Imagine all your Christmasses, birthdays, Saturday nights out, pay rises and promotions rolled into one.
That wouldn’t even come close to how thrilled hairmetalireland was at going to see these LA legends.
This Carnival of Sins tour had already been a phenomenal success in the US this year, to the surprise of fans and perhaps even the band themselves.

Take four volatile musicians, a midget (dwarf?), LOTS of pyro, a tittycam, scantily clad aerialists and dancers, and you get the most amazing rock and roll spectacle you may ever see.

The gig began with a short claymation cartoon of the band which calmed nerves somewhat, but after an introduction by Mighty Mike (the aforementioned midget/dwarf) the sense of anticipation in the arena built to a climax, exploding as Shout At The Devil began to play and the curtain lifted to unveil the band in all their glory.
From very nearly the front row, the heat was immense, and hairmetalireland did fear for its life during Too Fast For Love and Ten Seconds To Love, as the crowd was going insane- crowd surfing, jumping up and down, and swaying from side to side. The response made it clear that it had been too long since British fans had had a chance to see the Crue in the flesh.

The first half of the show was made up entirely of material from Too Fast For Love, Shout At The Devil and Theatre of Pain. Louder Than Hell, perhaps a lesser known song, was surprisingly good. Looks That Kill was as good as you’d expect, and Red Hot had enough pyro to take your face off. Indeed, something did in fact blow up completely at the end of this song, plunging the stage into darkness. The guys took it well, and the fact that this didn’t happen at the Cardiff gig four days later showed that this actually was entirely an accident!
The absolute highlight of the first half though was undoubtedly On With The Show, an old song that had not been played live for a long time. This particular reviewer was beyond ecstatic that it was played- it’s one of the best Crue songs, if not the best. I was surprised at how much the crowd sang along to the chorus, but I guarantee you that no-one was singing it louder than I was. Perfect. Vince Neil, not known for being rock’s best vocalist, sang his heart out, and Mick Mars playing acoustic guitar in the middle was lovely.

What can you say about Mick? From death’s door to sold-out arenas. A trooper, and a hero.

After a brief intermission, the band blasted back onstage with Girls Girls Girls. In the US gigs, they had come onstage on Harleys for this, but I’m assuming that the size of the UK venues had permitted this from happening. Along with Tommy’s drum solo, in which he swung between three different drum kits from a bungee rope. I like Tommy Lee, but a drum solo fan I am not.

This second half contained all the big hits- Dr Feelgood, Wild Side, Same Ol’ Situation and Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away). When Tommy sat down at the piano to play the first few chords of Home Sweet Home, the crowd picked up on their cue and began to sing the first verse alone, while Vince stood looking out at the crowd appreciatively. A guaranteed ‘the-hairs-on-the-back-of-my-neck-are-standing-up’ moment.

Vince gets a lot of criticism for his singing, but everyone knows what he sounds like now, and he has definitely improved this tour. He may use the same stage raps he has been using for years ("Let me see those hands", "Make some noise" etc.) but for a 44 year old man, he can still run around the stage like a young ‘un, and his charisma makes up for whatever he may lack in vocal ability.

Primal Scream was brilliant too, definitely one of the best moments of the night.

Nikki stomped around the stage shaking his head about like a maniac, spitting water onto the crowd (sadly not over me), spitting into the air and then catching it (dirty beggar), and generally just looked like the cool rock star he is. He took to the stage alone at one point, promising that they would be back (let’s hope so), and then invited the crowd to give him the finger and join him in a shout of "Fuck you Motley Crue!" Excellent.

Following that was Tommy’s TittyCam. We here at hairmetalireland aren’t PC; we don’t care if the Crue ask girls to get their tits out. Perhaps if it had been Vince or Nikki’s TittyCam there could have been some shameful TittyCam confessions on our part. Whatever, most girls who appeared on it had no qualms about lifting their tops up for Tommy Lee. And at least he was always complimentary about them! He may be big and dumb, but it’s difficult not to like Tommy Lee… if just to laugh at him, at least.

The rest of the set was Sick Love Song, which was well received for a new song, and Kickstart My Heart, which featured a bass smashing session by Sixx before it was thrown into the air.

The two closing songs were Helter Skelter and Anarchy In The UK. It seemed a bit strange that the encore was two cover versions, and perhaps songs like Primal Scream and Shout At The Devil would have been better choices, but ultimately, Motley Crue can do whatever the hell they want as far as I am concerned. During Anarchy, a woman on stilts spat blood in Nikki’s face while Mighty Mike went round the stage on a unicycle eating fire.

By the time the band took their final bow I was exhausted but left in no doubt that I had just seen something very special.

So apologies if this review has turned out more like a love letter to the Crue. But that’s just the way it has to be
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(Hairmetalireland are obsessed enough to pay and travel to see Motley Crue twice in the same week. Was Cardiff a disapointment.... hell no, click here to read the review.)

9/10
Suzie