There are supergroups assembled by accountants, and then there are those born from genuine kinship, forged in the small hours of a bar where the drinks flow and the ghosts of rock history hover close. Hollywood Vampires belong emphatically to the latter camp. Named after the infamous 1970s drinking club that Alice Cooper presided over, a shadowy fraternity that once counted John Lennon, Keith Moon, and Micky Dolenz among its ranks, the band has always understood that rock ‘n’ roll is as much about communion as it is about volume, a nightly séance held for the heroes who did not survive the party.
Following their self-titled 2015 debut and the more original-minded Rise in 2019, the collective now unearths a performance that has been quietly waiting in the vault, their storied 2018 appearance at the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival. Arriving through earMUSIC, At Montreux Jazz Festival is not a studio statement but a live document, a snapshot of four musicians at ease in their own skins, and it captures something that no polished record ever quite could: the sound of legends enjoying themselves without a single eye on the clock.
The premise of a live album drawn from an eight-year-old festival set could easily feel like a cynical archival exercise, a box scraped clean for one more product. Yet from the opening salvo of the original I Want My Now, followed swiftly by Raise the Dead, that suspicion evaporates entirely. This is a band that has never treated the stage as an obligation. Their self-appointed title of “best bar band in the world” is delivered with a wink, but the performances here argue the boast with startling conviction and undeniable joy.
As ever, Alice Cooper functions as the evening’s ringmaster, a role he has inhabited for more than half a century with theatrical relish. His voice, weathered into something gloriously craggy, commands the crowd through his own anthems I’m Eighteen and the eventual School’s Out, but his between-song banter is nearly as valuable as the music itself. His affectionate anecdote about encountering The Doors, offered before a blistering Five to One / Break on Through, reminds us that Cooper is not merely singing this history; he lived it, and he carries its stories like heirlooms.
The instrumental muscle of the operation belongs in no small part to Joe Perry, whose Aerosmith pedigree lends the proceedings an authentic swagger that cannot be manufactured. When the band tears into Combination and later the immortal Sweet Emotion, Perry’s fluid, bluesy phrasing anchors the chaos with the assurance of a man who has played these riffs to stadiums for decades. His tone is warm and unhurried, a masterclass in economy, and it provides the perfect foil to the wilder energies surrounding him on the Swiss stage.
Then there is Johnny Depp, whose presence in the lineup has long invited lazy skepticism from those who see only the actor. Such doubts collapse the moment one actually listens. Depp is a genuinely capable guitarist, content to serve the songs rather than showboat, but his defining contribution arrives when he steps to the microphone for David Bowie‘s Heroes. His weathered, understated vocal turns the anthem into something fragile and deeply moving, an unexpected emotional summit rising quietly amid the surrounding pandemonium.
Binding these three larger-than-life figures together is Tommy Henriksen, the fourth Vampire and arguably the band’s connective tissue. Less a celebrity than a craftsman, Henriksen supplies the sturdy rhythmic and melodic scaffolding that allows the marquee names to roam freely. His steady hand ensures the performances never dissolve into indulgent jamming, and his songwriting instincts, honed across years of collaboration, keep the original material sounding purposeful rather than perfunctory beside the towering covers.
Those originals hold up admirably, which is no small achievement for a band so devoted to reinterpretation. My Dead Drunk Friends, a blues-soaked meditation on hangovers and mortality, feels custom-built for this context, while As Bad as I Am struts with the cocksure attitude of vintage hard rock. Placed shoulder to shoulder with certified classics, these compositions never feel like filler; they belong, and they demonstrate that the Vampires are considerably more than a glorified covers act coasting on borrowed glory.
Still, it is the tributes that supply the album’s beating heart, and they function as a moving roll call of the departed. The band honors AC/DC and its fallen with a rowdy The Jack, before delivering the record’s most electrifying moment: a scorching rendition of Motörhead‘s Ace of Spades offered in memory of the irreplaceable Lemmy Kilmister. It is loud, reverent, and gloriously untamed, precisely the send-off that the great man would have demanded, and it justifies the entire enterprise on its own furious terms.
The mournful thread running beneath the celebration surfaces again in The Who’s Baba O’Riley and, most poignantly, in a raucous People Who Died, the Jim Carroll classic whose litany of the departed cuts especially deep from musicians who have buried so many friends. This is where the album reveals its quiet genius, a duality in which grief and revelry become inseparable. The Vampires do not mourn their heroes with solemn silence; they mourn them the only appropriate way, by playing their songs at deafening volume with tears in their eyes.
The night reaches its inevitable, euphoric climax with a sprawling nine-minute treatment of School’s Out, spiked with a cheeky nod to Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. It is communal catharsis in its purest form, the entire festival crowd absorbed into one roaring chorus. As a finale it is almost absurdly perfect, and the extended jam allows every member a final moment in the spotlight before the house lights rise on one of the more memorable evenings of the band’s collective career.
What ultimately distinguishes At Montreux Jazz Festival is the sheer, tangible chemistry radiating from every track. The recording is punchy and immediate, guitar-forward and gloriously alive, and it never once sands away the rough edges that make live rock ‘n’ roll worth hearing in the first place. This is not a document obsessed with perfection; it is one obsessed with feeling, and in that specific and generous ambition it succeeds resoundingly, capturing four friends doing exactly what they were born to do.
In conclusion, At Montreux Jazz Festival is a thoroughly joyous and heartfelt release, even if it makes no pretense of being an essential original artistic statement. Its value lies in camaraderie, reverence, and the electric unpredictability of a great band caught on a great night. The breadth of the setlist occasionally favors momentum over depth, and dedicated Vampires may already own much of this material in other forms, yet none of that dulls the genuine warmth on display. As a celebration of rock’s enduring spirit and its beloved lost heroes, it is difficult to resist.
My personal favorite tracks are the incendiary Ace of Spades, easily the record’s defining highlight, the surprisingly tender Heroes carried by Johnny Depp‘s vocal, and the gloriously excessive School’s Out finale. It is also worth noting the striking band photography by Aaron Perry, and the care evident in the physical formats, from the 2CD digisleeve to the 180-gram gatefold triple vinyl. With an extensive European tour on the horizon, this release feels less like an epitaph and more like a rowdy invitation to the next round.
Order At Montreux Jazz Festival here: https://hollywoodvampires.lnk.to/Montreux
Rating: 8/10
Tracklist:
- I Want My Now
- Raise the Dead
- I Got a Line on You
- 7 and 7 Is
- My Dead Drunk Friends
- Five to One / Break on Through
- The Jack
- Ace of Spades
- Baba O’Riley
- As Bad as I Am
- The Boogieman Surprise
- I’m Eighteen
- Combination
- People Who Died
- Sweet Emotion
- Welcome to Bushwackers
- Heroes
- Train Kept A-Rollin’
- School’s Out / Another Brick in the Wall
Band Members:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Johnny Depp – Guitar, Vocals
Joe Perry – Guitar
Tommy Henriksen – Guitar, Vocals
Other Personnel:
Aaron Perry – Band Photography
Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 2018
Released via earMUSIC (Digital: August 7, 2026 · CD & Vinyl: October 16, 2026)
