Motley Crue, like Kiss, is making a fortune on their previously
released songs. Name a song from each of these band’s most recent
releases and you have to think. Name a song that you hear on the
radio and “Rock And Roll All Night” comes to mind for Kiss and
“Kickstart My Heart” comes to mind for the Cruesters.
So it is not very surprising that on this, their first live
two-CD set, the band encapsules songs we’ve all heard on CD, if
we’ve bought their albums, or heard in concert if we’ve been
(un)fortunate enough to see the band live. I’ve seen the band twice
in concert and, despite all the
Circus magazine polls the band has won as “Best Live Band,”
I must have been seeing and hearing the Crue’s pale imitation of
themselves: I walked out of both concerts unimpressed.
On CD, with the wonders of mixing audience levels and tweaking
EQ knobs, the band sounds decent, but barely and not without some
major problems. First, Vince Neil cannot sing fast. He tries hard,
I’ll give him that, but his vocals on “Shout At The Devil” are
sloppy. His voice gets softer on “Public Enemy #1” when he sings
out of breath. Likewise, when he has to string together lyrics in
the anthem “Wild Side.” Some classical training in breathing while
singing might help.
Neil’s between song babble is limited to getting the crowd to
shout “Fuck yeah!” when he proclaims, “I’ve been screaming my ass
off all night tonight. Are you ready to do some screaming Tuscon?”
Equally amatuerish is his intro to “Public Enemy #1.” Neil rambles
that some people came up to him and said, “Motley Crue, you people
are pretty bad. You tear ’em up. I said, ‘Hey, you should see our
fuckin’ audience.'”
Third, the choice of songs has to be questioned. The band
includes no material newer than the 1991 release
Dr. Feelgood. This is strikingly curious why such stellar
tracks as “Afraid” and “Hooligan’s Holiday” (both included on their
recent
Greatest Hits release) are missing.
Instead, we get the God-awful cliche filth that is “Merry Go
Round,” one of their weakest songs along with the equally moronic
“Starry Eyes.” Why this CD wasn’t released eight years earlier is a
question I can’t answer since the band seems to forget they’ve
released music in-between.
When the band is in the middle of their songs, though, is when
the real magic of this set comes out. The tight stops and starts of
“Live Wire” and the outrageous bass groove throbbings of “Dr.
Feelgood” are definite high points. “Kickstart My Heart” is as
suitable of a closer as opener “Looks That Kill” is a disc opener.
Guitarist Mick Mars constructs solid feelgood riffs and bassist
Nikki Sixx supports him with rumblings.
Overrated drum beater Tommy Lee has some strong points early in
the CD but eventually gets mired down by his own style. Hearing the
same basic rock pattern, played at different speeds, does NOT make
him a good drummer. His intro to “Live Wire” and performance on
“Shout At The Devil” provide some real glimpses into why people
might believe he is a drumming God, but his performance on “Girls,
Girls, Girls” and “Starry Eyes” quickly negate those high
points.
In the end, though, this is a collection where the negatives
outweigh the positives. There is nothing new or “collectible” here
except live versions of songs you’ve probably heard before. There’s
no “hidden” cover song or anything fans of bands have come to
expect.
There’s no “fun” here. While I wasn’t impressed with the Crue’s
music in concert, it was still a “fun” show. That doesn’t translate
to anything here except for some vulgarity and cliche-driven “Let’s
go!” types of shouts in-between songs. Spare me, please.
