Former Motley Crue vocalist Vince Neil played his first solo show in the WNY area since 2004. Even with the retirement of Motley Crue, Neil still stays active and does many solo dates trying to keep the music of Motley Crue alive. Neil has surrounded himself with the band Slaughter (minus Mark Slaughter of course). That band consists of Dana Strum on bass, Jeff “Blando” Bland and Zoltan Chaney.
The band took the stage at exactly 9:29pm as Chaney pounded the first few skins for” Dr. Feelgood.” Once the song was in motion, Neil joined the band and the crowd seemed revved up. Asking the crowd, “Are fuckin’ with me?” After singing the first few notes, Neil looked side stage motioning that he couldn’t hear his in ear monitors. He continued singing and exited the stage towards the end of the song to get them adjusted. Neil came back out and seemed to keep the crowd interested and at one point, held the mic over the crowd so they can sing “Looks That Kill.” Even though Neil was the center of attention, it was his band that carried him throughout this performance. The dynamic drumming of Chaney with the consistent playing of both Blando and Strum were the highlights during the entire show. Neil seemed to struggle keeping up with the pace of the band at times. In fact, he even exited and the band did a Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath song. After about 12 minutes, Neil returned to finish the rest of the show.
With it being a day after a holiday may have hurt crowd attendance as it was about 70% full. Neil also was pissed that two people refused to get up with the rest of the audience at the end and called them out on it saying it was a rock show and they should stand the fuck up. Not sure if they had a disability or not but he should have focused on the ones who did stand instead the two that didn’t. The entire show last a tad over an hour and only consisted of 9 Motley Crue songs and the two covers I mentioned earlier. Neil has a few solo gems like “You’re Invited but Your Friend Can’t Come” and “Sister of Pain” that haven’t seen the light of day in years. He should consider putting those back into his set along with extending out to possibly to an hour and 20 to an hour of 30 minutes (with at least 15 songs). Without his backing band’s terrific performance, a lot was left to be desired for Neil’s return to WNY.
Setlist:
Dr. Feelgood (Motley Crue song)
Shout at the Devil (Motley Crue song)
Looks That Kill (Motley Crue song)
Home Sweet Home (Motley Crue song)
Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) (Motley Crue song)
Same Ol’ Situation (Motley Crue song)
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover)/Heaven and Hell (Black sabbath cover) [Band without Vince Neil]
Kickstart my Heart (Motley Crue song)
Girls Girls Girls (Motley Crue song)
Wilde Side (Motley Crue song)
We would like to thank David Fillenwartgh from the Riviera Theatre for the credentials to review the show.
