An Unforgettable Night As Motley Crue Rocks Hellfest with a Surprise guest. Gig Review.

July 2, 2023 rocknews

Friday night sees Motley Crue headlining the Main Stage at Hellfest. For many in the crowd it will be the first time that they have seen the band without out the bands original guitarist Mick Mars. Mick who retired from touring with the band last October has been replaced by John Williams Lowery who is best known by the stage name John 5.

Kicking off the gig with Wild Side the band took the fans in front of them on a journey through their back catalogue of hits from their studio albums. All the classics are on the setlist from Live Wire to Primal Scream. Vince Neil Introduces The Dirt and as he performs the song the huge video screens surrounding the stage play clips from the movie. For the spoken lyric section of the song the Motley Crue are joined on stage by no other than Machine Gun Kelly who plays Tommy Lee in the film. There is a mixed reaction to Kelly’s appearance with some of the crowd cheering and some booing the actor/singer’s as he performs.

To the crowd’s delight Nikki Sixx took to the stage with a massive French flag. Waving it around he proclaims to the crowd that throughout their current world tour the band could only think about the excitement of playing Hellfest.

Nikki made a fans night by inviting a girl from the audience to join him onstage. In days gone by this would have been an invite to join the band backstage partying into next week, instead the now respectable rocker poses for a selfie with the girl in front of the hundred thousand fans. Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Unfortunately, tonight’s show doesn’t have the spectacle of a Tommy Lee solo on a drumkit that soars high above the crowd. Instead, the kit stayed firmly on the floor and at times was totally obscured by the clouds of Co2 venting behind. Venturing to the centre of the stage Tommy performs the opening verses to Home Sweet Home on an electronic keyboard.

JP Cappelletty made a guest appearance and plays drums for Girls Girls Girls. As Vince sings about the bands exploits in all the knocking shops around the world, he begins to look a little uncomfortable as he gets to the third verse which is depicts the events in Paris, France. Maybe he is concerned about those Frenchie’s laws the band broke?

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The crowd goes wild as the opening rift to the last song Kickstart My Heart bursts out of the amps. The fast tempo song had everyone singing along as loud as they could and brought a new surge of people pushing past as they desperately tried to get to the front for the last song.

It is great to see Motley Crue touring again and the show at Hellfest will be a special one on their current World Tour calendar. I was particularly impressed with John 5 and his guitar showmanship, which is equal to Nikki Sixx, his performance balances out the stage show which I think the band have been missing in the past. I’m sure I will see the band again on their next tour and would highly recommend seeing them.