Sunday, July 31, 2011
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Thirty years running and not a whole lot has changed for thrashy, trashy Motley Crue. But why fix something that isn’t broken?
The LA glam-metal band is still doing its thing, even gaining some begrudging respect outside its fan base.
The Crue, with Poison and The New York Dolls, brought its tour to Covelli Centre on Friday night, packing the arena to the rafters with about 6,000 fans who filled every available seat and standing area.
Covelli has never been a great place for chord-crunching metal bands because of its echo, and a hummng sound system Friday didn’t make things any better. Still, the overflowing and appreciative crowd cemented Youngstown’s reputation as a hard-rock hotbed.
Youngstown was one of the smallest cities on the 36-city U.S. tour, which has been selling out bigger halls and amphitheaters. Friday’s concert also was the tour’s only Northeast Ohio stop.
The Crue took everyone to the strip club on songs like “Girls Girls Girls” and “Dr. Feelgood,” with a pair of dancers embellishing the stage.
And they didn’t skimp on the pyro and fireworks either, although the noise blur occasionally turned the music into a sonic watercolor of a tornado in a cornfield at night.
Before playing piano on “Home Sweet Home,” shirtless and tattooed drummer Tommy Lee did tone things down a bit. He gathered his bandmates — Kabuki-esque bassist Nikki Sixx, singer Vince Neil and guitarist Mick Mars — around the piano for a brief moment that wordlessly demonstrated their long bond as friends.
Crue’s greatest-hits set included “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away),” which used Cee-Lo’s “(Forget) You” as an intro; as well as “Shout at the Devil,” “Saints of Los Angeles,” “Live Wire,” “Smoking in the Boys Room” and set closer “Kickstart My Heart.”
At the halfway point, it was time to demonstrate the tour’s nutty-but-fun gimmick: Lee’s 360-degree rotating drum set. It was just what you might have envisioned — a circular track about 30 feet high. Lee strapped himself into his seat and played his drums, which were mounted on a platform. As the platform circled the loop, Lee was completely upside down at the apex.
Poison frontman Bret Michaels, looking healthy after having had emergency heart surgery in January, was glad to be back in his neck of the woods. The Butler, Pa., native with the spangly cowboy hat led a short set that included “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” “Unskinny Bop” and covers of “We’re An American Band and “Your Mama Don’t Dance.”
He also wielded an acoustic for the great ballad “Every Rose Has its Thorn.”
Poison closed its set with 1987 hair-metal anthem “Talk Dirty To Me” — which deserves a spot on everyone’s top 10 list of “crank ’em up” songs.