Venue: Sydney Superdome
Date: December 3, 2005
Supporting Acts : Casanovas (Australia), Mötorhead (UK)
It was 1989 and Dr Feelgood had just been released. I heard the title track on Rick Dee’s Weekly Top 40 and was hooked. The chugging guitars, the whiney vocals, the manic drumming and a crazy guitar solo. For a 15-year old just discovering hard rock / heavy metal, it was like manna sent from the rock gods.
Their vinyl LP was one of my first heavy metal purchases and still remains a prized possession. Given that history, I was more than stoked to secure tickets in May this year, for their re-union tour.
The power of p2p allowed me to catch up their back catalogue so I was primed for the event. The Casanovas kicked things off at around 7pm. I was in a queue to buy beer (what else would you drink at a rock concert?) when they started and from the sound of things I decided to forgo the beer and check them out. I’m glad I skipped that beer.
The Casanovas
Sounding like a musical lovechild between Kiss, ACDC, Bon Jovi and the headlining act, these local boys rocked the just-starting-to-fill house. This Melbourne based trio have a reputation in Australia for being under-achievers because lesser bands such as The Vines and Jet made the big time before they did, but going from the tight 30 minutes they played…correction…rocked, their time will come. Superb energy and a well-balanced blend of riffage and solos, The Casanovas will definitely be on my Christmas shopping list.
This was my first time experiencing The Casanovas live. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. 4 out of 5 and looking forward to more.
Blast from the Past
Well, if The Casanovas looked like stealing the show, the following band (more an institution than a band I reckon), pretty much did. Lemmy, Phil and Mickkey are credited for inventing speed metal. Combining punk and uncompromising heavy metal, these seasoned musicians have been a mainstay of the rock scene for more than 30 years.
Twice nominated for Grammy’s, Mötorhead are better known to younger metal heads as one of the major influences of Metallica. Once their set started, you immediately knew why.
Vocalist Lemmy growled his way through almost an hour of Mötorhead’s greatest hits including Ace of Spades and even a new track off their latest album, Inferno. Throughout the performance, the driving guitars and thumping drums made it downright hard to breath.
Lemmy and lead guitarist Philip Campbell combined perfectly for crunching guitar assaults that had punters moshing on the terraces. Mickkey Dee was a blur of hair, drumsticks and thundering sound. His solo midway through the set was a spectacle to behold. This was old school metal in way I had never experienced.
Even the way the set ended was legendary. Lemmy hit an open E chord on his Rickenbauer, casually strolled over to the huge amp behind him, turned the reverb way up, placed the guitar facing the speaker and in a thunder of feedback bowed with the rest of the band and walked off as the lights dimmed. Only two words can describe that performance… f**king awesome!
5 out of 5.
The Main Event
Still buzzing from the Mötorhead set, the crowd started a chant of Crüe! Crüe! Crüe! as the roadies furiously cleared the stage. The ripples of excitement in the audience were matched by ripples in the large pink and white striped big top-style tent covering half the stage. The fogs machines went into overdrive, no doubt to conceal the surprises that were reputedly part of the show dubbed the “Carnival of Sins”.
The lights dimmed to thunderous applause and the big screens either side of the stage lit up. It was a preview for Disaster The Movie wherein Mötley Crüe are immortalized in clay. Not what many expected, but it was mildly amusing.
(www.disasterthemovie.com)
Then out strolled an evil looking midget clown amid heavy guitars. After asking the crowd “are you ready” a couple of times, fireballs and pyrotechnics started up within the big top which still had not been opened. When it did, we were headlong into “Shout at the Devil”.
The years haven’t been good to Vince Neil and he didn’t look anything like the familiar lithe, peroxide blond, lounge lizard on the Dr Feelgood album sleeve. At least his voice was still good. Or so I thought. Whether it was his mic or the way the sound was set up but his vocals were very hard to pick out amid the heavy guitars and a painted Tommy Lee’s frantic drum thumping, as the show went on.
Nikki Sixx, was also painted up and his bass lines seemed distorted and messy. Mick Mars, my favourite band member, was in a black overcoat and top hat. His trademark slouch was further accentuated by what looked like six-inch platform boots. But for a guy who has had a hip replacement and suffers from a degenerative bone disease, he looked in pretty good nick.
The performance itself was good in patches. No complaints with the music but the vocals were lost and this was further exacerbated by Neil singing alternating verses and relying on audience interaction. It’s one thing to get the audience involved but it seems like a farce when every song is half sung.
The next 45 minutes were dedicated to their “old shit” with gems such as “Too Fast For Love”, “Looks that Kill” and “10 Seconds to Love” among more fireworks, pyros and scantily clad acrobats who kept the moshers entertained. The sleazy, glam metal machine that is Mötley Crüe were just starting to gain momentum when, strangely, they called a 10 minute interval and left. The big screens came on again to show more of the movie clip that started the show but that ended after two minutes.
After the interval, Vince and Tommy came back onstage on a couple of Harley Davidsons. After revving it up, they went headlong into “Girls! Girls! Girls!” which had everyone up and jumping. After a couple more songs from their back catalogue, they slowed things down with a newer song. “Glitter” was played in a medley with “Without You” and then the lighters came out for “Home Sweet Home” which the audience sang the first time around.
“Don’t Go Away Mad” would have been a highlight if the sound wasn’t so distorted and vocals completely drowned out. Just as things were gaining momentum once more, another break, this time in the form of Nikki Sixx introducing the band and chasing a midget offstage (!).
Then Tommy took over the mic and this is where things really started going downhill. After taking a cheap shot at Bon Jovi, he threw his bottle of Jagermeister to some lucky punter in the front row. Heard someone yell, “all the best with the Hep buddy!” as the lucky fan chugged whatever was in the bottle.
Tommy took over the hand held camera Nikki had used to introduce the band. Calling it his “titty cam”, he invited female members of the audience to flash him for the benefit of the cam and the big screens. A couple of them did, which I guess is fun and games, but when Tommy jumped into the front row to force a young lady to do it, was just plain tasteless.
Now this entire episode took up close to 20 minutes which could have been better spent on working out the sound problems, but when they did get back to the music, Dr Feelgood sounded like it was being played through a pair of busted up PC speakers. Only the driving rhythm was recognizable. That beautiful guitar solo was lost in parts as were the lyrics.
After that, even Mick’s guitar solo, which blended into “Kickstart My Heart”, failed to lift my mood. “Sick Love Song”, “Same Ol’ Situation” and a huge, effects laden encore rounded out the night and the show was over.
Personally, the night ended on a bittersweet note. I guess I expected Mötley Crüe to be more mature and professional a la Metallica. But I guess they are re-living their heyday when the spectacle was more important than the performance. On that front, Mötley Crüe delivered. It was a sleazy, corrupt-your-mind sort of performance and if the sound problems weren’t so bad, this show could have been actually good.
Sadly for me, it was more like a bunch of old farts reliving their heyday and in the process turning into an embarrassing cover band of themselves.
3 out of 5. (Mick Mars gets a 4 for being the coolest cat in the show).
The Psynic Dec 05
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