember when he visited here last time, must be in
the early 90's. But a lot of water has flown down the river since his
last studio album "The Last Temptation" and his last visit.
The opening was really shocking when two masked guys brought out a
huge tower and opened the doors and a bizarre looking humanoid figure
stuck out making an welcome introduction. The doors closed and the same
masked guys pushed the tower aside and Alice Cooper himself appeared on
the stage dressed up in a red long leather coat and had the well-known
make-ups around him eyes and immediately put a real super heavy
industrial gear on. It was obvious the audience seemed to be more or
less unfamiliar with Alice Cooper's industrial based stuff, instead
basically watching the superb stage show and performance spellbound. The
first part of the set was mostly based on the new stuff from
"Brutal Planet" until the legendary execution of Alice's head
since that the rest of the gig was mostly a kind of nostalgic trip to
the older classic material from the 70's ala Billion Dollar Babies and
to the 80's Poison. Well at least the crowd woke up upon hearing these
recognizable tunes after all. Another highlight from the point of view
of the Finnish audience was when Mike Monroe being the former Hanoi
Rocks vocalist appeared on the stage to sing "Under My wheels"
as a duet with Alice Cooper.
The Alice Cooper band sounded and did a fantastic job and the current
Kiss drummer Eric Singer hired for this tour has got his own Kiss fan
army.
In the final stage Alice once again surprised the audience, wearing a
shirt with a slogan "Britney wants me" on the front and on the
back "DEAD!" And surprise surprise Britney Sprears looking
mega blond chick appeared shouting "Baby one more time" and
Alice….Watching the chick a for while and then literally smacked that
bitch up a few times. A couple of seconds later Britney's executed head
was brought to the stage and shown to the audience.
Basically the show was pretty faithful to the just released DVD,
expect some nice surprises during the gig. In general, seeing Alice
Cooper on the stage is a damn good reminder of what real horror hard
rock should be.
Alice set
Brutal Planet
Gimme
Go to Hell
Blow Me a Kiss
I'm Eighteen
Pick Up the Bones
Feed My Frankenstein
Wicked Young Man
Dead Babies
Ballad of Dwight Fry
I Love the Dead
The Black Widow
No More Mr. Nice Guy
It's Hot Tonight
Caught in a Dream
It's the Little Things
Poison
Take It Like a Woman
Only Women Bleed
He's Back
Under My Wheels
School's Out
Billion Dollar Babies
My Generation
Department Of Youth
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DIO LIVE
ALICE LIVE
RATT LIVE
