CRUE FEST
July 30, 2009
Shoreline Amphitheater, Mt. View, CA

By Dan Wall

Motley Crue Set List: Dr. Feelgood, Slice of Your Pie, Rattlesnake Shake, Kickstart My Heart, Without You, Same Ol’ Situation, Sticky Sweet, She Goes Down, Don’t Go Away Mad, Time For Change, Wildside, Saints of Los Angeles, Shout at the Devil, Primal Scream. Encore: Girls, Girls, Girls, Home Sweet Home. 95 minutes.

Godsmack Set List: Straight Out of Line, Re-align, Awake, The Enemy, Keep Away, Speak, Whiskey Hangover, Voodoo, Drum Solo, Whatever, I Stand Alone. 65 minutes.

When Motley Crue announced its idea for the first Crue Fest last year, Nikki Sixx commented that the band would like to see the tour continue for years and years, “even if we aren’t playing.”

Unlike the Ozzfest, which this tour is slowly starting to take over for, it appears Sixx’s wish may eventually come true (Ozzy and Sharon just can’t come to the grips of an Ozzfest without Ozzy). But unlike last year, when the band’s tepid performances early in the tour made one wish for just that scenario, the Crue has come back this year to show that there may be some life in this old glam warhorse yet.

That’s right, for the first time in quite a long time in front of this writer, Motley Crue finally played a good show.

Not a great show, mind you. At this point, I don’t think the Crue will ever be as good as it was on the Dr. Feelgood tour, the album which the band plays top to bottom during its set this year. But it was enough to hold off the challenges by just about every other band on the bill (except for Godsmack-more on that later).

One reason this show worked better for Crue than those in the recent past is that most of the band is now sober. Everyone but Tommy Lee at least looked and played like it, and even the rail-thin drummer has cut out most of his ridiculous stage banter, the tittie cam and the rest of the foolish pranks that were fun and relevant back during their youth but embarrassing for adults, and just rocked.

This meant that Vince Neil, who still can’t really sing that well, can resume his role as the world’s horniest cheerleader. And Mick Mars, who still can’t move very well, can at least walk around a little and play better than you might think (he was so loud, my ears still hurt, and his playing was one of the show’s highlights). And Sixx, who is a pretty solid bassist, can anchor the band onstage and make sure Lee holds down his job, despite swigs from a bottle of Jagermeister (which he finally passed out into the crowd).

The stage show was spectacular-something north of a KISS show but still south of the opening ceremonies at the Olympics. Pyro, bombs, fire, smoke, mega-watt lighting and a video presentation promoting the Feelgood record helped the 95 minutes onstage move along nicely. The highlight for me was the opening song, “Dr. Feelgood,” where the group, aided by some strategically placed panels that eventually took up a position in the lighting truss, enclosed the band around Lee’s kit and made it look like the quartet was playing in a padded cell (which is a pretty good place to put the Crue, usually, along with most of the crowd).

The other highlight was Neil. Even though he breathlessly forgot a number of words and at times seemed more content to let the audience song the big songs, he absolutely aced the two ballads on the album, “Without You” and “Time to Change,” proving that when he wants to, he can actually sing a song the way it was intended.

Last year, this performance would have been enough to hold off the challenges of the younger bands like Buckcherry and Papa Roach, who were very good on the first tour. But this year Godsmack came out and absolutely smoked the place.

This is not a shock to those of you who have given the band a chance over the years. Godsmack, despite your own personal opinion, is a great live act and had no problem matching and even exceeding the Crue’s show-with much of the same pyro, smoke, fire and lighting that the Motlies used-toys which play a significant role in its own headline shows and are not usually available to opening acts. And the band also knows and wears its influences well, and mixed its Sabbathy-doom with a touch of Alice in Chains into an intoxicating mix that went down just right during its 65 minutes onstage.

Vocalist Sully Erna portrays a larger-than-life figure as the band’s frontman, and it doesn’t take long to figure out who runs this band. Not only does he sing every song in his signature growl, but he also plays guitar and the band’s tandem drum solo spot (done with drummer Shannon Larkin) is easily the highlight of the set.

Erna and Larkin have created a monster solo, built around a tribal beat pattern and aided by guitarist Robbie Merrill and bassist Tony Rombola’s riffing, that includes a true drum battle and riffs from Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and Rush, which is a pretty fair list of the band’s early influences. This is all played out on two moveable drum risers that bring the action to the front of the stage.

Aside from the solo spot, the band played all of its big hits, along with a great new song, “Whiskey Hangover,” and that mix of songs, show and the band’s us-against-the-world attitude help Godsmack to be one of the best live acts currently treading the boards in the U.S.

Theory of A Deadman has a great album out but proved by its performance here that it might be noting more than a studio creation. The band had a hard time replicating the lush sound of hits “By The Way” and “Not Meant to Be” onstage, and only “Bad Girlfriend” really went down all that well.

On the other end of the spectrum, Drowning Pool (on the main stage) and Rev Theory (on the Monster stage) proved that if you put down on tape only what you can do onstage, you might not have all of that difficult of a time sounding good. Drowning Pool, just a power trio with a solid vocalist, was able to win the crowd over with renditions of its hits “Step Up,” “37 Stitches” and “Bodies.” And the youthful and energetic Rev Theory has already hit the charts three times in little over a year, and both “Light It Up” and “Hell Yeah” sounded great live. Cavo showed up to do its big hit “Champagne,” and the Charm City Devils provided capable support as openers, as its Triple A Buckcherry act actually bodes well for the future-the band does it very well.

One little problem-the attendance was significantly lower than last year. With only 5000 or so tickets sold (it looked like about 10,000 showed up, but rumors of a papered house ran rampant around the facility), the early sets looked like they were being done in front of the stage crew and not the ticket-buying crowd. If this keeps up, it will only be a matter of time before KISSfest is announced.