There’s plenty of ambivalence in the world these days when a
band announces their farewell tour. Why? Because, it rarely actually happens.
KISS are a perfect example – they announced a big farewell jaunt in 1996, sold
out arenas and stadiums around the world, and nearly two decades later, they’re
still going.
For people to shell out big bucks to go to rock shows these
days, they need a hook, and Mötley Crüe’s somewhat
surprising announcement that they were calling it quits after the best part of
three and a half decades of making rock music came with a legal cessation of
touring document, signed by all four band members and ratified by the lawyers.
Come New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, the Crüe will sign off for one last time,
and they won’t be back on stage as a foursome (save a potential one-off reunion
at any Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, you’d suggest).
Mötley Crüe are doing farewells the right way. Walking into
Allphones Arena on Saturday night, I knew two things were certain: that we wouldn’t
be seeing Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil on stage together
again, and that we were in for one hell of a show.
I wasn't disappointed. After Alice Cooper’s trademark pantomime
rock show had whipped the crowd into a frenzy – featuring Coop’s epic vocals,
Nita Strauss’ epic guitar solos and all the things you expect when you roll
into an Alice Cooper show: snakes, rapiers, giant balloons, monsters and
beheadings, and the man himself as the ringleader – Mötley Crüe took the stage
after the intro, featuring a snippet from, of all things, The Sound of Music,
and launched into a hard-as-nails version of ‘Saints of Los Angeles’.
Right from the outset, you knew it was going to be as good
as advertised. All four members were on point, and the show benefitted from an
opening salvo of ‘Wild Side’ and ‘Primal Scream’ after the opener. That made it
three of my favourite Crüe songs back-to-back-to-back, and even the most blasé concert
goer would’ve been impressed – surely! – with the tunes and the backing pyrotechnic
display, which was as full-on as any show I’ve ever seen, three KISS shows
included.
The guttural sound generated by a ferocious rhythm section
that pairs Lee, perhaps the best rock drummer of his era, and the stalking
figure of Nikki Sixx, has to be heard to be properly believed. It's the sort of sound that'll make your ears bleed...but in the best way possible!
Lee’s extra-curricular activities – mention TL to most
people, and the first thing that comes to mind is that video tape with Pamela Anderson – often overshadow his work on
stage. He’s as good as there is, and anyone who tells you different is crazy. When he takes to his Crucecifly, a ridiculous roller-coaster that lifts Lee and his kit
from the stage, transporting him across the roof of the arena and down into the
centre of the pit, drumming as the platform he’s on around and around whilst
shooting out confetti, your jaw drops. It’s the most incredible thing I think I’ve
ever seen at a concert. A little egotistical? Sure, but also pretty bad ass. It
was a solo to remember, fitting of this final tour.
Sixx plays his bass like it’s a rhythm guitar, when he’s not
utilising the flamethrower occasionally attached to one of his instruments to
set his microphone on fire and spray flame towards the ceiling, and their
heavy, cranking sound puts some bands with two guitarists searching for that
same sound to shame. He’s responsible for founding the band, and has co-writing
credits on just about every big Mötley Crüe song, and he’s a huge presence on
stage.
On top of that, the absolute wizardry of Mick Mars. The man
who looks positively deathly on stage certainly has fingers that are alive and
well. His command of the fret board is unparalleled, and a huge thanks to the people
shooting footage for the big screens at Allphones for so many close-up shots of
Mick Mars doing what he does best. His solo, following on from Tommy Lee’s spin
in the Cruceifly, was another highlight.
Vince Neil, often maligned and once-replaced in Mötley Crüe,
can’t hit all of the high notes he used to – the pleasant-to-look-at backing
singers, who also appear in various costumes at various times; the nurse outfit
for ‘Dr Feelgood’ was a favourite – but he’s as good this tour as he’s been in
recent memory. He was roundly booed, in the best sort of way, when announcing
that this was the final show.
The set list, which hasn’t changed much since this tour
began about a year ago, perfectly samples all of the Crüe’s biggest original
composition smash hits – the afore-mentioned ‘Dr Feelgood’, ‘Shout at the Devil’,
‘Kickstart My Heart’, ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, and ‘Same ‘Ol Situation’ – as well
as two covers that they’ve made their own over the years: ‘Smokin’ In The Boys
Room’ and ‘Anarchy in the UK’. It’s a powerful collection of songs representing
the hair/glam metal era that Mötley rose in, and perfected above all others:
all killer, and absolutely zero filler.
Unfortunately, the two hours of The Final Tour fly by like
two minutes, and the final song, ‘Home Sweet Home’ is sung from a b-stage in
the middle of the pit that rises slowly towards the roof was fitting. The
montage of Mötley through the years reminded us of how far they’ve come, and
how many bad haircuts the band sported during the heady days of the eighties.
It was a fitting end, singing one of their biggest hits in
the middle of a packed arena. To paraphrase the song, years have gone by, and I’d say you kicked
some ass. They’re still around when so many others who came up at the same time
are long gone.
Towards the end of the show, Vince Neil implored us to “always
remember, we’re Mötley fucking Crüe” and based on last night, I’m not sure that
we’re likely to forget! It was all kinds of epic.
RIP Mötley Crüe, gone too soon!
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