Alice Cooper Live at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go 1969

This is a wonderful time capsule of one of my all-time favorite bands well before they became superstars. The material here is drawn from their first two, demented albums, Pretties For You and Easy Action, which are both incredible records and quite different from the somewhat more commercial, heavy-metal-pop sounds of the later years. The sound here is pretty terrific for an early live recording (done on an 8-Track recorder, apparently) and the group in incredibly tight as they run through these strange numbers with their innumerable changes. There are some variations from the studio albums, but mostly, these are pretty incredible run-throughs of these numbers.

This all-too-short set (were they opening for someone, I wonder?) includes "No Longer Umpire", "Today Mueller", "10 Minutes Before the Worm", "Levity Ball" (not the same live take that was released on Pretties For You), "Nobody Likes Me" (a song that was unreleased until the AC box set, other than on bootlegs or a flexi disc, as I recall), "B.B. on Mars", "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" (pretty terrific "jam" number that sounds almost exactly like the album!) before closing with "Changing, Arranging", with its menacing fuzz guitar work.

I love damn near everything that AC group ever did and this is no exception. So amazing that someone had the foresight to document this bit of warped, aural madness! Probably for fans only, but essential for them!

(PS - I've had the vinyl of this for ages but didn't know until now that it had been released on CD, so no excuse - get it!)