Story and Photos by Anita Lande
Vince Neil still can rock the house. Gone are the days of tight leather pants, lipstick, eyeliner, and blush. Instead he now wears jeans and Hawaiian-type shirts as his stage clothes. As the crowd waited patiently at Spikes after hearing three opening bands, they were ready to rock with Vince Neil as soon as the opening chant.."In the Beginning" came on. Vince led off the show with "Shout at the Devil."
The Vince Neil-crazed crowd lost it after the second song. Vince was led off stage with his band as the Crystal Lake police came on stage to try to calm down the aggressive fans. After a 10 minute break, Vince and his band walked back on stage, but as soon as Vince faced the audience..boom..another crazed person from the audience threw their beer at him. As expected, Vince stormed off the stage. The show at Spikes "almost" was canceled, but Vince came back, and told the crowd he would give them one more chance. The crowd decided to listen. He soared threw his "Motley Crue" hits including "Kick Start My Heart," "Red Hot," "Smoking in the Boys Room" "Knock'em Dead Kid," "Don't Go Away Mad" and "Piece of Your Action." During crowd pleaser "Girls Girls Girls" he invited all females to come on stage and dance and sing with his band, and about twenty girls had their dream come true. He ended the show with "Live Wire," which was a hit off his first album with Motley Crue. Vince opted not to sing any songs from his solo material.
Vince consistently made contact with the audience, and in many cases gave fans the microphone to sing. In fact, the majority of the audience new every word to every song. His new band consisted of members from Skid Row and Slaughter. But for the real Crue fans, there was still that emptiness of not seeing Vince with his former band mates, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, and Tommy Lee. The Motley-ist Crue of them all.
