Alice Cooper in Rennes, nov 2011

This was a bit improvised as I probably wouldn't have travelled that far for an "ordinary" show (i.e. one that hasn't the appeal of the London Halloween show) but since I was travelling to the Utopiales festival it was hard to resist the appeal of Alice Cooper. Rennes is a lot closer to Nantes than any of the Swiss venues are to my home town.
So, I dropped the first festival day and headed off. I certainly don't regret it. I knew I would meet friends there and so fun was certain. This time the venue being quite small and – sadly for the band not sold out at all, it's was almost a lazy stroll to get to the front row.

This was my second time seeing the Treatement as the opening band, and I must say I am impressed. Some of them look so young they probably still belong on a school bench. But they are really motivated and they sound great! The sound was much better than in Switzerland and after a long European tour they are much tighter now. Cool little band.

Maybe it was only psychological, because I was so far from home, but despite the intimate setting I felt less connected than in Winterthur. But like there the stage was so incredibly close to the fence. Alice touched hands several times with people, and Tommy and Chuck would come test people too, some guy nearly de-tuned Tommy's guitar as he tried to reach the keys on the headstock. Good fun though.
Orianthi seems to enjoy her zombie looks, she's still in full make-up and I must say she looks great like this. One can see that she has found her place in the band now, she is more confident, and interacts a lot with the audience.

Speaking of looks, Alice changes outfits on every song, changing coats and such. I could be mistaken but I can't remember seeing one coat in particular. Of course after spending a crazy day chatting at the Utopiales festival today I am not so sure on which song it was, about 90% sure it was "Is it My Body"? As I was disappointed not to see a snake (my curse), but from were I was the buttons looked very much like gears, and the whole cut was very Edwardian... Steampunk as usual!
If anyone has got photos of this I would very much like to see them. It would be so cool if there was a page with all of Alice's outfits through the ages, in my next life I might try to do that!

For once I took my camera with me. I now enjoy taking a few shots at concerts, but mostly concentrate on the music, I am not too convinced by people who view an entire concert through the screen of their cameras or phones. But it sure makes for a nice memory. I can't even think straight while Alice is on stage, it's my little moment of totally forgetting the real world, but during 'Only Women Bleed' I took the occasion to point my camera at him. It's actually a nice way of focusing (no pun intended) on the action. I am always very concentrated when I take pictures and this was an interesting experiment. What I love in photography is that you can immerse yourself into a contemplation, whatever the subject is. Which of course was very enjoyable in this case.

Here's a selection
Rennes

Rennes Rennes
The rest of the photos is now up on my Flickr

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