Cruefest Review

Trying to strike a balance between my Nikki can do no wrong stand and reality isn't as easy as you'd think. I think I managed it. It's a little Nikki heavy, naturally, but all in all, it's a decent review.

Trapt-Didn't see them, heard good things.
Sixx A.M.- Missed the first song and a half, but there was decent crowd response and they sounded a bit too much like the album. I know the album is effect heavy, and it really showed. They were fun to watch, except when Nikki turned sideways and blended in with some equipment. I would like to see them to a full set though.
Papa Roach- Kinda saw them and they got a great crowd response. I recognized some of their songs, from bars I've been in, but nothing really stuck out for me. I wouldn't pay to see them alone and generally, they put on an ok show.
Buckcherry- Amazing crowd response. Ok, that said.... Now, excuse me kind Buckcherry sirs, are you aware that you had a second album from which there was a hit? The album was called Time Bomb and the hit was called Ridin. It's an excellent album and you should have played something from it.
I had a very hard time watching them. While they were great and I really do like them, the show itself was so formulaic that it kind of overpowered everything.
a)Open with first hit off first album. Check.
b)Play third hit off third album. Check.
c)Talk to the crowd about how much you like to drink and fuck,then go into song about drinking and fucking. Check.
d)Play big ballad hit off third album. Check.
e)Work the crowd "Hey Chicago, we really love it here". Check.
f)Play long extended version of monster hit with 2 Zeppelinesque covers worked in. Check.
g)Work the crowd while performing above monster hit. Playing to all the "Crazy Bitches" out there. Check.
Yawn. Good show, if I hadn't seen it done by a thousand other bands. This is in no way a bashing of Buckcherry. They have energy, talent and charisma to spare, but they should ditch the formula and just have some fun. I have all their stuff and will continue to buy it, but I'd like to see them not on the Fest circuit. They are much better than their stage show.
Which brings us to...... MOTLEY FUCKING CRUE
This is where it gets sticky. Having seen the Crue so many times, I saw the difference between this, a festival show and a normal Crue show. This was very badly spaced, and they kept throwing the timing off. Building up to a frenzy, then stopping dead. It wasn't like any Crue show I'd seen before, and while it was good, it wasn't great. It didn't fall into the worst ten Crue shows I've seen, it wasn't in the ten best either. Basically, it was a lot of fun and a great way to spend an evening and fuck it, Nikki was there, so it couldn't be all that bad.
I'm going to break this down into little bitty pieces, so get ready.
Vince. Is now taking singing lessons. Who the fuck needs a trill in Shout At The Devil? For VINCE (which really puts this on a pretty low scale), he looked good. Not bloated and he was moving around and seemed to be enjoying himself. He sounded better than he has in awhile (trill not included) and he kept up his end of the show pretty well.
Tommy. Didn't see much of him. Sounded good, sounded drunk, sounded like Tommy. His little performance with the Tit E. Cam was amusing, and one of the only two times he stepped out from behind the drums. The drum kit was huge and kind of blocked him from the crowd, which is just weird for Tommy. He played piano (of course) on Home Sweet Home (another manipulate the crowd moment, which I'll cover later), and he looked happy. He's Tommy, it's not all that complicated.
Mick. He moves! He plays! He occasionally smiles! It was great! It's always a comfort to look at that side of the stage and see Mick. There was also a lot of interaction between him and Nikki and Vince which was nice to see after all the years of infighting. He sounded fantastic and that made the show worth it for that alone.
Songs. They only played two songs off the new album, which is really nice. I hate having the new album shoved down my throat. In other towns they played other songs, but I can't review them, I can only wish they had played them. This was the first Crue show I have ever seen where I didn't hear "Too Young To Fall In Love" and/or "Too Fast For Love". Oddly I was bitterly disappointed by that. I don't need to hear Primal Scream or Same Old Situation, but they needed to play them I guess. The songs sounded great, they were just placed in such an awkward order that I'm thinking Nikki must have been doing something else when the set list was made. It seems to be a pretty solid set list from show to show. The other songs get put in to replace Motherfucker Of The Year if the crowd doesn't respond to Saints Of Los Angeles. They could keep the same list, but play around with it so that it flows a little better and it would be a great show.
Crowd and stage show. Typical insane Crue reaction. They really really really need to stop playing manipulate the audience though. It broke up the flow of the show and it's not really necessary, they're Motley Crue. I don't want to (and actually can't)say "Fuck you Sixx" and I don't want to hear that Detroit is a louder crowd. I don't want to play sit down/stand up games. I don't want to see the Tit E. Cam emerging from it's dressing room/ladies room, just bring the fucking thing out. I don't want to be offered a shot from a bottle of Jager from a man who has Hepatitis. I don't want to hold up my right hand and make motorcycle moves. I just want to hear some great music played by a great band. They don't need all these gimmicks, almost everyone there knew and loved them anyway. I'm assuming that maybe some of them weren't there for the Crue, so that's why I say almost. But in general, the only thing that truly manipulated me was the whole Home Sweet Home thing. That was the only song in the encore. They came out, Tommy sitting at the white piano, Nikki wearing a white hat and coat and all four of them played it together while images from their history played on the big screens. Although...who played drums? Tommy was at the piano. Intermingled with the images were scenes from the HSH video... coulda skipped that. Lots of pyro, one of which almost set Nikki on fire. Typical Crue show.
I seem to be forgetting something... let's see... Vince, Tommy, Mick, songs, crowd, stage show...what is it? Oh I remember (see, a bit of Crue like manipulation, not all that great.)NIKKI!
Nikki. What can I say? Nikki sounded great, looked great, except for the weird Quasimodo bass positions in the beginning of the show. Nikki is great, and considering he, as the President of 11-7 records, brought all of this together, I gotta be impressed. I wish he was above the crowd manipulations, he flat out was the worst offender of the day on that one, but he does know how to work a crowd in other ways. He was smiling (I think we need to thank Kat Von D. for that)and seemed and looked just fucking thrilled to be out on that stage. I tend to get very distracted by Nikki onstage, just because of him being Nikki Sixx, but this time he interacted with everyone, and I got to see more of the control he wields and the bonds with everyone. Mostly Mick. The weirdest interaction was when the new improved singing Vince tried to hit a note he used to hit back when the song was originally recorded. He was standing next to Nikki when he hit it and the look of astonishment on Nikki's face was hysterical. All in all, with the exception of the crowd crap, Nikki was, as usual, the high point of the night. He does need to take a closer look at the set list though, seriously.

Later-
me