Mötley Crüe
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Tour Dates 07/01/08 West Palm Beach, FL – Cruzan Amphitheatre
07/03/08 Tampa, FL – Ford Amphitheatre 07/05/08 Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte 07/06/08 Virginia Beach, VA – Verizon WirelessVirginia Beach Amphitheater 07/08/08 Wantagh, NY – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater 07/09/08 Buffalo, NY – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center 07/10/08 Sarnia, ONT – Bayfest 07/12/08 Philadelphia, PA – Susquehanna Bank Center 07/13/08 Washington, DC – Nissan Pavilion 07/15/08 Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre 07/16/08 Chicago, IL – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre 07/18/08 Indianapolis, IN – Verizon Wireless Music Center 07/19/08 Milwaukee, WI – Marcus Amphitheater 07/20/08 St. Louis, MO – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater St. Louis 07/22/08 Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 07/23/08 San Antonio, TX – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 07/24/08 Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center 07/26/08 Albuquerque, NM – Journal Pavilion 07/27/08 Denver, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre 07/29/08 Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre 07/31/08 Phoenix, AZ – Cricket Wireless Pavilion 08/01/08 Las Vegas, NV – Mandalay Bay Events Center 08/02/08 Los Angeles, CA – Glen Helen Pavilion 08/05/08 Sacramento, CA – Sleep Train Pavilion 08/06/08 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre 08/08/08 Seattle, WA – White River Amphitheatre 08/09/08 Portland, OR – Rose Garden 08/11/08 Vancouver, BC – General Motors Place 08/13/08 Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place 08/14/08 Calgary, AB – Pengrowth Saddledome 08/15/08 Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre 08/17/08 Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre 08/19/08 Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Amphitheatre 08/20/08 Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center 08/22/08 Boston, MA – Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts 08/23/08 Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center 08/24/08 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena 08/28/08 Toronto, ONT – Molson Amphitheatre 08/29/08 Albany, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center 08/30/08 Scranton, PA – Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain 08/31/08 Pittsburgh, PA – Post-Gazette Pavilion Discography
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Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, and Vince Neil, all the original members of glam “hair” metal band Mötley Crüe are back with an all original studio album, Saints of Los Angeles. The album is out today, Tuesday, June 24th, but I’ve been listening to it all day, yesterday.
Originally formed in Los Angeles, California, they rose to fame for their drug/alcohol rock n roll lifestyle in the eighties. Stories such as Lee throwing a television from a high rise hotel, “banned for life” in certain cities, group orgies, all the drug/sex scandals you can think of… they all seem like commonplace to the Crüe. One of the craziest story involved a drunk Vince Neil in a car accident that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley. All of these stories and more surfaced on their best-selling autobiography The Dirt (2001).
Their hard-hitting lifestyle as a band almost ended in 1987 when main music writer, Sixx, almost died of a heroin overdose (in fact, he was legally declared dead on the hospital arrive). Sixx would later write about his experience in one of the band’s biggest mainstream hit song, “Kickstart My Heart”.
Dr Feelgood came out at the height of their popularity, shooting up to #1 in the charts from October to December of 1989.
Neil left the band in the 90s (Sixx said that he quit, but Neil said he was fired). John Corabi replaced Neil as the new singer, and initially their all-new-self-titled album Mötley Crüe did pretty well, but “failed to meet commercial expectations”, Sixx fired everyone that worked on this 1994 album.
Three years later, the original four members reunited and produced Generation Swine, which was the last album to have been released on the Elektra label. I think many things lead to the band leaving the label, mostly because there was dispute on ownership of their songs. With control over their music, including the original masters, they were now able to re-release their previous albums on Elektra all digitally remastered and extra unreleased tracks.
In 1999, Tommy Lee decided to go solo, but he was probably best remembered for his sex tapes with his then-wife Pamela Anderson. After several drummers (Randy Castillo – died in 2002, Samantha Maloney – left the band to support Hole in 2004), the band quietly faded with other band members pursuing solo careers.
Mötley Crüe reunited once again in 2005, and by 2006, they were co-headling with Aerosmith on their Route of All Evil Tour. I will bet that seeing the resurgence of interest by their aging fans, the band decided to go back into the studio to record brand new songs.
Originally called The Dirt, the album’s name was changed to Saints Of Los Angeles. With a first listen pass, I immediately loved “Face Down in the Dirt”. This is a no-excuse, in-your-face rock song, guarantee to make you headbang: “I rather be dead, I rather be face down in the dirt with a bullet in my head“.
Many of the songs they seem to reflect on their crazy life style, like on “Chicks=Trouble”, warning us about gold-digging women. Yeah it’s hard to feel sorry for these guys, but you don’t care because the music is so rocking.
We never made a dime, but god we had a good time
That quote above is a lyric from their song “Down at the Whisky”, which seems like it a biography in a song. I especially liked the part about the days where they slept all day in their clothes and playing all night long at the Whisky A-Go-Go venue in LA.
Saints of Los Angeles is out today, at all major CD stores. Fans might want to get the Limited Edition version that comes with a bonus DVD. Be sure to stay up late with David Letterman to see Motley Crue (they might be doing their rockin’ song “Saints of Los Angeles”), as well as their Ozzfest-inspired tour, Crue Fest, with Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M. and Trapt! This is the first Crue Fest, and if successful (which I’m almost certain it will be since people love these traveling festivals), then I’m sure there’ll be more Crue Fest to follow. If not, Crue fans would be happy to know that there will be a movie version of their biography, The Dirt.
