Thursday, December 4, 2014

All Bad Things Must Come to an End

I started this post after seeing Mötley back in October of 2014, but never finished it. I've seen them twice more since then, so this post is going to change a bit, but it feels important to write it as their tour draws to a close with the end of the year.

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The title of this post is the tag line for "THE FINAL TOUR," Mötley Crüe's (for now at least) farewell trip around America. I'm pretty sure everybody who is friends with me on Facebook, if they didn't know before, certainly knew on Tuesday that I was going to see them. And not just anywhere, Madison Square Garden. An arena they haven't played in years, and a big part of why I had, until this point, never seen them perform in a state I live in. (St. Louis, Missouri, Birmingham, England, and Hartford, Connecticut.) I bought my ticket the day they went on sale back in early March. This day was over seven months coming.

They're touring with "special guest" Alice Cooper, and I had incredibly high expectations for an unprecedentedly theatrical night. I had heard nothing but good things about Alice Cooper's stage shows, and Mötley has always beeny favorite live performance.

After spending fifteen minutes finding the actual entrance to The Garden (I've only been there one before, six years ago, for the NYU president's welcome), I took a detour to the chase lounge. Apparently because I bank with chase that entitled me to free food and avoiding the general crowd entering the venue. No complaints.

I spent an awkward fifteen minutes in the lounge, not used to swanky surroundings and looking thoroughly out of place as the only person there by myself and the only person under thirty (though that's not too bad, compared to other shows).

So around 7:40 I headed to my seat on the main floor. I paid more for this ticket than I have ever paid for any ticket, almost more than seeing HEDWIG four times (though three of those add up to less than $80 together). Still, The Garden is big, and I was in the back half of the floor, near an aisle. The good thing was a lot of people (foolishly) seemed to not care about Alice Cooper so much, so I could see his set pretty well as several of the rows in front of me stayed nearly empty. 

It should be noted that though we had seats, people appropriately did not sit in them, because this was a rock concert and there is no sitting in rock concerts. Unless you're the drummer. So good job audience, for being involved, unlike the dumbasses at the Crüe/Kiss show two years ago. However, that meant that as the audience filled up, I couldn't see so well over the tall people standing in front of me, but at least I didn't have to sit and be well-behaved either. Being one seat off the aisle, I was able to carefully fade out into the aisle a little bit so I could see, since the person in the aisle seat remained absent for a long time.

The last of the pre-show music was The Sound of Music's "So Long, Farewell," and as the audience realized what was playing, everyone began to lose their shit, because we knew - this was it.

The show rocked, of course. Everybody screamed, everybody was there to have a good time because of the music instead of the drinks (again, unlike the stupid VIPs I was seated near durint The Tour 2012). Eventually, unfortunately, the owner of the aisle seat arrived, incredibly drunk, after trying to get past the ushers towards the front half of the floor. After the showed him his seat, he tried to hand me his beer to hold for him, because I had picked up his ticket when he dropped it. I refused his beer, so he set it on the floor and proceeded to climb onto his chair. I should mention this man was well over six feet tall and not exactly thin. It took several ushers and a couple security guards to get him back down.

At this point, the people in front of me asked if I wanted to join them, as there was an empty seat in their row. I was reluctant, as that empty seat meant it was a little easier for me to see, and if I moved up I'd be standing directly behind a very tall man, but the drunk guy next to me continued to have trouble standing in his spot so I soon changed my mind and was hauled over the chairs into the row in front of me like a drowning person being pulled onto the deck of a ship.

The rest of the concert proceeded without incident. I couldn't see as well, as expected, but I was no longer stressed about being stepped on or knocked over or hit on by an old drunk guy. Ultimately the better choice for enjoying the show. The last song was "Kickstart my Heart," as it has been for some time, and then the band left the stage. The audience went into an uproar. Mötley had not playedt their signature "Home Sweet Home," the ballad we all light up our lighters (or, more accurately at this point, our smartphone flashes) for - how dare they deprive us of that powerful moment?

But then we all started to realize. At the other end of Tommy's drum coaster, which warped along the ceiling to the middle of the floor of the arena, was a smaller stage. And that stage had a piano. The disco piano that Tommy plays at the start of "Home Sweet Home." So the audience begins to scream and shout, and I realize the band is going to come right by me, and I freak out, and then then, in the dark, led by flashlights, they do appear, heavily guarded, and take the smaller stage for one last encore. I have a video of that performance; it was incredible. An arena full of the starlight of thousands of camera phones. The song was accompanied on the big screens by a slideshow of the band's early days, a lot of black and white photos from before they had tattoos, and then vivid mid-80s shots of booze-soaked concerts and big hair. And when the song ended and they finally left the stage, they did walk right down my aisle, which the drunk man had vacated (or, more accurately, I think, been drug out of by security), so I was able to stand right by them in hopes of a high five. Tommy and Nikki were doing their best to make contact with the crowd but their security was unfortunately not really having it.

It was a night I will never forget, just like each of the other times I saw them.

Which happened to be twice more, after that "last time."

I saw them this past August, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (where the Nets play) - I bought a ticket for $50 a few hours before the show, knowing it wouldn't be a good seat but just wanted to be in the arean and hear them live one more time. I had vague plans to go to London and see them there, but I didn't want to pin all my hopes on such an outlandish strategy.

My seat at Barclays was pretty high up and way off to the side, but I was plenty early so I moved over to the other end of my row and figured I'd move over if I had to. I never did have to, and ended up with a high, but decent side-view for the whole night. This time I was prepared for Alice, and sang along with more of his songs, and recorded his incredible "School's Out"/"Another Brick in the Wall" mashup, which I regretted not catching the last time.

The show hadn't changed much in a year, but I didn't need it to. Tommy still played his drum solo on his drum coaster (the "cruecifly") and at the end they went off and then played "Home Sweet Home" on the smaller stage. I screamed myself hoarse and stamped my feet and was sore for two days afterward, as it should be. (I was one of the only people standing in my section, but I have no regrets.)

And then, I got to see them one, actual, last time.

Wembley Arena in London. I was third row from the stage on the side, having bought my tickets to the sold-out show fairly last minute on stubhub. The great thing about seeing them in England though is that the average age of the crowd is so much younger and the enthusiasim is that much greater so that even on the side, everybody was up and having a good time. For the first time (not counting when I was made a free drink in Doc McGhee's tour bus in 2012) I had a drink at the show, because they're actually cheaper in England. 

Between Alice's set and Mötley's, I bonded with the guy sitting next to me - his lockscreen on his phone show a picture of him and a girl, and I said "Your girlfriend didn't come with you?" which started a whole conversation about how we're both the only people in our friend groups who like Mötley. This was his first time seeing them and I was all the more excited for him. I'm lucky to have seen them six times in four years.

"So  Long, Farewell" began, and the audience started going crazy. "They know!" I shouted, and my new friend (whose name I never learned) replied "Yeah they do." "It's time!" was the great chorus from the crowd, and out came the most notorious rock band on earth, playing London one last time. They started with "Girls, Girls, Girls," which has never been their first song when I've seen them. It's always been "Wild Side" or "Saints of Los Angeles" though I wasn't sure they'd play "Saints" at all in England since they always throw in their covers of "Primal Scream" and "Anarchy in the UK" for European audiences, which they did that night as well. The typical playlist remained, with Tommy's drum solo and Mick's guitar solo. Nikki didn't do a bass solo on this iteration of the tour, but that's not a big deal, really. He still came out and talked to the audience, had us "light this place up" with our phones, again creating that magical starlight effect. And again they played "Home Sweet Home" one more time. 

In the pause between the "end" of the show and the encore I was talking to the two guys on the other side of the aisle, as the audience started to figure out what was going to happen again, and the three of us sang along with "Home Sweet Home," arms around each other's shoulders, drinks in hand, as if we'd been going to the pub together for years. It was a nice way to end my time with Mötley, since, with the exception of my very first time with them, I've always gone by myself. So some community was a nice change in the end.

And that's my Mötley story: once in Missouri, once in Connecticut, twice in England, and twice in New York, in the span of four years at the end of their career as a band, finishing thirty-four (almost exactly thirty-five, actually) years after they started as a little club rock group in LA. They end on a sold-out tour around the world, that will finish on December 31st in LA, where Alice Cooper will "execute" them in style. I can't afford to be there for that one, but I can't wait to see the videos. I'm sure it will be a show like no one has ever seen before.