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The Cringe opens for Motley Crue in Cleveland
By John Benson
Whether Motley Crue is truly retiring remains to be seen. However, the Sunset Strip rock act is going out with a bang on a two-year jaunt called “The Final Tour.”
Vince Neil (vocals), Mick Mars (guitars), Nikki Sixx (bass) and Tommy Lee (drums) will be walking on the wild side one more time in the Rock Hall City with a date Tuesday at Quicken Loans Arena. While Rock Hall inductee Alice Cooper is also on the bill, kicking off a night of classic rock ’n’ roll will be relatively obscure band The Cringe.
For a decade, The Cringe has struggled in the margins of the rock scene. Now the New York City band is content riding the coattails of others into some sense of notoriety.
“Our agent is always throwing spaghetti against the wall seeing what sticks,” said The Cringe singer-songwriter John Cusimano calling from Milwaukee. “I didn’t expect to hear anything and then a month or two later last year Motley Crue invited us to do three dates with them in Canada.
“It was amazing and incredible. I guess they liked us because then they invited us back for the entire summer.”
While in the past The Cringe has opened for everyone from The New York Dolls, Steel Panther and Trapt to Alter Bridge and Fuel, this is a new experience for Cusimano, who said the timing of the current tour is perfect.
The band, which also includes lead guitarist James Rotondi (Air, Mr. Bungle), bassist Jonny Blaze (Crash Moderns, Alice Smith) and drummer Shawn Pelton (Sheryl Crow, SNL Band, Bruce Springsteen), is about to release its fifth studio album “Blind Spot.” The project, produced and mixed by the legendary Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Train), is due out in October.
“This is for sure our most complete record,” Cusimano said. He added that the songs, all of which are in the heavy melodic vein, were consciously written with rock radio in mind. In fact, it’s that sound that has Cusimano believing The Cringe is a perfect band to share the stage with Motley Crue.
“Motley Crue has really strong melodies and strong hooks. They’re loud and they rock out. And I think The Cringe is similar in that way that we’re really focused on the melodies, the hooks and the writing. We have songs that you can hear once and they sound instantly familiar to you. You want to keep hearing it again,” Cusimano said.