Mötley Crüe bids a final farewell to Minneapolis

Mötley Crüe at Target Center

Mötley Crüe has made the most of their Final Tour. After canceling their scheduled show in Grand Forks, ND, the hard-rockers from Los Angeles paid the Twin Cities a third stop in barely over a year. This time Target Center in downtown Minneapolis was the venue, and there weren’t many seats left to be filled by the time Crüe took the stage.

The mythical Alice Cooper once again opened, and did not disappoint with a straight-jacket wearing, python-accessorizing, guillotine-beheading set that spanned all of the hits of his lengthy career. Mötley Crüe had their own theatrics including Nikki Sixx wielding a flame-throwing bass guitar during “Shout at the Devil”, drummer Tommy Lee taking off on a roller coaster drum solo ride, and fiery pentagrams burning bright.

Putting theatrics aside, what really drives a Mötley Crüe show is the music. And on this night the music was mostly on, making up for singer Vince Neil’s sometimes atrocious and mumbled live vocals. The highlights of Mötley Crüe’s final show in Minneapolis were “Wild Side”, “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”, “Louder Than Hell”, a really great hard-rocking “Saints of Los Angeles”, and the encore “Home Sweet Home” that was played on a small stage in the center of the arena behind the soundboard. Mick Mars’ five-minute guitar solo towards the end of the show also packed a punch and had great feeling behind it.

As Mötley Crüe’s decadent career as a band comes to an end on New Year’s Eve this year, it’s nice to know that they went out their way and treated the fans with one last extended tour. With three shows in just over a year, Twin Cities fans should consider themselves lucky in that regard. Mötley Crüe’s incendiary final show in Minneapolis was a great reminder of how influential this band once was. It was a great reminder of how much this band rocks.

Photos and review in conjunction with Live For the Gig.