Motley Crue Concert Review

When I was 12 I persuaded my mom to buy me my first cassette tape. That tape was Motley Crue's 'Shout at the Devil'. My mom was most unhappy about my selection. She considered Motley Crue satanic and, given the pentagram on the cover of Shout, I can see how she would have thought that. But I begged and pleaded until she finally relented. She later regretted it when every inch of wall, ceiling and door space was covered in Motley Crue posters, every cent of lunch and snack money was spent on magazines like METAL, KERRANG, SPIN, ROLLING STONE and others of that nature as well as spandex, spikes, leather,hair dye, aqua net, eyeliner, tapes and concert tickets to see the Crue. Not to mention what she must have considered the ungodly noise I subjected her to when I cranked my stereo. Yep...it was all downhill from that first tape. Oh yes, I was the most passionate Crue fan alive! Even to the point of altering my appearance.

Nikki Sixx always was and still remains my favorite band member. When I was 14 I decided to try and look like him for some unknown 14 year old girl reason.

As you can see something went terribly wrong and I came out looking more like a plump version of Mick Mars. In my view though...I was damn cool. And I could do extraordinary things with a can of Aqua Net and a hair dryer.

I first saw Motley Crue at the BJCC in 1987 on the Girls, Girls, Girls tour with opening act Guns-N-Roses. That was probably the baddest rock concert ever. I last saw them in 1989 with Warrant on the Dr. Feelgood tour. I got general admission tickets to that one and was three rows back from the barricade separating the audience from the band. All was well until it got so packed on the floor that I couldn't move and some drunk, belligerent red headed asshole started elbowing his way to the front. It was so hot and I was getting so mashed that I passed out standing up and had to be hauled over the barricade and back to the seats. I was devastated in 1992 when they broke up. I think I actually cried. I was also pregnant with my now 16-year-old son who attended the concert with me last night. It was his first rock concert. He had a blast!

Since it had been some 20 years since my last Crue concert I wasn't sure what to expect. They used to sell out the entire BJCC arena and the crowds were wild and unruly and loud and DRUNK! We used to stand in line for hours and yell "MOTLEY FUCKING CRUE! MOTLEY FUCKING CRUE! and after a few hours of that we switched to OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! OUR FUCKING FEET ARE SORE! (because we had been standing in line for like 18 hours or some crazy shit.)

Last night was different, sort of. The majority of the people came in late to see the Crue but the arena was far from full. Maybe that is because the concert was on a Sunday night. Maybe it's because some former Crue fans are no longer interested. Truthfully, I wouldn't have gone last night if I hadn't won tickets. I'm glad I did though. Boy, it brought back so many pleasant and some downright frightening memories of my misspent youth. Me and my best friend Melody used to dream about being Crue groupies, you see. She would get Tommy Lee and I would get Nikki Sixx and we would travel around the world with them and live happily ever after. Last night I saw what happened to the women my age (and older) who actually chose that path. YIKES! They are now fake tanned, fake boobed, spandex wearing (boy you really don't look good in spandex after about 21)brain rotted, sloppy drunken shells of former humans. GOD some of them were downright SCARY! One woman who had to be older than me (or at least partied much harder for much longer than I did) had her kids there chaperoning her. She was so drunk she couldn't walk so her young daughter led her around all night making sure she didn't fall. Despite that they both fell a few times.

The crowd outside was not rowdy this go round....except for the one uber-drunken Marine who found it necessary to repeatedly shout ROOOOOOLLLLLLLLL TIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDEEEE! as if we were at a football game. There were a lot of older people there who I guess were long time Crue fans like yours truly. They were a very well behaved lot for the most part. And of course you had the really old rock concert goers pushing 60 still wearing t-shirts and head bangin', the freaks with different colored hair and the rocker wannabe's decked out in leather and trying to look like I did at 14. It was quite a scene.

So, on to the music. I had never heard of The Last Vegas and wasn't impressed by their set. The acoustics were fucked up and I couldn't understand a word the singer was screaming. But, for any fans they have that might read this blog here are some pictures.





Next up was Theory of a Dead Man. They were pretty good. The sound was better although I don't care for the music I have heard from them.




Then came Hinder who I also don't care much for. Just not my kind of music anymore. They sounded great though and the lead singer put on a good show. He even braved the crowd for a few minutes.






And finally, the moment you have all been waiting for...Motley Crue. They were the only band I went to see and I was not disappointed, surprised, but not disappointed. They rocked the house. Lots of pyrotechnics and fireworks and explosions. Lots of good old fashioned kick ass Motley Crue metal. Before I knew it I was up out of my seat making devil horns and pumping my fist in the air and singing along and screaming and all the crazy shit you are supposed to do at a rock concert. I felt 14 again. My only complaints...I was never close enough to Nikki Sixx to touch him or even get a very good photo. Vince Neil's voice was so high it sounded like he had been castrated and sucking on a helium balloon. Maybe his white spandex was too tight or something. And Tommy Lee didn't even attempt to do a drum solo. Mick Mars did a few guitar solo's, but let's face it, Mick Mars playing his axe ain't got shit on Tommy Lee riding in a spinning cage over the crowd wearing a damn drum set slam out. Mick just ain't got it. They were all more subdued than I remember from 20 years ago. It's understandable, we're all 20 years older now and not as limber as we once were. All in all it was a great show that brought back a lot of memories for me and introduced my son to a real rock concert. Here are some shots of the Crue.