UNCASVILLE, Conn. – So long, farewell, auch wiedersehen, good night. I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell auf wiedersehen, adieu adieu, adieu, to you and you and you.
This is what played when the lights went down at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday night for Motley Crue’s concert which has been billed as their final farewell tour. The band has a written, signed and official document stating that they will never ever perform as Motley Crue again. The band wants to go out on their own terms and not do three or four farewell tours like some other bands have done.
On to the show… The Crue opened with one of their higher charting songs, Girls, Girls, Girls as the flames roared from the stage and the bombs blasted to announce the band was here to Rawk! Wild Side and Primal Scream followed as the band was in fine form musically, but lead singer Vince Neil was a little off, or maybe a lot off on actually hitting any of the higher notes.
Did I mention there was fire and explosions? Well, I will say it again, because KISS has nothing on this band. The pyrotechnics alone were worth the price of admission. Although I have to add, is it necessary? The reason I say this is most die-hard Motley Crue fans would gladly take the band on a bare stage and let them rip out 25 songs from their vast catalog rather than have the fire and smoke take center stage.
Motley kept ripping through a number of their hit songs including Same Ol’ Situation, Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) and Smokin’ in the Boys Room (albeit a cover song). They also added another cover, with the Sex Pistols Anarchy in The U.K. Again, I asked myself why play a cover in an 18-song set when you have hundreds of your own songs to choose from???
Bassist Nikki Sixx brought out the big guns, or should I say flamethrower on Shout at the Devil. Sixx had the flamethrower attached to his bass guitar and walked around the stage shooting flames all over the place. He even lit his hanging pentagram microphone on fire which burned throughout the entire song.
The band left the stage and with the lights down for a few minutes, drummer Tommy Lee and his rotating, tumbling drum set took a ride along a set of what looked like roller coaster tracks across the top of the arena and to the back of the soundboard. Lee was strapped in and played the entire time while his drum kit turned upside down and back and forth through the arena. This was a solid ten-minute drum solo and why do I bring up the time? Because I ask myself was it necessary? Lee has been doing variations of this trick for a number of years now and frankly it took a lot of time away from the music.
On that note, as soon as Lee was done, guitarist Mick Mars took his ten minutes of stage time and delivered a fairly uninspired noise-fest of a solo that we probably could have done without. So twenty minutes of solos later… wake up Mike the concert still going on.
Motley Crue finished off their set with Saints of Los Angeles, Live Wire, Dr. Feelgood, Kickstart My Heart and encored with their ultra-hit Home Sweet Home.
This review may come across that I didn’t enjoy the show, but I did enjoy it. I just question some of the decisions a band with 35 years under its belt chose on a farewell tour. This could have been a 30-song career-spanning set, but Motley Crue chose to do it their own way on their own terms.
I first saw Motley Crue at the Springfield Civic Center in 1984. Fast-forward 31 years later and I hate to say it but thanks for the memories boys, it’s been a hell of a ride!
So long, farewell, auch wiedersehen, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!
Feel free to send Mike an email with any comments or questions at [email protected].
