Chris Penn dreamed the impossible dream in 2015 when he set out to reunite his favorite band, the original Alice Cooper group.
He pulled it off - in the middle of his own record store, no less.
Penn's fanboy feat is at the center of Alice Cooper: Live From the Astroturf, a documentary shot at Dallas' Good Records about the night Alice performed with his old bandmates after more than 40 years apart. The film screens twice at the Dallas International Film Festival, at 10 p.m. Tuesday April 16 at the Studio Movie Grill on Royal Lane, and 4:15 p.m. Wednesday April 17 at Landmark's Magnolia Theatre.
"Getting it to happen was like playing a 3D chess game. But everything aligned and the band was on fire ... it was kismet," says Penn, co-owner and manager of Good Records, which moved in March to a new location, 9026 Garland Road.
Penn will speak at both festival screenings alongside the doc's director, Steven Gaddis, and bassist Dennis Dunaway, one of the original Cooper band members who cut classics like "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" before Alice went solo in '75.
Live From the Astroturf features the mini-concert at Good Records, interviews with Alice and the band, and plenty of footage of Penn, a self-described "Alice Cooper superfan" who thinks we all need to spend more time tapping into the magic of music.
"Music is important to people. It has an impact on their lives," he says. "The theme of the documentary is 'You gotta believe.'"
Find more information about the screening and the Dallas International Film Festival at dallasfilm.org.
