MOTLEY CRUE
Carnival of Sins Live
Eleven Seven Music 2007
www.motley.com

Live Motley Crue pics

Genre
Hard rock / metal / classic

The Good
I’ve actually witnessed The Crue live twice on the Carnival of Sins Tour, and in all honesty, they were not so great. The first show was an opening night, so I figured on their second time through it would be better. I was wrong. Their biggest down fall is Vince Neil. He just doesn’t have it anymore. At least they didn’t touch up his faults on this live album release.

Let’s focus on what is good here first. Despite Mick Mars’ debilitating bone disease, he’s still able to crank out the monster riffs that put Motley Crue on the map. Drummer Tommy Lee is right there backing him up with his pounding drums and unique kit set up. Bassist Nikki Sixx is just in a world of his own, but at least he’s not screwing anything up.

Disc 1 focuses on early Crue material such as “Too Fast for Love,” “On With the Show,” “Looks That Kill,” “Live Wire,” and “Girls, Girls, Girls.” Disc 2 delivers the hits phase of the group with “Don’t Go Away Mad,” “Without You,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Dr Feelgood,” and “Kickstart My Heart.”

The Bad
Right on the opening track “Shout at the Devil” Vince lays the groundwork for his horrible vocals. He can handle it on some parts, but he becomes winded almost instantly. He can barely push complete words out of his mouth. I’d say, maybe he forgot them, but that’s not the case. It seems the fast the song, the less Vince can keep up with it. “Live Wire” and “Wild Side” also fall victim to Vince’s short-comings. Now for some reason, if the song is slower paced, Vince can handle it. That is probably why they kept such a shitty song as “Glitter” in their set list.

While I’m on song selection, the two songs written just for this tour (or the hits album, however you want to look at it), “Sick Love Song” and “If I Die Tomorrow;” they do fit Vince’s vocal ability, but are not the style you think of when you think of Motley Crue. “Ten Seconds to Love” should not follow “Too Fast for Love.” That only shows how uncreative they were with song titles back in the day. You just never noticed because they were on separate albums. Oh yeah, then two songs later, “Too Young to Fall in Love.” And why would they close with a song that a.) only appeared on their first hits album and b.) Is a cover song (“Anarchy in the UK”)?

The Verdict
In short, the band kicks out the riffs and hooks, and Vince f**ks-up the lyrics and vocal melodies. That’s okay; he lets the fans help him out a lot. The worst part of this is that Vince sounded just as bad in 2000 on the Maximum Rock Tour with Megadeth and Anthrax. And they still got back together. Ah, the power of money.

Did You Know?
Mick Mars’ real name is Bob Deal.

Rating: out of 5

--George Dionne