Alice Cooper-Welcome to My Nightmare (1975)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Audio Commentary-Alice Cooper (Actor)
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	83:55
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Winters
Studio Distributor	William Silberkleit Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Alice Cooper
Case	Click
RPI	$29.95	Music	Alice Cooper

    One of the pleasant things about my early childhood was sitting down and having a listen to some of the old classics my dear old dad had on vinyl - obscure little pieces by artists like Devo, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Black Widow, and, of course, Alice Cooper. While Alice Cooper is comparatively poppy when put beside some of the greats I grew up listening to, his theatrical stage shows and bizarre public image certainly have helped to make him a memorable, if not exactly brilliant, performer.

    As Cooper himself states in the commentary, numerous audience members went in with no idea of what to expect - apparently the show featured on this DVD was ten times as theatrical as the ones for the Billion Dollar Babies tour, and that was saying a lot. While it has been some time since I listened to the Welcome To My Nightmare album, I remember it being as bizarre and atmospheric as this video, and that's definitely not a bad thing after some of the bland crap we are bombarded with today.

    One specific comment I would like to make is that I simply do not know how a stage show with some of the suggestive theatrics shown could have passed by the OFLC with a mere G rating. I'm not advocating censorship here, but I do feel that one six minute sequence is definitely not meant to be viewed by pre-teen audiences.

    For those who are interested, the track listing is as follows (there are a couple of extra chapters snuck in here and there for various little diversions):

Video

    The cover claims that this disc features a digitally remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Unfortunately, the digital remastering or restoration did not extend to the video, which looks quite poor, to say the least.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which looks to be more or less the correct ratio as far as the scene compositions go.

    This transfer is not sharp - there are moments when Cooper looks like he is less than half a metre from the camera, and yet he is little more than a blur. The shadow detail is reasonable, although this is more to do with the lighting, which is often so overbright that it causes frequent lens flares. Low-level noise is a persistent problem throughout the show, with blacks being more an indistinct grey, and often there is a grey haze over the picture that is most disconcerting to look at.

    The colours in this production are dramatically overbright and almost cartoonish, but the transfer renders them as washed-out and dull, which is a major failing when it comes to live shows of the 1970s.

    MPEG artefacts were not immediately noticeable in this transfer, but they were on the verge of breaking out at almost all times, with some occasional blocky sections appearing in the background. Some mild motion blur is also occasionally visible. Film-to-video artefacts other than camera wobble were not really noticed, mostly because the transfer is simply not sharp enough to make them apparent. Film artefacts were also a persistent problem with this transfer, with enough scratches and marks appearing in some shots to be spread through modern feature films at a rate of about one a second. If ever there was video content that screamed for a careful restoration, this is definitely it.

    There are no subtitles available on this disc, so Hearing Impaired viewers are out of luck.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks on this DVD: the first, and default, is the original English music encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kilobits per second, and the second is an English Audio Commentary encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 kilobits per second. I listened to both of these soundtracks, although I did find the latter a bit heavy-going after a while.

    Alice Cooper's vocals are as easy to understand as his enunciation and theatrics allow, and there are no obvious problems with audio sync.

    The music featured on this disc is the work of Alice Cooper and a few co-writers, most of it culled from his Welcome To My Nightmare album. The stage show renders the songs well enough, and most of them are entertaining enough to fill the time they occupy, but the concert itself does drag a little towards the end.

    The surround channels are only really used to separate the sounds of the audience from the music, which is a real disappointment. As a result, the music does tend to sound cluttered and unfocused, more like a stereo soundtrack than a bona fide 5.1 remix. So much more could have been done with this effort.

    The subwoofer was used to support the drums and bass, which it did without calling specific attention to itself. It was only used mildly, in any case.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is really just a chapter selection screen, with a couple of options presented for good measure. It is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Audio Commentary - Alice Cooper (Actor/Composer)

    Accompanied by a producer (or something) who is never named, Alice Cooper comments about the making and playing of this stage show throughout this Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack. He shares some interesting insights about his artistic considerations, which makes it worth listening to once.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Interactive trivia game
• Interviews and photo galleries (which allegedly have never been seen before)

    From the customer reviews I have read at Amazon, it would appear that some effort has actually gone into cleaning up the video transfer (and believe me, it needs it), but the reports also have it that the sound quality is fairly similar. I would tread very carefully with this disc, but if any of our readers can confirm that there is a better version out there, please let me know.

    I found Welcome To My Nightmare somewhat disappointing, but I suspect that this has to do with the transfer quality rather than the music itself. Hardcore fans will want this disc, but I would suggest others should purchase Brutally Live instead.

    The video transfer is poor, and difficult to watch at times.

    The audio transfer is competent, but should have been better.

    The one extra is a commentary track, which is always nice to hear.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall