It was rock and roll old school. Tons of photographers lugging around their gear. Scantily-clad women in fishnet stockings and big boots. And once inside, the army of picture takers lined up on a platform that held each photographer’s company name on a sheet on the floor. Hundreds of fans milled about the Avalon Club in Hollywood. And only for Motley Crue could you find so much leather and metal studs.
The band held a press conference on April 15 (this is also income tax day for all Americans) to announce the inaugural Crue Fest, a 41-date tour that will take them across North America and Canada. Referring to it as The Loudest Show On Earth, the Motley Crue extravaganza for 2008 will also include platinum artists and Grammy nominees Buckcherry and Papa Roach, along with breakout artists Sixx: A.M. who recently had the Number One song in the US (“Life Is Beautiful”); and alternative rockers and platinum sellers, Trapt.
The band was smart in picking contemporary bands that might attract younger fans.
The traveling circus begins on July 1st in West Palm Beach, Florida and ends in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 31st.
They screened a short promo film for the tour that featured the various bands in live performance.
There were a couple of opening announcements by Norman Perry and Jim Richards from Live Nation and Clear Channel (producing the tour) respectively. Here is a portion of what Mr. Perry had to say:
Norman Perry: Thank you. We’re here today to discuss the next evolution in the great American touring rock festival. Live Nation is proud to announce that it will be the exclusive promoter for this year’s inaugural Crue Fest which includes an incredible array of rock and alternative bands.
Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, and Tommy Lee came out and sat in four chairs positioned on the stage.
Here is what they said:
Vince Neil: Well, the album, Saints of Los Angeles … it represents us, it’s Motley Crue, it’s growing up in Los Angeles and the sights sounds and smells of Los Angeles. And it’s the first record in about ten years that we’ve put out together as a real studio album. It’s really worth the wait; the songs are amazing, the stories are amazing. The songs are kind of based on stories in The Dirt (biography) and so you can actually read the lyrics and go, “Oh, I know when they screwed that one up, man.” So, it’s a great album, it’s all rock and roll, and I can’t wait to get out and play the whole thing for you.
Nikki Sixx: We are so excited not only to headline our own annual summer festival, but also to be able to share the stage with the next generation of great rock bands. There’s not a lot Motley Crue hasn’t done so to say this summer’s festival is going to be about rock ‘n roll excess is an understatement. A night of hit songs by great bands and a trail of panties coast to coast. Crue Fest, hell yeah!
They play video for “Saints of Los Angeles.” This was actually a pretty intriguing moment because up on screen Motley Crue loomed larger than life. And yet, there the four of them sat, mere mortals now, watching themselves bashing out guitar chords and spitting and creating havoc. They rocked their heads in time to the song and genuinely seemed to dig the video and the performance. It was sort of like looking at yourself in the mirror while that reflection was looking at yourself in the mirror while that … well, anyway, it was pretty cool.
The song and video were serviced on the day of the press conference – April 15 – to radio and television. The digital download was simultaneously made available for purchase at the iTunes Music Store. In an historic first, the song was also released as a download for the Rock Band video game.
Question from the audience: Do you plan to tour in Europe?
Nikki Sixx: We’ve been talking about it but first things first. I know that we are playing 60 shows here in America (41 to be exact) to start out and that’ll take us into August, September, something like that. And then we’ll decide what we do from there; whether it’s Europe or South America or wherever. But I think this is, we’re gonna find out what it feels like to have these bands all together and we’ll see what happens. We’re excited, that’s all I know.
Another question from the audience: How does it feel to be heading out on the road with the next generation of rock royalty?
Vince Neil: I feel really old! (much laughter from audience)
The final and very stupid question from the audience: Can you talk about the new album a bit?
Vince Neil: We kind of hit on that a little earlier. The songs are based on stories in The Dirt; it’s about our lives, about Motley Crue; about the rises and the falls and the peaks and the valleys of Motley Crue. The good times and the bad times and mostly good times.
The moderator said: “Did anybody else notice there’s some gear behind us set up?”
Indeed, Crue’s gear was set up on the Avalon Club stage. Tommy Lee’s drumkit sported a mammoth bass drum.
Before they left the stage to go back and change for the set, Nikki said:
“One thing that we all talked about was, “What is it that we really do more than anything?” We play live so we thought we wanted to play a couple songs for ya if that’s alright?”
A huge cheer went up and a few minutes later the band returned. Mick came out wearing a top hat and moving slowly. He has been bothered by back problems recently and he looked pretty tired. His black and white Stratocaster dangled as he held it by the whammy bar and created some feedback to begin the first of two songs. A taned Vince (he lives in Las Vegas) wore a t-shirt and a black long-sleeve shirt and dark jeans. Nikki was draped in scarved and a ton of medallions hanging from his neck. And Tommy, all but hidden behind a monstrously over-sized bass drum wore a white shirt and what looked like a tie or scarf around his neck.
They ran through “Kickststart My Heart” and the new single, “Saints Of Los Angeles.” The new tune recalls the Dr. Feelgood era – big guitars, thunderous drums, and Vince’s sort of nasally screams. It begins with a bass riff and hi-hats and builds to typical Crue fury.
A partial vocal: “We don’t care what you think/We’ll do it anyway.” The Crue as Crue, singing about us against them and beating the odds.
Before launching into the new track, singer Neil had this to say:
"We've never done this one live but we'll give it a shot.” They were joined onstage by fellow Crue Fest band members, (who also appear in the video). This included Josh Todd (Buckcherry), Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach), James Michael (Sixx AM), and Chris Brown (Trapt).
The band played well. They also played very loudly and you could see all the journalists stuffing ears with wads of napkins and various types of earplugs.
"Hopefully it'll be like Ozzfest and carry on for years," said Tommy Lee, comparing it to Ozzfest, Ozzy’s unbelievably successful heavy metal festival, which kicked off 12 years ago.
And then Tommy signed off: “Thanks everybody for coming. Good night.”
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The band also announced that they will be the first band ever to release a single through the video game Rock Band.
”Saints of Los Angeles,” the title track and first single off the band's forthcoming album, will reportedly be available for download this week for 99 cents via Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live Marketplace and Sony Corp's PlayStation store.
The entire press conference was televised live on Fuse and was also broadcast live online and on numerous syndicated websites including TheRockvine.com. The live stream was delivered with Microsoft’s Silverlight via iStreamPlanet, Co’s iStream Player.
Official partners for the Crue Fest include JVC Mobile Audio, MTV’s Rock Band, Best Buy, Fuse TV, Lotus, and TheRockvine.com. On-site activities at the concert will include a 2nd stage presented by Rock Band where attendees can play “rock star” while playing the game.
A special Crue Fest CD titled: The Loudest Show On Earth: Crue Fest – Compilation – will be made available exclusively at Best Buy, the huge chain store in the US. This features tracks from all of the bands appearing on the tour and some additional songs.
These tracks are:
01. Saints of Los Angeles – Motley Crue
02. These Are the Days – The Exies
03. SOS – Papa Roach
04. Who’s Coming Home With You Tonight – Trapt
05. Set Me Free – Marion Raven
06. Heart Failure – Sixx:A.M.
07. Reason I’m Alive – Drowning Pool
08. Brooklyn (electric) – Buckcherry
09. Let’s Rock-N-Roll (Endless Road) – Chosen Son
Bonus Track
10. Wild Side (Live) – Motley Crue
Scheduled Crue Fest tour dates include stops in North Carolina, New York, Ontario, Illinois, Missouri, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and course, California. The kickoff show is at the Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the event’s closer on August 31st will be held at the Post-Gazette Pavillion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Obviously, Motley Crue and these major sponsors are hoping to siphon off some of the millions of dollars that have been swept into the coffers of the Ozzfest, Coachella, Download, and miscellaneous other festivals. The album, Saints Of Los Angeles, will be released on June 17th, and indeed represents the first new studio album recorded by all four members in over ten years.
It remains to be seen whether Motley still has the influence and cache it once wielded back in the 80s.
Article by Steven Rosen
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2008
Photos by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage
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