Shock rocker to play Indy Halloween festival

The fears of today and scares of years past will come together today as classic shock-rocker Alice Cooper performs a pavilion-only show at the Verizon Wireless Music Center.\nCooper's performance is one highlight of Hardee's Stage Fright, an interactive carnival of horror, music and other Halloween events designed to chill visitors during the month of October.\nThe festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday throughout the month of October, features the "Carn-Evil of Souls" 3-D Haunted Circus, the Dungeon of Horror, and the "Acres of Agony" haunted hayride in addition to a site where classic horror films will be shown, said Clear Channel Entertainment publicity director Andy Wilson.\nCooper, famous for inventing the shock-rock genre in which artists such as Marilyn Manson are infants, will perform in support of his newly released album, Dragontown. Gates for Hardee's Stage Fright open at 5:30 p.m., with the concert beginning at 8:30 p.m.\nCooper became famous in the 1970s for his theatrical act which featured mock beheadings, boa constrictors and electric chairs, scoring hits such as "School's Out," "Poison" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy." \nThe shock rocker diversified his career in the 1990s with film roles in "Wayne's World" and independent horror films.\nVisiting Assistant Professor of Music Andrew Hollinden, who teaches the "Rock Music in the '70s and '80s" class, said Cooper was the original rock and roll anti-hero. \n"Everyone before Alice was just a big rock god, and he was just a sinister character, with a sinister voice that just scared the heck out of kids' parents, with his giant boa, looking like hell," Hollinden said.\nHollinden said Cooper's antics were shocking at the time, an image he said he believes many people overlook today. \n"It's stuff we take for granted nowadays, but back then he really was just a horrible character in his time," Hollinden said. \nWilson said Cooper's show will blend in perfectly with the surrounding events of the night. \n"I think its just natural that Alice fans will be fans of horror, so this works out nicely," Wilson said. "Halloween is for all ages, so we wanted to turn it up a notch."\nHardee's Stage Fright is the first of what Wilson said will be an annual event that will completely dwarf other Halloween festivals due to the unique attributes of the venue.\n"For one thing, we have acres and acres of field surrounding the center, which lends itself perfectly for the hayrides," Wilson said. "In addition to that, we've got a rock and roll venue with lighting, we've got the financial ability and technical ability to make the best haunted house in Indiana."\nCooper seems ready to be a part of the fright fest.\n"The heart of (Cooper's 2000 album) Brutal Planet is "Dragontown," which is really a place of consequence. It's where the worst of the worst are," Cooper said recently in an interview with his label, Spitfire Records.\nWilson said this year's event differs from other haunted house activities in that it is actually intended to truly scare people.\n"This is not an event for children, this is to spook people," Wilson said.\nTickets for the performance which include admission to all of Hardee's Stage Fright are $20 and available at Ticketmaster outlets.