So last Friday I went to Atlantic City to see Motley Crue and Def Leppard at the Hard Rock Casino.
I loved how once you got to the casino you saw all the glam metal looks on some of the older people. It was fantastic people watching including a group a dudes totally decked out like an 80s band and standing around for people to take photos with them. Maybe they were a legit band?? Just a pretty cool atmosphere in the casino.
Everything stated the show started at 8, I get into the venue at 7:30 and find out that the show isn't starting to 8:30. Good thing you have in and out privileges. I went back out to grab a cheaper drink and smoke before going back to my seat right on time for Def Leppard to come on at 8:30pm.
Def Leppard are just fantastic live. They don't really shake up the set, it's the classics, but they perform them at such a high level. Having said that, I noticed a couple small mistakes, but it's the first show of the tour! Joe's vocals were pretty strong and that's most important. Having seen the Stadium Tour last summer, there were no big surprises. There were two song changes from when I saw them (acoustic Two Step Behind was swapped for acoustic When Love and Hate Collide) and they replaced a new song Fire It Up with a classic, Lets Get Rocked. They did the full 90 minute set and ended at 10pm.
Now this kind of sucked, and I'm not sure if something was wrong or this was planned, but it was a full 60 minute wait for Motley Crue. The person who told me DL were going on at 830 had also mentioned MC was going on at 1030 which makes sense. But this was a LONG wait. Even with being able to leave the venue, it just sucked the life out of me personally. I went from being super hyped after that Def Leppard set to bored and tired.
Motley Crue came on just after 11pm and we got to see John 5 perform on guitar with them for the first time. I must say, John 5 looked VERY happy on stage. Big smiles and during the opening song, Wild Side, you could see Nikki Syxx playing around with John 5 and the two of them having fun. I'm no MC expert, I only saw them once last summer, but there's a different energy that John 5 brings (the guy constantly walks around the stage) that I didn't see from Mick Mars. Nothing against Mick, the guys a legend, but I think John 5's excitement was easily seen in his performance. There were many examples of this throughout the night.
I actually thought Vince Neil was OK. Likely because it being the first show in some time, his voice wasn't strained. BUT he did have his moments of cringe. I got a couple laughs in from such moments. It is what it is with them. Tommy played drums for the entire gig (which he did not do last summer, although I think he did at the end of the tour). Setlist was almost exactly the same, except the cover medley had an extra song thrown in and John 5 got to do his own solo spot. Sadly, I was underwhelmed by his solo spot. If you were to see a John 5 solo show, you'd see something incredible on guitar, but I don't think his solo spot showed that off. Felt a bit reserved.
Show ended almost at 12:30am. Probably the latest concert I've attended in quite some time. Before heading out, I turned $20 into $60 on one last slot play to make my night.
My full video:
Motley Crue & Def Leppard LIVE @ Hard Rock Etess Atlantic City NJ 2023My videos were also shared here
:
https://loudwire.com/setlist-photos-video-motley-crue-def-leppard-2023-show/https://blabbermouth.net/news/watch-motley-crue-plays-first-concert-with-new-guitarist-john-5