Upside down drums hanging from the top of North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena, pyrotechnics, explosions, a fire-breathing bass guitar, scantily clad backup singers and sleazy, glam metal from Los Angeles. Yep. Motley Crue was in town.
A crowd of 9,424 saw Thursday night the Arkansas stop on what is being billed as the notorious band’s final tour.
The group is certainly going out with a bang. Several bangs, actually. Loud, fiery bangs.
Opening the show with the title cut from the 1987 album “Girls, Girls, Girls,” the foursome — singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee — whipped the crowd into a frenzy and didn’t let up for the remainder of their two-hour-long set.
Skipping around the stage, Neil shrieked and wailed his way through classics like “Same Old Situation,” “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away),” “Smokin’ In the Boy’s Room,” and most of the band’s highlights from its 34-year existence. Neil’s voice, never Motley’s strongest asset, was in good form early, though hitting high notes later in the evening on “Shout At the Devil” and “Looks That Kill,” proved a bit of a stretch.
No matter. Neil braved through those rough patches with the help of an enthusiastic crowd and two backup singer/dancers.
From its early days on the Sunset Strip, the Crue has always relied on showmanship, and things haven’t changed a bit. Just over an hour into the show Lee, strapped into his drum kit, was sent over the crowd and almost across the length of the arena on a sort of roller coaster — it’s called the Cruecifly — while playing, sometimes upside down, to pre-recorded pop, classic rock, rap and dubstep songs. Oh, and all the while talking with the crowd. Lee, 53, was like a kid at the state fair and his enthusiasm was infectious.
Mars, looking thin and frail, his face mostly hidden under his dark hair and a top hat, followed that drumming madness with a thunderous guitar solo. Indeed, Mars was often throwing down wicked licks throughout the night on his well-worn Fender Stratocaster.
Not to be outdone, Sixx unleashed a fire breathing bass during “Shout At the Devil” that looked like it could have been in the film Mad Max: Fury Road.
The band closed its set with “Home Sweet Home,” the prototypical power ballad from 1985’s Theater of Pain from a smaller stage near the middle of the arena. With a handful of fans in special seats, the stage rose from the floor toward the ceiling as the group performed. It was fitting end to what may be the final Motley show in Arkansas.
The evening’s special guest was the granddaddy of shock rock, Alice Cooper, who blitzed skillfully through a 50-minute set that featured some of his greatest hits — “Black Widow,” “Poison,” “Under My Wheels, “I’m Eighteen,” “Billion Dollar Babies” among others — and his greatest shtick — being guillotined, turning into Frankenstein’s monster, brandishing swords and a whip, etc.
Cooper, 67, hasn’t lost a step — he can still snarl with the best of them — and put on an excellent show with his crack band, bassist Chuck Garric, guitarists Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss and Tommy Henriksen and drummer Glen Sobel.
Opening the night was New York City-based hard rockers The Cringe, who played a 30-minute set.