Tinley Park, IL 7/22/09
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
By Anthony Kuzminski
{Photo Credit}
Traveling festivals are going the way of the 8-Track due to increased costs, egos and the need to suck every last cent from the fan which makes Mötley Crüe’s Crüe Fest 2 all that more insane yet impressive from the sheer stance that it exists in an economy like this. Over the course of six hours and ten bands, you get to sink your teeth into an diverse variety of hard rock with the cherry on top of the mammoth sundae being that the Crüe performing their number-one 1989 album, Dr. Feelgood from top to bottom. A band like Mötley Crüe comes with a storied history and has as many dissenters as they do followers and when you have an album that sell seven-million copies, spawns five music videos, four Top-40 appearances and a pair of Top-Ten hits on the Pop chart, you’re going to divide people. There are those who feel that Mötley Crüe went soft after Shout at the Devil and no matter what they did, these people would never be assuaged. Whenever you sell as many records as Mötley Crüe did with Feelgood you get a convergence of fans who are fair weathered and my question was whether or not these types of fans would show up for Crüe Fest 2 or would it be dye in the wool fans who would be bored with Feelgood and yearning for a full on set of their seminal debut Too Fast For Love or their classic sophomore album, Shout at the Devil? Regardless of what era of the Crüe you love, Crüe Fest 2 proved to be more than any music fan could ask for with a package of artists that are as vitalizing as they are unyielding.Crüe Fest 2 is filling an abyss Ozzfest left. While Ozzfest has turned into a one weekend a year festival, there are still those who hanker to have a traveling circus come to their hometown. This is where Crüe Fest comes into play. One of my overriding uncertainties would be that Crüe Fest 2 would straddle too many things and instead of doing one thing well, they would fail at juggling too much. While I found it hard to catch all of the acts on both the main and side stages, I am pleased to report that I was affably bowled over at the amount of talent on display. A whiff college was in the air (cigarette smoke, pot, pizza, un-bathed teens) and a sundry and eclectic crowd came out in full force to release some aggression. There were bands I never would have given the time of day to and here they were with a opportunity to astound me and to my astonishment, many of them did.
Drowning Pool, Charm City Devils, Cavo and Shram all performed abridged sets attempting to make an impact with their all too limited stage time. The first act I witnessed to take a forceful bite out of the crowd was Theory of a Deadman. They began their set rapidly and little by little managed to turn on their insistent melodic charms and whipped the crowd into a flurry with a heavy emphasis on their latest album Scars & Souvenirs. The four-piece, led by vocalist Tyler Connolly turned in a set that was more than stirring; it lingered in my memory bank even after Mötley Crüe took their final bows. If you think you know what this band is about by seeing one or two music videos, you are mistaken. They hit the stage with an intrinsic series of songs that straddled between tremendous distortion echo calls and easy on the ear gems with enough might to even make the most cynic metal head stand up and take notice. When their thirty-five minute set came to a conclusion after a raucous “Bad Girlfriend”, there was an air of astonishment around the amphitheater. They were that good.
Godsmack brought their brand of molten metal performing a selection of numbers from their four studio records. Godsmack is a band never to be underestimated, even if you do not appreciate their music, they’ll try their damndest to make you think otherwise with their live performance. With no new album in tow (although one is due in 2010), the 60-minute set was proverbial to crowd who ate up their show like it was the last supper. They ripped through the songs with gleeful momentum playing to their core fans and making a few new ones in the process. Pyrotechnics, continual stage movement and even dueling drum solos prove to be more than eye candy but an enthralling elixir that the crowd gulped back without ever thinking twice. They are a four-piece band who manages to always deliver as was evident on the frenzied “Whiskey Hangover”. When the last fire blast had cooled down, the ringing in your eyes subsided and the final bit of guitar distortion faded into the sky, Godsmack had conquered the crowd in ways even a skeptic had to welcome.
On the second stage, all of the acts bowed to Rev Theory. {Rev Theory Photo Credit} The band forged a bond with their audience immediately. Singer Rich Luzzi had the charisma of a rock god as he found a way to even bond with those not engrossed while never letting his guard down for those who were there just to see them. Being a second stage is never an easy feat yet Rev Theory relished in the top spot and illustrated to every one why they deserved to be on the main stage next year with their scorching foot stomping power chords drenched in clawing adrenaline and insatiable hunger. Their songs broke down barriers and as Luzzi told the crowd to get closer as the band tore through numbers from their Light It Up record. They even effectively nailed a cover of Nine Inch Nails “Head Like A Hole” much to the satisfaction of the crowd. Without the advantage of a elaborate lighting system, pyro or any gadgets there was nothing but blood sweat and tears on the second stage. No one else came close to the supremacy of Rev Theory. There was an adept correlation between the band and the crowd as their songs burst off the stage with a jolting onslaught that I hope to see again.
The evening’s entrée was Mötley Crüe, performing their best selling album Dr. Feelgood in its entirety along with a handful of other classic cuts. When this was originally announced, I was initially excited and then the enthusiasm led to dread. Unlike other acts that are performing timeless records these days, there was a question as to why Feelgood was chosen over some of their other albums. It may be Mötley Crüe’s best selling record, but few deem it their best. Not to mention that most of the singles have been performed at every Mötley Crüe show for the last two decades. So would they deliver or limp through an all too predictable set?
{Writer’s Note: The following paragraphs contain spoilers about the stage design. Stop reading now if you do not wish to know what happens}
As soon as the lights dimmed and a immense wheel chair appeared and a patient emerged to be injected with a four-foot syringe, one sensed this wouldn’t be your typical run through of a classic album. A drape fell from center stage to reveal the Crüe in a all white mini padded cell a tenth the size of the stage looking like members of an asylum as the performance had teeth and copious grooves I haven’t heard in years. They assaulted this one with the force of an act from the second stage. “Slice of Your Pie” and “Rattlesnake Shake” followed in speedy succession with the former reminiscent of a archetypal Rolling Stones song with Jimmy Page riffs that aren’t just dirty but drip a demonic aura as well. It was during these two songs that the landscape of the stage grew revealing what looked like an medical asylum on skid row with two female backing singers providing a hot blooded impression of sexual menace. A mere three songs into the show, it proved to be more revitalizing than anything the Crüe have done on the concert stage (aside from the first leg of the 2005 tour) in decades. One of the band’s downfalls is their reliance on their core hits and their lack of a need to excavate deeper into their catalog. By playing an album top to bottom, this forced them to rest some all too familiar hits in favor of the sexist yet enlivening “She Goes Down”, the seductive “Sticky Sweet” and the blissful “Without You” which before this tour has never been performed in its entirety in concert (only in modified versions). Despite the number of times one has heard “Without You” emanating from speakers; it sounded rather fortifying this time around. The golden harmonies are moody around the edges and the song retains edginess the same way a classic Stones balled from the 70’s does. Fortunately for the Crüe they created a ballad that is scrawnier than soaring.Of the remaining songs, most of them hits (“Same Ol’ Situation”, “Don’t Go Away Mad, Just Go Away”, “Kickstart My Heart”), the true revelation was guitarist Mick Mars. Mars has taken on a senior role within the band akin to Charlie Watts in the Rolling Stones. Neither says much but when they hit the stage they are all business and the true die-hard fans never take their eyes off them. Throughout most of the 1980’s, Mars guitar playing was often chided for not being as ostentatious as his contemporaries. Two decades onward, he proves to be the one whose work has proven to be timeless. What Mars lacks in virtuosity he makes up for with visceral power. You can’t wrap yourself around noodlings from many of the six finger seductiveness, but Mars cursory and to-the-point riffs provide narrative drive. While the band’s sound is steeped in the swagger of Nikki Sixx’s bass and Tommy Lee’s unyielding drums, Mars guitar is the vertebrae encapsulating the spine of Sixx and Lee. Mick Mars is a walking miracle and the audacity with which he attacks those six strings is spellbinding.
{Mick Mars Photo Credit}
To his credit vocalist Vince Neil kept referring to the album by its sides. Whether this is how he remembers the disc or whether he wants to earn credibility with the vinyl collecting crowd, I’m not sure, but he felt sincere in his interaction. The final track on Feelgood, “Time For Change” should have been a single with its sentimental worldly lyric that indisputably moved me. This song and album received more spins by me between 1989 and 1991 than any other album in my collection and yet it’s probably been spun less than ten times in the last decade. Walking into the show, I wasn’t sure if this was an album that was going to age gracefully. I’m happy to say it has, and most of my impression is due to the vigor the four members brought to the material. While Shout or Too Fast would have possibly made better choices for full album renditions, it was hard to argue with the results of their execution. “Time For Change” felt timeless with its heightened and descending chorus and reinstated it into my mental psyche as more than just a pop song at the end of an album. The piano was largely muted in concert replaced with some intrinsic chord work by Mick Mars. At the end of the day, one can yell “desperation” and say an artist is selling out by performing albums top to bottom, but in truth, this is what many fans wish to see and it forces one to reflect on the record as a whole and not just the songs from the radio. Three of the tracks off Dr. Feelgood had never been aired before live, two others have been missing from set lists for close to two decades and another was only partially performed sporadically over the years. Despite the presence of four mega-hits, the band grasped these songs with the same gusto as they had two decades back.
After more stage and set changes (now reflecting internal hard drives), Mick Mars shred through a guitar solo before morphing into a mini greatest hits set led by “Wild Side”. The song had an ejaculation of pyrotechnics unseen by my eyes before. The titanic force of the band could truly be felt on “Looks That Kill”, “Saints of Los Angeles”, “Shout at the Devil ‘97” (with fists flying) and the two song encore of “Home Sweet Home” and “Girls, Girls, Girls”. As Mötley Crüe took their final bows, even the cynic in me was hard pressed to find issues with the show. The band framed the show around full-force versions of some of their most thunderous and memorable songs and in the end, you can’t argue with the song selection or the drive in which they delivered them.
If there is any drawback to Crüe Fest 2, it may be that it’s just too much music for any one person to absorb especially on a weeknight where rush hour traffic impacts those coming to the show. They may be better suited to have fewer bands play longer sets, including Mötley Crüe who could truly take the show over-the-top with an additional thirty-minutes of music. Ultimately, in an economy as inconsolable as this one, Crüe Fest 2 provides a mighty bang for your buck (especially for the Live Nation deals every Wednesday). The truly eclectic band roster delivered music that will sweep away fans of many hard rock styles reminding us that the hedonistic spirit of rock n’ roll is alive and well and in this day and age, that’s all anyone can ask for.
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.
Chicago 7/22/09 Set List:
“Dr. Feelgood”
“Slice of Your Pie”
“Rattlesnake Shake”
“Kickstart My Heart”
“Without You”
“Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S)”
“Sticky Sweet”
“She Goes Down”
“Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”
“Time For Change”
“Wildside”
“Saints Of Los Angeles”
“Shout At The Devil”
“Looks That Kill”
Encore:
“Home Sweet Home”
“Girls Girls Girls”
