Motley Crue Live
"The glorious return of Arena Metal or Eddie Flips to "Breathless Fan" Mode"
BEFORE: First of all, I hate Freedom Hall. A few years back, I got thrown out of a concert for passing out flyers to my band's show. And they even tried to charge me $300 for littering! Not only that, but they were completely unpleasant about it, especially the man who ran security. So I was expecting that we'd be herded like punk rock cattle to our pre-arranged seating assignments.
Then came the news that vocalist Vince Neil injured his leg falling offstage, so I was like, now what? Rolling around in a wheelchair or hobbling around on crutches singing "Shout at the Devil?" Whatever. I'm still going.
AFTER:
Well, once again your humble columnist is eating his words. Yeah I've made some harmless jokes about the band the last month or so, but Motley Crue kicked my rear and made me see what's up.
I just got home from the concert and "Oh My God." Even with Vince partially out of commission and hobbling badly, these guys put on such a good show that I'm pretty much at a loss for words. Absolutely killer! I couldn't wait to get home and start this review. It was really as though the circus had come to town. This town needed that concert like a crack whore needs her next hit! There were midgets getting spanked by hot chicks and vice versa; nearly naked trapeze girls who were waaaay hot; smoke, fire, explosions and every other rock `n' roll cliché you can think of.
The band had no opener, which is very weird, so they did a cool thing and played forever to the extremely happy fans. They opened up with explosions to "Shout at the
Devil" then Tommy Lee shouted "Louisville, we are gonna kick your a**es!" They then tore into oldies like "10 Seconds to Love" "Too Fast For Love" "On With the Show" and "Livewire" before kicking in some "Louder Than Hell" and "Home Sweet Home" from Theater Of Pain. Then they played some tunes off of Girls Girls Girls like the title track and "Wildside," "Don't Go Away Mad" (Vince played acoustic) "Without You" and, of course, they played "Dr Feelgood," while Vince had two lovely, scantily clad nurses taking care of and rubbing his sore leg and everything else. Poooooor Vince (yeah right) . The band ended the night with "Primal Scream" "Kickstart My Heart" and the final song "Anarchy in the U.K."
Highlights of the evening were Tommy Lee's drum solo thirty feet in the air on some crazy, elevated double platforms, using percussion items like bottles, bells, pipes, electronic drums and some seriously crazy drum effects.
He did his solo to some whacked out electronic tribal beats. It was very cool, different and very intense, especially at the end as the drum rack burst in flames only to have Tommy jump down and tell the crowd of 15,000 "Hey, everyone! That was fun!"
"I f***ing live for that chit!"
The crowd roared in response. They absolutely loved Tommy.
Tommy talked to the crowd a good ten minutes, thanking them, praying for them and letting them know how happy he and the band were at the size and participation of the crowd here in Louisville. I think they were truly happy to be back together with all the original members. The connection between the band and fans was felt tonight like no other concert I've ever witnessed. Tommy then got out some Jägermeister and wine and hooked some fans up with a drink or two saying "Here ya go, kid, don't hurt yourself!" Then he got out his boob-cam and proceeded to get footage of females baring themselves, only to have them shown on the three giant TV screens above.
One woman refused when Tommy said, "Show me." Tommy said "booooo" then the whole darn stadium erupted in boos! She was on the screens getting booed by thousands. Other women were more than ready to show flesh though.
Needless to say it was a giant boobfest. During boobfest, I happened to look over at some young girl who was with her grandparents. The young girl was having a blast but her grandparents seemed in shock of the spectacle. Grandma had her mouth open like a fish and her jaw was on the floor! But Grandpa had a big smile on his face! It was a riot. I laughed too hard. The look on grandpa's face was priceless! It put a big smile on my face thinking that they still can get that shock value all these years later.
Performancewise, they sounded great. I think Vince's inability to run around gave him more breath and energy to sing better. He was trying hard this night. And I've seen him be a lazy singer. I gotta give Vince credit though. He sucked it up and really socked it to Louisville Kentucky, instead of being a wuss and canceling because of his leg injury. You could tell he was in pain and struggling.
Guitarist Mick Mars was in very fine form: he sounded the best I've heard him play. He's the `whammy bar' master. But gone are the days of the pointy guitars he used to play. He replaced his trademark pointy BC Rich guitars with Fender guitars, a white Strat to be exact. And we all know Tommy Lee is a one badazz drummer. Always has been in my book. His drum solo was way different and entertaining to say the least. And he's a pretty funny cat, too. And sincere.
Nikki Sixx who was mostly quiet, held his own, of course, as the bands main songwriter and demolished a new bass or two for some fun. There were all the freaks/rockers/longhairs of Louisville in attendance and all went well, everyone had a blast, no one got hurt, there were no fights and last but not least, everyone was as happy as I was about this show. People were literally in awe. We definitely need more concerts like this.
Thanks to Chris Allman, Scott Clark, former bigwig Mike Lee (for making sure Motley came here) and the other folks at 93.1 The Fox for making this happen and hooking a brother up best they could. We the Crue fans love you for it! Seriously. A time traveling feeling was upon me from the start to finish. I was a young man again.
Long live the `Crue!