Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2022 19:36:19 GMT
A reunited Mötley Crüe closed out a mini-marathon of rock and roll at Comerica Park on Sunday, finishing off seven hours of fist-pumping stadium anthems before a crowd of some 37,000 fans on a stage that earlier in the day hosted fellow hard rockers Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
Here are some of the highs and lows from Sunday's show.
High: Bang for the audience's buck
The Stadium Tour, as it is uncreatively titled, packs quite a wallop, with four high-powered '80s rock outfits driving the nostalgic, devil horns-worthy extravaganza. Sunday's show was headlined by the Crüe, back from the dead after signing a document that supposedly barred them from ever touring again after 2015 (ha!), but the tour is flip-flopping between Def Leppard and the Crüe as closers. (Def Leppard is the one you want headlining your show, more on that soon.) The tour was announced back in 2019 and was due to hit Comerica Park in August 2020, and arrived Sunday after a pair of COVID delays.
Low: The Crüe
The extra time to get back into touring shape didn't benefit lead singer Vince Neil, who screeched over his band's oppressively loud and garbled sound mix for the entirety of its agonizing 83-minute set. Pity Neil: the 61-year-old was barely engaged, could hardly work up a trot where he once would dash across the stage, and kind of sounded out the vowels in his lyrics but you'd need subtitles to figure out what words he was actually singing ("Shout at the Devil" became something like "shou-adda-deva"). Ignore Neil's vocals and his dead-on-arrival stage banter ("it's been a long time, you're back and we're back. Yeah!") and the show was a fairly typical modern Crüe show, with much of the emphasis on the stage's huge video screens paid to the group's three gyrating backing dancers. The group's 15-song set focused on its '80s hits, from "Live Wire" to "Home Sweet Home" to set closer "Kickstart My Heart," and drummer Tommy Lee made a short speech to the crowd that was made up of mostly profanities. They came back for this? It's never good when a reunion tour makes you long for the good ol' days when a band was retired from the road.
High: Def Leppard
On the flip side to Mötley Crüe was Def Leppard, who was just as loud as the Crüe but played with purpose and intent. Their sound was robust, as if producer Mutt Lange was mixing them live from the soundboard, with drummer Rick Allen's bass drum rattling the seats from centerfield all the way to the upper deck. Front man Joe Elliott, who joined Billy Joel on stage at Comerica Park the night prior, returned with a rendition of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" that was about 250% more adrenalized than the previous evening, as the band performed a tight 90-minute set full of woah-oh-oh and yeah-ah-ah singalong moments. That it came while the sun was still blazing was the only detractor — "it's not often we can do a gig and get a tan at the same time," Elliott joked from the stage — but Def Leppard, who last played Comerica Park in 2018 alongside Journey, played like it was out to prove they were the evening's true headliner. Mission accomplished. "Until next time," Elliott told the crowd at the close of the set, "and there will be a next time!" It was an enticing promise to return, where since its retirement, the inevitable return of the Crüe has always felt more like a pending threat.
Here are some of the highs and lows from Sunday's show.
High: Bang for the audience's buck
The Stadium Tour, as it is uncreatively titled, packs quite a wallop, with four high-powered '80s rock outfits driving the nostalgic, devil horns-worthy extravaganza. Sunday's show was headlined by the Crüe, back from the dead after signing a document that supposedly barred them from ever touring again after 2015 (ha!), but the tour is flip-flopping between Def Leppard and the Crüe as closers. (Def Leppard is the one you want headlining your show, more on that soon.) The tour was announced back in 2019 and was due to hit Comerica Park in August 2020, and arrived Sunday after a pair of COVID delays.
Low: The Crüe
The extra time to get back into touring shape didn't benefit lead singer Vince Neil, who screeched over his band's oppressively loud and garbled sound mix for the entirety of its agonizing 83-minute set. Pity Neil: the 61-year-old was barely engaged, could hardly work up a trot where he once would dash across the stage, and kind of sounded out the vowels in his lyrics but you'd need subtitles to figure out what words he was actually singing ("Shout at the Devil" became something like "shou-adda-deva"). Ignore Neil's vocals and his dead-on-arrival stage banter ("it's been a long time, you're back and we're back. Yeah!") and the show was a fairly typical modern Crüe show, with much of the emphasis on the stage's huge video screens paid to the group's three gyrating backing dancers. The group's 15-song set focused on its '80s hits, from "Live Wire" to "Home Sweet Home" to set closer "Kickstart My Heart," and drummer Tommy Lee made a short speech to the crowd that was made up of mostly profanities. They came back for this? It's never good when a reunion tour makes you long for the good ol' days when a band was retired from the road.
High: Def Leppard
On the flip side to Mötley Crüe was Def Leppard, who was just as loud as the Crüe but played with purpose and intent. Their sound was robust, as if producer Mutt Lange was mixing them live from the soundboard, with drummer Rick Allen's bass drum rattling the seats from centerfield all the way to the upper deck. Front man Joe Elliott, who joined Billy Joel on stage at Comerica Park the night prior, returned with a rendition of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" that was about 250% more adrenalized than the previous evening, as the band performed a tight 90-minute set full of woah-oh-oh and yeah-ah-ah singalong moments. That it came while the sun was still blazing was the only detractor — "it's not often we can do a gig and get a tan at the same time," Elliott joked from the stage — but Def Leppard, who last played Comerica Park in 2018 alongside Journey, played like it was out to prove they were the evening's true headliner. Mission accomplished. "Until next time," Elliott told the crowd at the close of the set, "and there will be a next time!" It was an enticing promise to return, where since its retirement, the inevitable return of the Crüe has always felt more like a pending threat.