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Concert Review
Mötley Crüe Fumbles At SoFi
Strong performances by Joan Jett, Poison, and Def Leppard put them in scoring position, but the headliners could not build on the momentum.
- Bon Jovi
The first time I saw Mötley Crüe was on August 14, 1985, at Madison Square Garden. To this recent high school graduate slugging away in his own basement band, the Crüe raised the bar on what a rock concert should aspire to be. Just a couple of years earlier I had experienced my first concert when I saw Queen, the band that had defined the rock concert as a show, in the same venue. Mötley Crüe took this further with pyrotechnics and their raw energy.
A highlight of that night was Tommy Lee’s drum solo. Even as a drummer watching this part of the evening is not always the most exciting part of the night. The obvious exception to this was a chance to watch Rush’s Neil Peart hold a crowd in the palm of his hand. While Lee’s technical prowess was not even in the same universe as Peart’s, he made up for it with showmanship. The Theater of Pain tour in ’85 had him reach his finale with his drum set in…
