Too Fast For Love

I am starting to believe I only like bands that are older than I am (or would be if they were still kicking).

Tuesday night I went to the Motley Crue/Poison/New York Dolls show in St. Louis and it was undeniably the most epic thing I have ever experienced. NYD rocked while it was still light out. Bret Michaels ran around like he was still 25. As I've mentioned, "Talk Dirty to Me" is one of the most played songs in my iTunes, but the real draw was of course the masters of metal, Motley Crue. And let me just say, the gods were with my friend Brianna and I - we had scored lawn seats for like $16 that magically got upgraded to (only mildly shitty) seats, and then twenty minutes into the NYD set, we moved closer to the stage and closer to center... And stayed there the rest of the night, with no seats in front of us (meaning no tall people to block our view of any epic moment of the next three hours).

Changeover from Poison's set was so epic that they threw up a scrim to hide the action:

And then in the middle of some song playing over the speakers (possibly Guns 'n' Roses, I can't remember), the house lights go out, the stage explodes, the scrim is gone, and Motley Crue is playing "Wild Side," and it's the loudest thing I have ever fucking heard. There's fog. There's fire. There's Vince Niel. In silver pants. Mick Mars is hiding under sunglasses and a top hat and standing in a corner... and there's Nikki Sixx, in a long coat and something with silver sequins.

This wasn't their first song, but the lighting was too epic to handle. That's Nikki down on the left.

The "Glam-A-Gaddeon" Tour is celebrating Motley's 30th anniversary... This band was making music for almost ten years before I was born. (Nikki Sixx was born the same year as my mom...) I honestly didn't become a huge Motley fan until recently, but when I like something, I like it right, and therefore was obsessed by the time I got to the show. And how can you not be when this happens:

It's fire. Fire. Everywhere. (And again I'm pretty sure that's Nikki's silhouette.) Poison had some pyro, but it looked like kid stuff compared to the flames and fireworks that the Crue threw at us.

They had blackouts between most of their songs, but they can even make darkness look epic:

This photo I include purely in honor of the woman standing a few rows behind us who wouldn't stop shouting "Tommy Lee!" and was also drunk enough to not realize that Motley played "Shout at the Devil" pretty early in their set, so she kept shouting "Shout at the Devil!" too.






This picture would have been a lot more epic about ten seconds earlier, but as the night wore on some fucker decided he would occasionally come stand in front of me to take pictures. And he was probably three times my weight, so I just leaned around him.

Nikki being intense:

"Home Sweet Home" was really epic live. And made me like the recording better, and gain a little more respect for ballads:

If Nikki mother-fucking Sixx tells you to sit the fuck down, you do.

The Crue show was directed and choreographed and designed like nobody's business. Media, Tommy Lee's drum kit, flashing signs, a shadow box... So I got inspired to get a little artsy myself and the lighting designer came out in me... I LOVE backlight, it's incredibly theatrical and dramatic, and in this case makes the night look about as amazing as it felt. Fuck yeah.

Things that are EPIC: Everything about Motley Crue:

They played (in no particular order) "Dr. Feelgood." "Shout at the Devil." "Too Fast for Love." "Saints of Los Angeles" "Girls, Girls, Girls,""Wild Side," "Ten Seconds to Love" "Home Sweet Home" "Smokin' in the Boys Room" "Looks that Kill" (one of my faves) and closed with "Kickstart my Heart." They only missed about two songs I wish they had played, and gracefully glossed over their '90s releases that I don't love as much as Dr. Feelgood or Saints of Los Angeles, which, though recorded 20 years apart, are equally kickass.

I rocked so hard I thought my legs were going to fall off on the way to the car and my arms wouldn't be able to get me into it. We got back from the show a little over 24 hours ago (it took over an hour just to get out of the parking lot) and I'm still on a metal high. My hearing is probably going to get back to normal right around next Friday, when I hope to be at the Tour stop in Chicago. Until then...

Rock like there's no tomorrow.