Motley Crue - Sheffield Motorpoint Arena - 13/12/2011

[Rockingbear]

MÖTLEY CRÜE

Sheffield Motorpoint Arena – Tuesday 13th December 2011

I have been a long-time fan of Mötley Crüe, first seeing them making their UK debut performance at 1984’s Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington. The “Theatre Of Pain” tour in 1986 was average to say the least but it was 1989’s “Dr. Feelgood” tour that finally proved, at the time, that The Crüe were one of the best live acts on the planet. The comeback “Red White & Crüe” tour in 2005 was also very enjoyable proving that the band still had “it” in abundance. So to Mötley Crüe 2011; well their hard living, partying lifestyle has certainly taken its toll on the band members and at times they seemed quite sedentary on stage. Gone are all the flamboyant clothing and chasing around the stage, however, still there are all the pyrotechnics and large explosions!

Looking at this evening’s set list I was expecting more great theatrics from the most dangerous rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. The whole set was an array of paradoxes: firstly the sound was ‘dirty’ but still far better than I had expected from reading reviews of earlier shows on the UK tour; secondly, Vince Neil’s voice: not as bad as expected but still an over-reliance on the fans to fill in for him; thirdly, Mick Mars’ guitar sound was truly awful at times but it was still great to see him on stage belting out the classic Mötley tunes.

There was no pre-amble or intro-track at the start of the show; the lights went down immediately followed by a huge explosion and the curtain dropped as the band launched into the fantastic “Wildside”. It was obvious from the initial crowd reaction that this was the main draw of the evening for most. The title track of the last studio album “Saints Of Los Angeles” slotted in perfectly before the first of far too many Mick Mars guitar solos, preceded the excellent “Live Wire”, a great song that unfortunately emphasise Vince’s vocal fragilities these days.

The anthemic “Shout At The Devil” went down a storm as did “Same Ol’ Situation” which showcased Mötley’s melodic side and was brilliantly augmented by a great video.

I have never been a great fan of “Primal Scream” but it sounded great this evening and well suited the aforementioned ‘dirty’ sound.

I missed how the grand piano got to the front of the stage with Tommy Lee running from behind his ‘Rollercoaster’ drum-kit and his obligatory, “Fuck Yeah!”. I wonder where Steel Panther get their inspiration from? Tommy’s intro on the ballad “Home Sweet Home” was slightly marred by Mick Mars’ accompaniment; not so on the finale of the great ballad.

The highlight of the set, for me personally, was the outstanding “Looks That Kill” that sounded as good tonight as it has ever done. This track always invokes memories of two stunning girls, in tight leather trousers, dancing to it in Rock City back in the eighties!

Now to court a bit of controversy surrounding the much anticipated Tommy Lee drum solo. Yes, it was visually spectacular and fun but the sound was bloody terrible. I am not talking about when Tommy was inverted atop of the ‘Rollercoaster’ as the fact that he can still play the drums at all is truly amazing but, the five minutes prior to that, it just sounded awful to my ears. I also was probably one of the few that was pleased that I was not the fan strapped to the in to share the ‘Rollercoaster’ ride being particularly afraid of heights!

As mentioned earlier it was great to see Mick Mars on stage again following his years of struggle with ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic, inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis. His solos, however, were, unfortunately, for the most part embarrassingly poor but did, at one stage, give me the opportunity to go to the toilet!

“Dr. Feelgood” did not have the same huge production that it was famous for on its release back in 1989, but was still a great crowd-pleaser nonetheless. “Motherfucker Of The Year” was personally a bit pointless unlike the classic “Girls, Girls, Girls”.
“Smokin’ In The Boys Room” brought the set to a rousing finale and had the crowd in full voice. The band briefly left the stage before returning with more pyro’ and explosions to rip through my favourite Crüe track, the killer “Kickstart My Heart”.

The band received a heroes standing ovation and then proceeded to douse the front rows in ‘red’ water.

Okay, not the most perfect performance I have ever witnessed by a rock band or even The Crüe themselves, but still, for the majority of the time, a highly entertaining ninety minutes of over the top rock ‘n’ roll!

[No Surprize]

I've said it before, Vince Neil & Mick Mars are very weak links in MC. Everyone always talks about Elliot's voice, but Neil's is totally gone. Almost every tune they preform onstage, he miss's several stanza's of songs, huffs & puffs like he just ran up Kilimanjaro, and sticks the microphone out so the audience can sing 50 seconds of it, which is cool for some tunes, but 90% of them? I love the Crue, but Mick is a total shell of his former self and Vince needs to seriously take better care of his voice & get in better shape.