by Michael McCarthy
The Motley Crue concert I attended at Mohegan Sun Arena last night was better than that Twin Cities review said but definitely not great either. (Spoilers ahead ) No opening band. No merch for sale. No encore. And they only played 80 minutes, which includes a ten minute, boring guitar solo by John 5. Tommy Lee didn’t even do a drum solo, which totally baffles me. I mean, he’s one of the greatest drummers alive and his drum solos are always a highlight of the show so I was very disappointed that we didn’t get one. Instead he wasted at least 5 minutes asking women to show their boobs, which in this day and age I found kind of tacky.
Vince Neil sounded a little better than expected but the music was so damn loud you couldn’t really hear him well. I couldn’t even tell the first song was “Primal Scream” until they started showing “HEY!” on the video screens. And there was no pyro or lasers and the stage was a boring set up like you would expect from a free show at Mohegan, not one you paid 160 dollars to see.
They had two inflatable robot girls behind them at one point and a video screen playing clips of various things and other than that they just shot two things of silver streamers at the crowd at the end. In other words, none of the flames and sparks and laser beams that you would expect from a Motley Crue headlining show.
If I had paid 50 dollars for a ticket I wouldn’t mind but for 160 I expected a show on the level that they used to deliver. Plus, they didn’t do anything from their last four albums and they didn’t even do all of their hit singles. No “Too Young to Fall In Love,” “Without You” or “Don’t Go Away Mad.”
Instead of doing those singles, they served up a disappointing, lukewarm medley of various cover songs. I’ve seen artists like Rick Springfield do seamless medleys over the years so I know they can be done much better than how the Crue handled it. For example, they played about two thirds of “Smokin’ In The Boys Room” then the music jus stopped completely until they went onto the next cover. The medley was: “Rock and Roll, Part 2,” “Smokin’ In The Boys Room,” “Helter Skelter,” “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “Blitzkreig Bop” and then they played The Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right (To Party).” But at least they played the whole Beastie Boys song. The rest of the medley sucked because just when you were getting into it and having fun singing along they kept stopping to go to the next song. If this was a 120 minute show I wouldn’t have minded them doing a medley but when the show is only 80 minutes you should just play the entire songs instead of teasing people with glorified snippets.
Another thing: some of the songs just didn’t sound right with John 5 on guitar. His style or tone or whatever you want to call it just doesn’t mesh well with all of Motley’s hits. I appreciate the fact that he was the most energetic and enthusiastic person on the stage but I certainly found myself wishing I’d seen The Stadium Tour when Mick Mars was still with the band.
I also have to say that “Home Sweet Home” didn’t sound right at all. Tommy Lee gave it a new piano intro, which wasn’t half bad, but then they seemed to be playing the song too slow, making it awkward to sing along to.
I had a half decent time but it was disappointing at the same time. I guess I came way feeling dissatisfied in the way that I always do when I see Vince Neil’s solo shows in the Wolf Den at Mohegan but at least the Wolf Den shows are free.
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