Motley Crue and Alice Cooper: 10/22/2014

While I generally get physical tickets for concerts, this one is a printout e-ticket. What’s unique about it is it is a Groupon ticket. My brother contacted me and said that Alice Cooper and Motley Crue were playing in Greensboro and he wanted to go, and asked if I was interested. Since I had never seen the Crue (they were not high on my list) and it was their final tour, added to the fact that I will not pass on a chance to see the Coop, I said yes. Anyway, my brother said he was getting tickets at a significant discount through Groupon. I didn’t even know that was a thing! He snagged tickets for himself, a friend of his, and me.

I drove out to Greensboro, which was about a two-and-a-half hour drive from where I was living at the time. We all connected, grabbed some dinner, and went to the show. The first band to play was called The Raskins. They were pretty good. Young leather-clad rockers who were clearly raised on steady diet of early punk.

After a brief intermission, the lights went down and Alice took the stage, opening with “Hello Hooray,” in my opinion one of the greatest opening songs ever. The song concluded with a shower of sparks cascading from above the stage. It was awesome! The rest of the show was all killer, no filler, blasting from one classic tune to the next. The only disappointment was that it was a fairly short set, with no encore. But I suppose that is how it goes when you’re one of the opening acts.

Then came Motley Crue. So I confess I have never been a fan, swiftly changing the station on the radio when they came on. But I’m open-minded, and was actually looking forward to checking them out. Lots of people I know told me that they put on an impressive show, so what the hell, it’s only rock and roll.

My overall impression… meh. I didn’t hate it, but I certainly did not love it. And in all fairness, they played after Alice Cooper, who is one of my favorite all-time artists. Had it been Motley Crue opening for Alice, I think I would have enjoyed their set much more than I did. It just felt anticlimactic. Even Tommy Lee’s “big drum solo” where the drum set went along the track above the crowd just felt, I don’t know, like a big fat who-cares. But, at the end of the day, I’m glad I got to see them and check them off the list. Definitely not the worst band I’ve seen, but not rushing out to buy any of their records either.

Here are the setlists for both Alice and Motley Crue. Rock on!

Setlists

Alice Cooper

• Hello Hooray
• No More Mr. Nice Guy
• Under My Wheels
• I’m Eighteen
• Billion Dollar Babies
• Poison
• Dirty Diamonds
• Welcome to My Nightmare
• Feed My Frankenstein
• Ballad of Dwight Fry
• Killer (partial)
• I Love the Dead (excerpt)
• School’s Out

Motley Crue

• Saints of Los Angeles
• Wild Side
• Primal Scream
• Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
• Looks That Kill
• On With the Show
• Too Fast for Love
• Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room (With “Rock and Roll (Part 2))
• Without You
• Mutherfucker of the Year
• Anarchy in the U.K.
• T.N.T. (Terror ‘N Tinseltown)
• Dr. Feelgood
• In the Beginning
• Shout at the Devil
• Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
• O Fortuna
• Drum Solo
• Guitar Solo
• Live Wire
• Too Young to Fall in Love
• Girls, Girls, Girls
• Kickstart My Heart

Encore:

• Home Sweet Home