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Billon Dollar Babies Concert Review

Billion Dollar Babies
Pontiac Stadium
Pontiac, Michigan
July 9th, 1977

"ALICE DOESN'T LIVE here anymore; the Billion Dollar Babies do!" read the sign in the white tile dressing room below Pontiac Stadium. By 2 :30 in the morning, the band — Alice Cooper's former rhythm section and two additions — was beginning to take the sign's message literally. Drummer Neal Smith, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, guitarist Mike Marconi and keyboardist Bob Dolin had to wait five hours for their "world premiere" because of equipment failure.

They finally hit the stage just after 2:30, and again, everything that could go wrong did. The opening three songs from their debut album were solid, well­ executed rockers; but Michael Bruce's vocals were swallowed up by the capricious PA system. Next, the small but fervent crowd became mildly ecstatic over a medley of Alice gems, including "School's Out," which only muddied the Babies' identity problem.

But, despite the problems, the band's centerpiece — a theatrical episode based on "Battle Axe," the debut album's title cut, complete with Marconi and Bruce clad in space armor and battling with huge chrome axes — was superior to any of Alice Cooper's extravaganzas. And not only that, the Babies play rock & roll, not Vegas.