The Hollywood Vampires review

Hollywood Vampires – AO Arena Manchester

August 18th

The train keeps a rollin’ for the Vampires as they are again in the midst of a UK tour. Without wishing to demean any members, I think having Johnny Depp in your band helps sell tickets. A Hollywood legend for sure, but surrounded by rock royalty in the form of Alice Cooper, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen, who has played with lots of great acts.

After a short video shows the band as animated zombies before the real guys take the stage, hitting full throttle with their own songs went down well. “I Want My Now” opens the set, a sleazy LA rocker suiting Alice Cooper’s grizzly vocals, while “Raise the Dead” and “The Boogieman Surprise” are down-and-dirty tunes too. Alice, incidentally, is in full make-up, looking like a cross between a medical experiment gone wrong and Michael Myers. But he’s the consummate showman and leads the band and the crowd, who at times seem rather apathetic.

The three main players all get to do vocals, with Joe Perry singing “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory”, a Johnny Thunders cover, before Alice joins him on “Walk This Way”.

For the latter half of the set, they just let loose with some famous covers. Joe Perry was grooving through “Livin’ on the Edge”, clearly loving the spotlight. Johnny Depp took over vocals for Killing Joke’s “Death and Resurrection Show” and David Bowie’s “Heroes”. He’s a better singer than guitarist, but that’s not saying much. You get the vibe this is just him living a dream, which is fine, but he can’t quite shake Captain Jack, standing there in a bandana.

A nice touch before “People Who Died” was a roll call of rock legends we have lost this last year, including Ozzy and Ace Frehley. The song itself is a great update on a classic punk song; its fast rhythm and shouty chorus sound great and suit Depp’s voice better.

It’s all good rock ’n’ roll, and the covers seem to go down better with the crowd, with a rip-roaring finale of “School’s Out/Another Brick in the Wall”.

A group of guys just playing rock ’n’ roll and having fun with it — what more do you need?