Motley Crue Making Rock History

One of the bands that have been drawing a lot of attention in the music scene again is Motley Crue. The band with its original line up, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil, released this year the CD ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ -- after 10 years of silence – created the Crue Fest in 2008 and it already has a 2009 version coming up, played in Hollywood this month for the last time in 2008 before a well deserved vacation that will resume in February 2009, when they go back on the road with the ‘Saints of Los Angeles Winter Tour 2009’. Besides all the above they also chose nationally the band that will open their tour in 2009, in a contest sponsored by the Guitar Center that picked ‘Last Vegas’ as the winner.



The Palladium show in Hollywood was very energetic and Motley Crue played their biggest hits as well as some songs from their new CD as ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ and ‘Muther F*ucker of the Year’. The stage design and effects was amazing. The lights were bright enough to light up a whole city, fire effects everywhere and a big screen behind the drums showing porn movies and graphics. The audience was divided in two types: the old time fans that were happy to see the band back after so long and the new fans that I like to refer to the ‘MySpace generation’ being, to my surprise, a little more aggressive than the average hard rock crowd, making one wonder if the attraction was Slayer instead of the one time considered ‘glam’ Motley Crue.



The band did not disappoint anyone in terms of energy and charisma. Singer Vince Neil had fans singing along and dancing during the whole show. Nikki Sixx was the highlight of the night as the same charismatic and wild Nikki from the old times on stage.



Drummer/celebrity Tommy Lee and his tattoos also had the opportunity to show up in a duet with guitarist Mick Mars, and when the rest of the band left stage leaving Tommy alone to have a deep felt conversation with his crowd. The conversation consisted in the majority of anything including the word F*ck and all of its imaginable derivatives, but nobody seemed to notice, people wanted more music and Crue.





The songs highlights go to ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, ‘Dr. Feelgood’ and the ballad ‘Home Sweet Home’ showing on the big screen the various phases of their career up to nowadays with the four veterans together again and conquering young fans that were probably not even born when the band started back in the 80’s. This is Motley Crue making rock history again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cBkLruHG6c

Text: Silvia Mendes
Photos: Luciana Mendes

New Faces on SPIN LA!

After the hacker’s attack on the Dynamite Online website, targeting the blogs including SPIN LA, we are back with some news.

Starting this month, SPIN LA will feature new bands that are working hard to get their word – or music – out there. This is an idea that I have been contemplating for a while, most precisely since I used to live in Brazil. During the time I worked in the music industry in São Paulo I always thought that musicians had a tough life and very few opportunities. In my idea the music industry in the US had to be a lot easier and musicians in the US had more opportunities than in Brazil.
Well, years later I live in Los Angeles, have many acquaintances in the industry and guess what? It is just as hard!
Having this in mind we are opening this space to new bands that are looking for opportunities to show their music.

The first band to be feature has a very peculiar name, ‘Tragic Orange’, and it comes from New York.

TRAGIC ORANGE

Tragic Orange is Phil Skiba (vocals), Christina Vitucci (drums), Jimmy Pavlis (bass), Steve Valdez and Victor Fakhoury (guitars).


The band has been together since 2005, has recorded a self-titled album in 2005, and just finished recording an EP, ‘The Golden Moon’, with 3 new songs. The songs are available on their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/tragicorange

Their sound is a mixture of heavy metal, traditional rock and energy that could only come from the youth and the willingness to succeed. According to the band, their music influences are very diverse: Bullet for my Valentine, Chevelle, Portishead, Tool, The Doors, Staind, 10 years, Cold Play, Motley Crue. From ‘The Golden Moon’, ‘Leave’ and ‘Despite Despair’ deserve a peak, showing melodic guitars and excellent drum/bass chemistry.

The band starts its first US tour this month (August), with over 50 dates all over the country. “The 2008 Summer Awareness Tour” 'was inspired by the heroes that are fighting in the war', says the band. And they add: ‘it is basically to support our troops and their families, we are not pro war but we are pro life, the donations, ticket sales, and merchandise proceeds as well as audience donations will go to the children and families of our American heroes defending our country’.


If you would like to be part of this effort, find more information at
www. operationhomefront.net

Next month more new faces here on SPIN LA.

Cheers!

SM

Quick note about SPIN LA Portuguese version

Hi everyone,

If you also check out the Portuguese version of SPIN LA you probably noticed that it is currently not working. Unfortunately, due to some hackers invading the Dynamite Online website, the whole site is temporarily offline. This issue should be fixed soon and I will keep you updated.

Thanks for reading SPIN LA and for your patience.

SM

Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston at Fitzgerald Pub, Huntington Beach, CA – 6/27/2008

The anticipation to see Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston, Pete Rizzo (bass), James Stevenson (guitars) and drummer Rob Adams was overwhelming, especially considering the fact that nowadays there are two versions of the band, one with Michael Aston (who left the original band about 10 years ago), and the other one with Jay Aston and most of the old times line up.

The band’s chemistry could already be seen during the sound check, but with all the controversy between the twins Jay and Mike Aston (see interview with Jay Aston on SPIN LA) about who’s band is the real Gene Loves Jezebel, the only way one can decide which one is the real GLJ watching both bands live to compare and make a decision on who is the real Jezebel.


This Jezebel, Jay Aston, and his mates did a pretty good job! Despite of the fact they were playing in a pub, very different than the music venues the band has been performing during this more of 20 years of career, Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston shows that there is a reason for the longevity, they really have fun doing this!


The set started with ’20 Killer Hurts’ and James Stevenson’s powerful guitar riffs. Gene Loves Jezebel nowadays looks quite different than 20 years ago. Jay Aston’s short dark hair, Pete Rizzo, James Stevenson and Rob Williams black outfits and lack of the excess make up from the past, gives the band a more sophisticated look, not losing the magic from the old times.


The set included most of the greatest hits like ‘Jealous’, ‘Suspicious’, ‘Gorgeous’ – and Jay Aston, as the great entertainer he is, tells the audience the tale about this song. According to Jay, the band wrote this song about him when he was not around… Yes, Jay is still a gorgeous presence on stage, jumping, singing, dancing and communicating with the audience and the band very comfortably.


The next song honors London, ‘Sweet, Sweet Rain’ (one of my favorites), followed by ‘Break the Chain’ to cool down the crowd a bit. Peter Rizzo, Rob Adams and James Stevenson are such powerful presence on stage, and the boys do have fun together, making whoever is in the audience, long time fan or someone who just walked in the bar, stop and listen to them.


The set ends, the band leaves the stage but the audience was not satisfied, they wanted more, much more. Gene Loves Jezebel returns to the stage and plays their biggest hit ‘Desire’. There were no more questions; this is the same Gene Loves Jezebel I remember seeing back in São Paulo, Brazil, 20 years ago. After this shows in Los Angeles, the band flew to Brazil to play in São Paulo and Curitiba. If you had the chance to see Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston in one of these places, great, if not, try it next time, I recommend!

Text: Silvia Mendes
Photos: Luciana Mendes and Kevin Long