MOTLEY CRUE
Greatest Hits – Australian Tour Ltd Edition CD/DVD
2011, Motley Records/Sony

Shane Pinnegar

Motley’s latest revamped Greatest Hits features most of the songs you’d expect, though is notably absent for omitting anything from the John Corabi years, or their ‘New Tattoo’ album, and featuring only one tune each from their debut or ‘Generation Swine’.

The distinction of course is that this isn’t a “Best Of”, it’s a “Greatest Hits”, which excuses the selection of merely good singles (‘Without You’, ‘Sick Love Song’, ‘Afraid’, ‘If I Die Tomorrow’) over many great album tracks.

The main reason for buying this 2011 Eastern States of Australia tour release, of course, is the bonus DVD, professionally filmed in Toronto on the 2008 Crue Fest 1 tour – and it shows this most dysfunctional of reprobates going through their paces in front of an adoring crow while flames spurt willy nilly through the industrial themed stage set.

It’s fun, it never strays from the ‘Greatest Hits’ format, the cameras chop and change angles and zoom in and out like the director & crew were all suffering from advanced ADHD, the backing vocals sound studio perfect (hmmmm...?) and Vince Neil’s vocals… don’t, rather resembling a squawking parrot whenever he exerts himself with a jog from one side of the stage to the other.

Still, it’s all fun and games and any fan will know Neil’s voice was never The Crue’s strongest point, and to be fair his vocals are far less annoying than the ridiculous scrambling effect they have applied to all the naughty words, which actually made me wonder if my copy was scratched or my DVD player faulty.