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Archive for the ‘Montage Mountain’ Category

Kiss (Montage Mountain, September 18, 2012, Scranton, PA)

Posted in Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Montage Mountain, Scranton Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA, The Who on September 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 18, 2012] Kiss

Kiss has never really been cool.  Even in fourth grade when they were cool, it wasn’t cool to like them.  They have been really uncool on and off from time to time and that seems to make their fans even more die-hard.  I’m not die-hard–I’ll not be spending $4,000 on a Kiss book–but I will buy their records and see them once in a while.

The last time I saw them was 12 years ago (July 2000) for their Farewell Tour (the irony is not lost, no).  That was a fun show, seeing the original line up in make up.  And they played most of their hits (even ones I didn’t like so much).  The set list from 2000 is at the bottom, for comparison to the new set list.

This tour was odd for this reason–they have a new album coming out.  And yet its arrival date is just after the last day of the tour.  Who ever heard of ending a tour before the album comes out?  Also, they just reissued Destroyer in a new recording, but it wasn’t even mentioned.  And they didn’t do any extra songs from it.  Weird.  The Kiss machine will not deviate from its plan.

So, there’s no Peter or Ace anymore.  Eric Singer looks enough like Peter in the makeup and he sounded great in Black Diamond (thankfully t here was no “Beth.”  But you can really see a difference between Ace and Tommy Thayer.  Regardless, Tommy sounds an awful lot like Ace when he sings and, since he’s a pro, he can handle all guitar duties.   There is something a little odd in him doing all of the same things that Ace used to do–shouldn’t they update the tricks a little bit?–but it’s always fun to see the guitar shoot off roman candles. (more…)

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Mötley Crüe (Montage Mountain, September 18, 2012, Scranton, PA) [KISS]

Posted in Aerosmith, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Monster Magnet, Montage Mountain, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Scranton, PA on September 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 18, 2012] Mötley Crüe

Back in 1998, I saw Aerosmith and Monster Magnet play a set at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA.  It was my first time seeing Aerosmith and I was a little bummed that Stephen Tyler had broken his leg.  He was amazingly limber and nimble for a guy in a leg cast, but I’m sure he could have done a lot more if he was unhampered by injury.

Fourteen years later, I’m back on Montage Mountain to see Kiss and Mötley Crüe.  And just a few days before this show Vince Neil broke his foot.  While he’s not quite the acrobatic showman as Stephen Tyler, he was definitely hampered amidst the excitement of their stage show.  It didn’t affect his voice though.

I liked Mötley Crüe’s first two albums quite a lot.  I liked Theater of Pain a lot less–even if “Home Sweet Home” was the biggest song in the world at the time.  What is it about a piano ballad that drives hard rocker people crazy?

Since then the Crüe have released some 5 albums and have had a half-dozen or so hits (some pretty massive).  Of course, I never liked the glammier or even the more “rock n roll” sound of their later albums.  I had pretty much given up on them altogether.  So I didn’t really care much that they were opening for Kiss at this show.

But I will say this–Mötley Crüe put on one hell of a spectacle.  And that’s what some concerts are all about.  There were scantily clad women swinging on ropes and walking on stilts and bringing guitars to the band and dancing abstractly (that’s got to be a very hard job–pretending to dancing rhythmically and sexily to Motley Crue for an entire song).  [If you object to the exploitation of women, this is not the show for you–I sure hope they are well compensated].  There were guys with firehoses shooting the audience (which I assume was a wet T-shirt extravaganza), there were bottles of champagne poured onto the crowd, there was fire and more fire and more and more fire.  And there was Tommy Lee’s drumset–more on that. (more…)

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