Mötley Crüe

Mötley Crüe knowingly titled their 2005 reunion tour Carnival of Sins, fully aware of their reputation for all manners of rock & roll debauchery. When it came time to document this tour for posterity and profit, they chose that renowned capital of excess Grand Rapids, MI, where other classic live albums such as Marilyn Manson's 1999 The Last Tour on Earth were recorded, at least in part. Hunkering down in Van Andel Arena, the Crüe ran through their big-budget spectacular, all 23 songs, beginning with "Shout at the Devil" and ending with "Anarchy in the UK," hitting all the staples along the way and slipping in a pair of new songs from their 2005 hits comp Red, White & Crüe just when they think nobody would notice. A production this big deserved to be documented in a big way, so Carnival of Sins was released initially in 2006 as a DVD set accompanied by two separate volumes of CDs available only at Wal-Mart, and once that exclusivity contract expired, both sets were bundled as a two-disc set, bearing an entirely different cover. In all incarnations, the show sounds as if it were meant to be seen live in person, as the mix is boomy with bass and muddy with mid-range, but this murky mastering is for the best, since it can masquerade Vince Neil's occasionally shrill vocals. Poor Vince is the group's most evident sign of advancing age, unless you count the fact that the Crüe are playing like old pros instead of a hungry, hedonistic rock band, which can't be held against them, because that's what they were on this tour. In that sense, this document of the Grand Rapids gig is perhaps the perfect time capsule of their fleeting reunion, as it captures them relying on their audience's memory to fill in the blanks the music leaves behind. And, as it turns out, this may also be valuable as the final portrait of the original lineup in action together, as Vince, Nikki Sixx, and Mick Mars all sued drummer Tommy Lee in June 2007 -- just three months before the release of the two-disc edition of Carnival of Sins -- claiming that his ventures into reality TV shows (as the judge on RockStar Supernova and star of Tommy Lee Goes to College) harmed the Crüe's reputation, as it didn't make him seem so rock & roll (a reasonable claim, that). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide