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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 a completely vertical position. The next tour had him spinning in circles. By the time Mötley Crüe embarked on their “farewell tour” in 2015, Lee’s set was attached to a roller coaster track and he was soloing above the crowd while doing flips.
Eager to see the next iteration of a Mötley Crüe show, I bought my tickets for “The Stadium Tour” in December 2019. Anticipation soon turned to disappointment as the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the tour was postponed for a year. And then it was postponed until August 27, 2022. As the date grew closer the anticipation grew. Would the show live up to its expectations or would it result in anticipointment?
The Arrival
