Kneel Down You Sinners! (Godfather Records GR768)
Civic Center, Providence, RI – August 8th, 1987
(77:31): Intro, All In The Name Of Rock, Live Wire, Dancing On Glass, Looks That Kill, 10 Seconds To Love, Red Hot, Home Sweet Home, Wild Side, Nick Mars Solo, Wild Side -cont-, Tommy Lee Solo, Shout At The Devil, Smoking In The Boyzroom, Jailhouse Rock, Helter Skelter, Highway To Hell, Walk This Way, Rock And Roll, Girls Girls Girls
Godfathers have never shied away from a diverse musical catalog, so amongst releases by Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna comes a stab at 80’s style metal with this new release from the seminal Glam Metal band Motley Crue. In the early 80’s while delving into such great acts like Ozzy, The Scorpions, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest and young and up and coming band named Motley Crue came to middle Americas attention with the brilliant Shout At The Devil record. My friends and I put it on steady rotation with the other established metal acts and even found the bands first record Too Fast For Love and gave it repeated listening’s. The band went in a different direction for their next couple of records and were certainly the leaders of the LA glam metal scene that would soon erupt and become, with the help of MTV, what is considered Hair Metal. While certainly not my taste it was hard not to notice what was happening with the Crue, as they certainly lived a life style of decadence that would culminate with the release of their fourth record Girls, Girls, Girls. While the music was certainly watered down and lacked direction it did spawn too hits, the title track that would be made famous by the video and its homage to strip clubs and the hard rocking Wild Side.
This new release features the band playing in Providence during the 1987 world tour to support the record and is a very good stereo audience recording that borders on excellent and just slightly distant. The taper managed to pull a nice recording that features virtually no interference near the recorder and sounds great at loud volumes.
The set list is a nice mix of old and new plus a few rock and roll standards thrown in for good measure. The band have a cabaret style intro before hitting the stage with All In The Name Of from the new record and quickly hit their pace with Live Wire and Dancing On Glass, Nikki Sixx’s ode to heroin. Shout at The Devil gets some love with a great 10 Seconds To Love, the song that was on the PMRC’s list of objectionable songs and a blistering Red Hot. The bands first big ballad, Home Sweet Home gets a loud ovation from the audience and Wild Side sounds heavier live and features a Mick Mars solo. Mars it like the quiet one of the band and has managed to keep a low profile compared to the other members but his guitar playing has always been the bands strong point and as his solo shows is a talented player. Tommy Lee gets a solo spot and proceeds to bash the heel out of his kit, levitating of course and features some interesting samples and his 360 degree rotation, certainly setting the bar rock and roll theatrics.
Again the strongest material comes from the Shout At The Devil record, including the title track, heavy and aggressive the heavy riff and big chorus get the audience on their feet. Some of the bands most recognizable songs have been covers, Smokin In The Boys Room and Helter Skelter get a Crue makeover and tonight the band take a stab at AC/DC with Highway To Hell, followed by Aerosmith and Walk This Way before a fast paced ride with Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll. The band returns to the stage for an encore, its starts with the sounds of motorcycles revving up and has the audience on their feet for what else ? Girls, Girls, Girls finishes the audience and show off in fine fashion.
The packaging is tri gatefold adorned with pictures from the era as well as tour graphics, as with all Godfathers releases is very attractive and well thought out release, fans of the Crue and 80’s metal would no doubt love this set !
