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Alice Cooper has crawled out of the crypt yet again

Alice Cooper is all the evidence needed in a court of law to prove hard rock is the work of the devil.

Cooper, a.k.a. Vincent Furnier, first surfaced on Frank Zappa's Straight Records in the late '60s sporting waist-length hair, gingham dresses, a name he claimed came form a 17-century witch and a reputation as the worst live act in southern California.

Right-minded mothers came looking for him, silver stake in hands, but Cooper got away, only to reappear as a nightmare from hell on a string of million-selling LPs during the early '70s that made him a huge star, prompted a series of increasingly mock-violent tours and generally had the required effect on the youth of American, for whom Alice became a major role model.

The vigilante squads came out with torches blazing, but Alice once more slipped the trap, only to reappear in the most grotesque disguise yet, that of a paunchy alcoholic golfer laying Vegas and Hollywood Squares. Foolishly, the forces of good let Alice off at this sorry juncture of his tawdry career, a move they will regret till Hades freezes over.

Alice crawled out of the crypt again.

"We toured last year, and we're working six months this year, and I think a lot of people are surprised we're back," say the affable inventor of splatter rock and the man who's cranked out two big comeback LPs, Constrictor and the new Raise Your Fist and Yell, in the last year.

Those kids at the front of Verdun Auditorium for last year's show who found themselves traumatized during Alice's shtick would be advised to seek professional counselling before he plays the Forum Feb. 10.

"The new show makes last year's look like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," warns Alice, who always refers to himself in the third person. "There's twice as much blood, a public hanging, lots of chop, chop, chop and all those little splatter ditties. I'm in a hundred times better shape than I've ever been in before, and that means Alice is going out there now and demanding people's attention. Alice's ides of a love affair with his audience is rape!"

And clues about the new shock rock? "I don't want to give away too much in advance," Alice says. "It will be a very graveyard-ish, Gothic show. I would definitely say that the people in the front rows should wear clothes that go well with red."