Even foul, soggy weather couldn't keep legions of fans from descending on iconic St Kilda venue The Palais in black-clad droves.

The original godfather of shock rock Vincent Furnier, better known to most as Alice Cooper, was back in town. Last seen on our shores for the Theatre of Death tour, Cooper was “killed” on stage no fewer than four times. Could he top this effort?

Well, no... he was decapitated once & that was it.

His career spanning more than four decades, one could perhaps forgive Cooper if his stage antics weren't as energetic as last tour. At an age where most folks would be thinking about retiring or settling down with a cup of tea & a pair of fuzzy slippers, Alice Cooper is still stalking around in all his leather-clad glory.

Kicking things off was Sydney four-piece Syndicate. A relatively mediocre set of stock-standard commercial-friendly rock.

Finally it was time for the man himself to make an appearance.

The stage setup was relatively simple, Alice leering out & a groping corpse's hand amongsty a misty graveyard set the mood for the night. Older grandmum types were seatied next to youngsters in their teens. Certainly few performers have quite the ability to unify an audience. He seemed to feed off of interaction with his crowd. A front-row seat was definitely worth the elevated price if you like the mic shoved in your face or personal time with the legend. Cooper did a fair job of spaning the years. Hits spanned from opener “Black Widow” to a rare outing of “Hey Stoopid”, to classics like a downtuned  & slighly growly take on “Feed My Frankenstein” ( a highlight of the night ) & “Poison”.

Another highlight was Greek goddess Orianthi Panagaris. Hailing from Adelaide, South Australia, Orianthi was announced in August as Cooper's new guitarist, making her the 1^st female member of Cooper's band.

Here's hoping this visit wasn't his last. A very solid 9 out of 10.