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A well rounded evening of rock

It was a well rounded evening of rock on the State Fairground Memorial Coliseum floor last night with the Iron Butterfly and Alice Cooper in concert.

Zephyr, originally included in the lineups, failed ot appear because of health reasons.

Also featured in the Feyline production was a revolving stage in the middle of the arena.

The Iron Butterfly is an exciting group. They splash and whine, scream and shout, and keep it together all the time. They are professionals.

From the opening strains of "Are You Happy?" with 9,000 attending popsters readily supplied an answer. It was a clear cut case of "yes."

The Butterfly bash started off slowly, because of technical difficulties, and built. They built up through "Fields of Sun," "Can't Help But Deceive" and "It's The Time Of Our Life."

A large part of their appeal comes from thier cathedralish redundancy. Maybe they are just four choir boys gone bad, which seemed very good to the crowd.

Most interesting, however, was Alice Cooper, a one-time Phoenix gathering. Without reservation, they are the epitome of a "psychedelic acid-rock hippie" band.

As to whether pop music tastes will ever go as far as they have is quite another question, though.

Appearing on stage entirely decked in sequins, glitter and long hair — very very long hair — the group tended to look much like refugees from a Ziegfeld Follies chorus line.

Their act also runs along that same line. Drummer Neal Smith did a falling dead act, the base player fell off an amplifier into the audience, male singer Alice spliced up his action by rolling around the floor, and one number was sung throuhg the framework of a door.

As for the music, it was about as logical. A perfect example could be "Meet Me on Mars," a ditty written from high atop South Mountain.

The tune jumps, skips and stammers with all the velocity of a scratched record, heavily hinting they just may be somewhere else.

For the most part, the audience generally figured they were.

Opening the show was the Blues Image, an Acto Records act from Miami.

At one point, early in their set, the quintet's lead singer-guitarist remarked, "If there are any white blues lovers in the audience, we hope you find us interesting."

There were, and they did.

© Phoenix Newspaper Inc. Reprinted with permission.