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San Antonio, Texas '90

...when the lights go down and the opening bars of 'Hello Hurray' reach our ears, there's no doubt this crowd came to party. A huge garbage can gives birth to our Alice, and the visuals are great - he's got tight red trousers, black leather jacket, Sacred Heart T-shirt (the good religious symbol, not the bad Dio album) and, oh baby, a riding crop.

Even nasty feedback and too-low vocals don't bring the fans down. They're with him all the way - grabbing paper money off a sword during 'Billion Dollar Babies', belting out 'Eighteen' during you-know-which-song, a generally treating Alice like (ye gods!) a sex symbol.

This is the first time I've had the pleasure of seeing the theatrical Alice, and it's really a treat. I won't bore you die-hards with a full description - let's just say that everything's there; make-up, evil nurses, tortured souls for scenery and lotsa blood. Great stuff, though the feminist side of me is a bit disturbed by the 'joy' of killing women that appears to be the philosophy of the 'Nightmare' era, and I'm glad to see the maniac finally get the guillotine.

But then it'ss back to the suitable-for-radio-airplay material. The intro to favourite 'Poison' is almost Sabbath-like as interpreted by Alice's brand new band - not a bad twist! The bloodthirsty crowd are in a frenzy by now and Alice sails through the show's second half with the greatest of ease, dispensing lingerie during 'Bed Of Nails' and odd-shaped giant balloons for show-stopper 'School's Out'.

We've been blinded by the guy's sheer staying power long before the huge lit-up A-L-I-C-E sign drops, long before encore 'Under My Wheels', long before Alice makes his goodbyes with the words, "No matter what anyone says, you're all trash!"

You know it. And Alice finally got us to the incinerator tonight.