At the advanced age of 68, I would’ve accepted a good performance by Alice Cooper, who played the Civic Center Theater last night. To my pleasant surprise, I felt like we got to see Alice Cooper in his prime, and his young, backing band delivered virtuoso hard rock behind him. His distinctive, raspy, snarling vocals – he was never an American Idol karaoke singer – sounded like he did when I used to attend his shows annually in our native Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s.

Alice has kept himself in good enough shape to meet the demands of his macabre, theatrical show. He moves around fine, whether directing his four-guitar band on solos or play-fighting with women on stage. As expected, there were plenty of super-sized props in the show, ranging from him playing a giant (“Feed My Frankenstein”) Frankenstein (below) to him losing his head in a tall guillotine to him serenading a life-size doll during “Cold Ethyl” to Presidential candidates wrestling during “Elected” to Alice singing with his trademarked live Boa snake draped on his shoulders.

There’s plenty of action to see on stage, but the record-quality music carries the show. And just as the four, fit, young guitarists and drummer supplied eye candy to the near-sold-out crowd, the band members could bring it with the best musicians you’ll hear. Lead guitarist Nita Strauss, in particular, wowed us with Eddie Van Halen-caliber guitar work, while jumping around stage and whipping her blond hair during solos.

I got to once more hear the Alice hits of my youth, from “No More Mr. Nice Guy” to “Under My Wheels” to “Is It My Body” to “Billion Dollar Babies” to “I Love The Dead” and the beautiful slower tempo “Only Women Bleed.” He paid tribute to some of his fallen rock friends – Keith Moon, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie – by playing The Who’s “Pinball Wizard,” The Doors’ “Love Me Two Times,” Hendrix’ “Fire,” and Bowie’s “Suffragette City,” with giant-sized tombstones in the background, one of the highlights of the show.

After the fallen heroes musical tribute, Alice cranked out a couple more crowd pleasers, “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out” with a little Pink Floyd “We don’t need no education” thrown in for good measure. The band wrapped up the hour and 45 minutes of pure rock joy with “Elected,” featuring appearances by paper-mache-headed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, who took turns beating each other up, while Alice commanded the stage in his red, white and blue top hat, tails and cane. Two thumbs up from me and all the Facebook reviews I read from friends.

Doc Watson