This past weekend, The Sunset Strip transformed into a world where Vince Neil belted out lyrics in between bursts of pyrotechnics all the while sporting an American flag on the crotch of his pants, Tommy Lee strapped himself to his drum kit and looped around a roller coaster, and Bush’s Gavin Rossdale leapt from the stage to get up close and personal with a sea of thousands. Thanks to The 4th Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival, the streets of West Hollywood may never be the same…
To kick off this year’s Sunset Strip Music Fest – a three-day ordeal featuring an array of rock bar performances, as well as an all day street fest on Saturday – the House of Blues hosted a Thursday night invite-only soiree. The guests of honor? The rowdy, longhaired, police record-bearing glam rockers Mötley Crüe.
As the official honorees of the 2011 Sunset Strip Music Festival, The City of West Hollywood presented the rambunctious rockers with the “Elmer Valentine Award.” During a ceremony that Tommy Lee considered to be more of a “Mötley Crüe Roast,” August 18th was publicly declared “Mötley Crüe Day in West Hollywood.”
“Is it an honor or is it like an honor roast? I don’t really know what it is. And I’m not really sure what we’re being honored for – most stumbles down The Strip?” joked the notorious drummer while walking the red carpet prior to the ceremony.
Lee wasn’t too far off.
The story of their career, which the band elected to tell in graphic detail and with complete honesty in their NY Times best-selling 2001 autobiography, The Dirt (soon to be a major motion picture) is one of dirty needles, damaged minds, music industry battles and sex – lots of sex. And the miraculous thing about the Crüe is not that they lived to tell the tale (although that is, in a way, a kind of unholy miracle), it’s that all of their wildly uncontrollable habits are clearly audible in their music. Just listen to these albums, more than 40 million of which have sold worldwide. If you concentrate hard enough, you can hear the sound of the coke coming off the tables, the squeak of the bed springs, and the sheer sleazy grind of California rock over the last two decades.
Last weekend, the Crüe not only gave the East Rutherford crowd their fix, but they also used the event as an opportunity to announce their upcoming headlining tour with equally ornery 80s rockers Poison and the New York Dolls… And yes, Tommy Lee will be hovering, spinning, and drum soloing above your head in his “drum rollercoaster”. Oh, and in true Crüe fashion, The band commissioned their fans to choose the final tour set list (on their website), which includes tracks band hasn’t performed live together in almost 20 years.
Take a look at the fearsome foursome in action at the Bamboozle festival below and get your red hot tour dates after the jump.
If you missed the Street Drum Corps last week, or even the week before that, you have an awesome opportunity to catch them tonight at the Roxy in Hollywood. They are doing a month long residency and this is almost the last chance..almost..next Tuesday night will be there fond farewell. But shoot…don’t delay! They are just as incredible as you might think they are. Just ask Sam from the Suicide Girls and she’ll tell you all about ‘em.
Words by Barbie Brady
A Night on the Strip, Part 2:
Ah, another night in Hollywood. And another innocent, virgin band’s relentless hazing on the infamous Sunset Strip. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate – Juke Kartel has played the Roxy before, at least once. But on this particular night, it was a chance to jam under the watchful eye of Tommy Lee, who first brought his brand of glam/sleaze rock to own the Strip decades ago.
A Night on the Strip, Part 1:
Damn you, Roxy. Thus continues our tumultuous love affair, sullied by cheap beer and your decadent, hallowed halls, scarred with the names of your favorite lovers: Guns N Roses. The one and only Les Claypool. Even those devil-worshiping bastards Slayer have had their way with you before blowing town and leaving you sticky, bruised and confused.
But no worry. I came with some competition — Sam from the Suicide Girls is here to give you some loving. And tonight you’re gonna get the loudest pounding you ever got — at the hands of The Street Drum Corps, 3 guys who just want to blow your f*cking roof off. And who better to split heads wide open than Tommy Lee?
Today’s bloggin best…
- A new Jay-Z / Dr. Dre song might be dropping this week. 2dopeboyz
- Johnny Marr could play in two bands at Reading Festival. NME
- Madlibs drops bombs with Guilty Simpson and Strong Arm Steady.
- Gorillaz got an online video game. Pitchfork
- If wrestlers were rappers. Complex
- Erykah Badu gets naked and assassinated in new video. SFGate
- Deadmau5 goes Hollywood, guests on Gossip Girl, hangs with Tommy Lee. MTV