The Circus Comes to Town

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The Rock N Roll equivalent to Barnum and Baileys Circus. Rolled through Oakland's Arena Saturday March 26th. REVIEW BY: Michael Magic, R2Cents

Yes, folks: Motley Crue is back with a vengeance.

Motley Crue puppet animations (like the Thunderbirds or Team America) rocked the audience as a intro Saturday night. It was a good intro with some funny skits. I was bummed to find out it was in fact an infomercial for some movie and website. End of commercial.

A clown appeared center stage on top of a crate. Looked to me like a Insane Clown Posse prop reject. After his skit and introduction from the crate, out popped two scantily-clad women dancers who were the evening trapeze acts, contortionists and eye candy.

The audience was as frightening as the evil-looking clown. Mullets, Carney toothless grins, big beers, big beer projectile vomits… Yep, what a mess. All ages were represented in this bizarro carney sideshow. Brush your teeth people! The stage set up was revealed a Big Top tent in red and white.

"Shout at the Devil"
From the crate popped out Vince Neil, looking much better since his well-documented public makeover. The thing that struck me was Vince's ability to sing his parts. Last time I caught a Vince Neil show, Vince was out of breath and it affected his performance. This time around Vince was strong singing all the words it caught me by surprise.

"Too Fast For Love”
Too Fast for love? Not for Vince… Seen stage left was Vince's wife and entourage. Vince was singing to her playing the part blowing kisses at her. A tender Rock and Roll moment.

"Ten Seconds to Love"
A crowd favorite? Not for me not because of the band . Because of the Filipino dudes right behind me in the next row. These guys looked like they were having crack head convulsions. They were dancing and singing at the top of their lungs -- in a heavily accented growl howl.
It sounded like this:
Pow our d dbl = "Shout at the Devil"
Do NASA do Wu = "Too Fast for Love"
So you can imagine what "Ten Seconds to Love" sounded like. They were drunk but Mega Motley fans. They were cool I guess. They shook my hand about 12 times.

"On With The Show"
"Louder than Hell"
The pyro show was damn impressive. My friend Brad Kava and I nearly jumped out of our seats during one bomb blast. The show was filled with flames, synchronized pyrotechnics, bombs, smoke, steam, trapeze acts, midgets, and sexually explicit moves. Loud, punishing bar chords, Mick Marz and his tweaky leads. Mick Mars was wearing platforms that would make KISS green with envy. He was Frankenstein-like in his movements, lumbering around the stage like a senior citizen hopped up on all kinds of medications. His playing was solid. He did well working the stage considering he had a recent hip replacement.

"Too Young To Fall in Love"
"Live Wire"
Live Wire was interrupted by Tommy Lee shouting to the crowd like a evil cheerleader. "We played Oakland before man and we know what you *^&$^(Censored) can do." After the cheerleading, Tommy hit full stride. Smoke… lots of smoke and yes, the cowbell, folks!

This marked the end of the first set.

We had a 10-minute intermission between sets. The audience was subjected to A.D.D-inspired Bizarro video clips. Included in the footage nudes, apes, sex terms, horror, war, bombs and crude humor. Ten minutes worth of footage felt like a lifetime spent in Bizarro Crue's carney land. No more info please – it’s what Nikki Sixx sees in his mind, I am convinced.

Set 2:
A midget Mini Me Vince Neil rode out on a mini Harley. Followed by the Crue on hopped up chopper custom bikes. You know what comes next.

"Girls Girls Girls"
Trapeze acrobats doing sexual gyrations, spreading splits in mid air, accompanied by video monitors showing topless girls cavorting in bed. This was indeed a walk on the wild side. My Filipino buddies were in rare form, launching themselves a couple feet in the air and playing a horrifying air guitar.

"Dr Feelgood"
The Dr. was played with conviction by the Crue and Filipino air guitar rockers. Nikki Sixx was working every inch of the stage like a prize fighter. Punching out bass licks like a middle weight champion. Sneaking some tricks into your Mellon. Nikki was the show jamming all over the stage -- a Bay Area boy makes good.

I missed the next two songs and pick up the review at the start of the Tommy Lee (cough) Drum solo.

Okay, Tommy's drum solo was part trapeze act, part monkey in a cage on top of the stage. My God what happened to Tommy Lee? He is a great drummer content with playing horrible percussion to a techno beat. Tommy flew like Gene Simmons at a Broadway production of Peter Pan. You know the type of flying. Ropes attached to his back jerking Tommy around like some lanky rag doll. I was very disappointed by his so-called drum solo. He could have played better rhythm with one hand. Just sad. He is too good of a drummer to get away with half assing on kegs, fire extinguishers. Must have been a result of his many incarcerations. Playing the bars in his prison cell, hitting cans and toilets. Blaaah ( C-) for the solo. Tommy is still my hero. Playing carney star maker with video camera in hand. Tommy filmed women in the crowd like Girls Gone Wild -- all bearing their breasts -- all kinds of wonderful breasts. California girls make me proud.

"Sick Love Song"
"Kick Start My Heart"

Encores:

"Helter Skelter"
"Anarchy in the UK"

The show was stellar; the music was not bad. Overall I give this concert a B-.