Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
Mötley Crüe
Hometown: Los Angeles, Ca.
http://www.motley.com/
Mötley Crüe Concert Photos
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater(Selma, Texas)
Also:
Trapt,
Sixx:A.M.,
Papa Roach,
Buck Cherry
Angry clouds boiled and brewed, the outer bands of Hurricane Dolly breaking against the drought stricken hill country, raised a pissing intermittent rain, driven by bursts of wind and pelting concert goers as they filed into the covered protection of the Verizon's "shed" in Selma. The wind driven attack by the weather paled in comparison to aural and visual assault they were about to experience.
Crüefest, the raunchy rowdy tattoo emblazoned tour headlined by the notorious Mötley Crüe was about to leave a mark on their eardrums and leave them seeing tracers long after they closed their eyes to sleep.
It was an early show and as Gary and I pulled up the parking lot in Selma was filling rapidly. Traffic on the intestate slowing us down, we arrived just in time to collect our badges and head down to the stage. Rounding the corner from the ticket office I got a most pleasant surprise. Just inside the gate was the ever so delectable Avery "Babicator" from the Austin band the Applicators. Running up to me and giving me a big hug we got to talk as we walked down to the stage, making the other photographers jealous. I was jealous of me too!. Getting to hang out with a hot babe AND getting to shoot the Crüe. Alas my dreams of a perfect concert experience were to come to naught as Avery had a pit ticket and I was relegated to shooting from the area by the sound boards, thus she went one way and I the other when we got to the entrance.
Nikki Sixx of Sixx:A.M.- more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
The first band on the bill was Trapt. While their set was ok, they just didn't have that nasty sleazy Crüefest alure that I expected. They seemed out of their element, and the crowd seemed to feel that way too. Their songs had more of a mainstream hardness rather than that stripper pole wax L.A. feel to it, and I didn't see a single tattoo in the whole band. Good band, wrong audience. I would recommend the Crüe import The Zico Chain over from the U.K next time. They have that nasty sound and feel and the requisite number of tattoos as well. Trapt should look at touring with more mainstream hard rock bands like Staind and Breaking Benjamin if they want to reach their audience.
Nicki Sixx's Sixx:A.M. was the second band up and they were good but not especially memorable for me other than for the fact that Nicki Sixx was actually out in broad daylight. I will probably pick up their "The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack" CD just so I can become more familiar with their music.
Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
Papa Roach blew doors with their performance, so much so that days later one of the security guards told me he thought they had walked away with the show. I don't know that I would go that far, but they probably did have the best set of the night. So much energy, frontman Jacoby Shaddix, couldn't walk, run, or leap it all out in their 45 minute set. He probably needs a half day just to calm down again. Shaddix must either be naturally wired or he mainlines Monster energy drink between songs. I had a hard time keeping my lens on him and if it hadn't been light out all my pictures of him would have come out as a blur. Papa Roach is another band with more of a mainstream sound, but the vast quantity of tattoos and the frenetic pace of their set I don't think the audience found them much off the mark.
I expected more out of Buck Cherry and it's Jagger-esque frontman Josh Todd, but maybe I had just built my expectations a little too high pre-show. Now these guys have the tattoos and the sleazy L.A. sound in spades but no matter how much Todd postured and posed they just didn't have that "thwack" that Papa Roach had. Maybe they were having an off night or maybe I was just sated by Papa Roach's set but their set seemed flat in terms of energy. They sounded great though. Maybe they are one of those bands that needs that small smoky club atmosphere, and that feedback that comes from the crowd nipping at your heels. I won't pass up a chance to see them again though.
Josh Todd of Buck Cherry - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
Mötley Crüe. I had waited an awfully long time to see the Crüe. I started listening to them before they broke in the 80's but by the time they started touring I was trapped in the middle of nowhere. Still over the years I kind of followed the bands releases and their untold skirmishes with the press corps more as an interested observer than a die hard fan. I had been biding my time since we launched the music site and had put them on my list of bands to make a point to see, so I was glad when I got the invite from Live Nation to cover the show.
And that's what it is too, a show.
Definitely not for children, they put on one hell of a show, more like a carnal carnival for adults. Sure Vince leaves out words, and the vocals aren't record perfect but damn it all I have seen the elephant. Smoke, strobes, 40 foot flames, and salacious raunchy antics like the "tittie cam", their show would make Caligula proud and rightfully needs to be seen in a Roman style amphitheater. Sadly for us photographers we were limited to shooting from the soundboard area and with all the smoke and lights and limited to only 3 songs, my photos are less than I had hoped. Still all in all it was a great show and I can't wait to do it again. Clint Gilders, a dedicated Crüe fan, will hopefully be catching the show when it swings through Toronto and if he goes he will do a much more detailed review than I can ever hope too.
Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer
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