Showing posts with label Nikki Sixx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nikki Sixx. Show all posts

Live review: Motley Crue, Alice Cooper at Summerfest

Making rock 'n' roll dangerous again
By Peter Lindblad

Motley Crue - The Final Tour
Being that it was the Fourth of July, Motley Crue didn't skimp on the pyrotechnics on the second night of what is being billed as the glam-metal ne'er-do-wells' final tour.

Getting a late start, technical problems reportedly being blamed for the delay, as the crowd was still being herded in right around the scheduled concert start time, Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee appeared onstage at Summerfest in Milwaukee after a full blast of loud, dazzling fireworks announced their arrival.

Alice Cooper had already worked his dark, twisted magic on the audience, giving Cooper fanatics exactly what they wanted – a mock electrocution gone horribly wrong, Cooper shackled in a straight jacket and tormented by a demented nurse, flares shooting from Glen Sobel's drumsticks, a boa constrictor draped over Cooper's shoulders, and, of course, a final beheading staged with a guillotine.

The act may be familiar, but like the Harlem Globetrotters' old bag of tricks, it's still a fun, vaudevillian treat for the senses, and the band's tight, rousing renditions of Cooper classics like "I'm Eighteen," "Under My Wheels," "Poison," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "Feed My Frankenstein" – complete with a 20-foot singing monster – and "Billion Dollar Babies" were performed with theatrical panache, punk energy and vicious playing from a band that now includes new guitarist Nita Strauss. She didn't disappoint, tearing through full-throttle solos and leads that let everyone know there's a new sheriff in town, and when Cooper and company close with a galvanizing "School's Out," he had the whole Marcus Amphitheater in a stranglehold. Cooper was in fine form, acting out every well-worn scene as if he was doing it for the first time, and his durable, switchblade vocals cutting through crowd noise with ease.

Appetites sufficiently whetted, it was time for Crue to come out and bid farewell to Milwaukee with a fiery, defiant send-off. In between explosions, blinding flashes of lights and plumes of fire shooting from every orifice the industrial-designed stage had, the Crue delivered revved-up, razor-sharp versions of "Live Wire," "Too Fast for Love," "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)," "Looks That Kill," "Wild Side" and "Smokin' in the Boys Room," among other favorites, including a stomping march through "Shout at the Devil" that shook the Marcus Amphitheater to its foundation. A "Carnival of Sins"? Perhaps not, this set being somewhat more spartan and business-like, though still elaborate and never threatening to detract from the band's rough-and-ready power. Mars' guitar riffs had that raw, down-and-dirty tone that's so delicious, and Sixx did his best to get everyone to believe Crue's hype, his rock-star swagger still as entertaining as ever. If this is, indeed, the end, it's clear they intend to go out with guns blazing.

With flames shooting from Sixx's bass at one point and scantily-clad back-up singers gyrating all over the place, Crue refused to tone down their lusty bravado, not that anyone there would have wished for that. A non-stop thrill ride from beginning to end, plus a run through a scintillating new song called "All Bad Things Must End" – culminated by a mind-blowing solo from Mars – the show didn't exactly go off without a hitch, though. Neil's vocals were often barely audible, and Lee's punishing drum work busted up a snare drum fairly early on, leading to Lee not-so-sheepishly admitting that perhaps he was hitting his kit "too f--king hard."



Due to the limitations of the venue's facilities, Crue was not able to haul out its most death-defying maneuver, known as "The Cruecify," where Lee's drum set-up is extended out over the crowd. Nevertheless, with all the fire and ear drum-shattering bangs surely scrambling their senses, Crue seemed to be courting danger at every turn. Say what you will about their music – and critics have lobbed plenty of insults their way, as Sixx so eloquently dismissed in an expletive-laden rant – nobody can accuse them of playing it safe, and on this night, they put on a display of dangerous rock 'n' roll that left the paying customers breathless.


CD Review: Sixx A.M. - 7

CD Review: Sixx A.M. - 7
Eleven Seven Music
All Access Review: B+


An EP featuring seven acoustic sketches of tracks from both The Heroin Diaries and This is Gonna Hurt, the two albums SixxA.M. has released so far, 7 comes wrapped in a cloak of gothic darkness. The oaken strings, the black-hearted piano that seems to drip blood and the rich, full-bodied acoustic guitar tones – all of it is ensconced in shadowy atmospherics, graveyard meditations and poisonous opium den gloom. Occasionally, however, the door to this dim crack house opens and lets in streams of hopeful, life-affirming light that make the half-dead inhabitants’ eyes wince. As for Sixx, he walked out of his own dungeon of lost souls a long time ago and hasn’t been back since.

As serious as the heart-stopping drug overdose in 1987 that almost killed him, Nikki Sixx’s side project is the very antithesis of Motley Crue’s revved-up Sunset Strip sleaze and gleeful immersion in a carnival of sins that nearly destroyed them all. He may vicariously relive his wild days through various Crue nostalgia tours, but the dangerous drugging and boozy escapades are a thing of the past for the now clean and sober Sixx. Therapy, though, is good for the soul and it seems to be an essential part of Sixx’s recovery from addiction. Sixx A.M. has certainly helped keep Dr. Feelgood at bay.

The Heroin Diaries, Sixx A.M.’s edgy, oddball debut, served as the nightmarish musical accompaniment for the no-holds-barred autobiography Sixx wrote in the mid-2000s that chronicled a life of excess so extravagant and scary that it made you want to vomit in the dirty toilet stall right next to him. And whatever skeletons Sixx had that remained in his closet were trotted out for Sixx A.M.’s sophomore slump This is Gonna Hurt. Less daring and not nearly as original as The Heroin Diaries, This is Gonna Hurt – released as a companion piece to another Sixx book, this one an artsy photo gallery of stark black-and-white stills – paled in comparison because Sixx A.M. played it safe. But, it did, once again, release some strong emotions that had laid dormant in Sixx’s damaged soul, and there were some well-crafted songs hidden among the weeds of familiar hard-rock tropes that touched nerves and raised spirits. Some of them are completely deconstructed and reanimated on 7, like “Lies of the Beautiful People,” the dramatic reworking of which opens the EP, and “This is Gonna Hurt” – the former cutting its wrists with a tasteful, tension-filled string arrangement, percussive guitar strumming and James Michael’s expressive singing and the latter a sparse reading of the title track to the second LP comprised almost solely of wounded, angst-riddled piano.

Bruised but not beaten, the uplifting new versions of “Help is on the Way” – as affecting a track as Sixx has ever recorded, its bittersweet violins arranged and played with great care and eloquence – and “Life is Beautiful,” its chorus soaring high on Michael’s impassioned wail, have acquired greater depth and meaning. If Sixx were searching for beauty among the ruins of his past indiscretions, he seems to have found it, although “Sure Feels Right” is a sickeningly sweet and cloying love song that’s as sentimental as a Hallmark card or Uncle Kracker’s “Smile,” which means it’s made for Top 40 radio. Only temporarily weighed down by those empty calories, 7 rights the ship slightly with “Pray for Me” finding salvation with some complex acoustic picking and yearning vocals that sincerely search for divine intervention, this laboring through a section of disinterested guitar strumming that would bore even the most forgiving folkie.

“Accidents Can Happen,” on the other hand, is a lovely, heart-wrenching ballad, augmented by searing guitar leads, about second chances and healing, themes that are dear to Sixx’s adrenaline-spiked heart. If Motley Crue is still out having a good time and staying out till all hours, Sixx A.M. is the morning after, where Sixx takes a good hard look in the mirror and thinks about mortality, God and pain. And these bare-bones revisions to previously recorded Sixx A.M. material, while perhaps not completely reinventing the originals, strip away the “sturm und drang” to reveal well-built song structures sturdy enough to support complex string arrangements and stand up to a hurricane of emotions. These are redemption songs, not for a visionary island martyr seeking to lead his people out of poverty and oppression but for a prodigal son of rock and roll who is still dealing with some heavy sh*t and is optimistic about his future. 

- Peter Lindblad

 Motley Crue Vintage Collectible Posters: Rock On Collectibles

Nikki Sixx at his best with 'Sixx: A.M.' and beyond

Written by: Carol Anne Szel / Powerline



Frank did it. Sammy did it. Dean did it. Mötley Crüe? Yes it’s true, Crue is invading Las Vegas with a three-week stint in February as the “house band,” if you will, at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino ( This first-ever rock residency kicks off  Feb 3-19, four shows a week).
And then there’s the motion picture. The band is in negotiations to create a film based on the band’s book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band. And in the forefront of  Mötley Crüe’s immediate plans include new music, which is great news in the face of most other bands whose careers have spanned 30+ years like Crue’s, who are resting, shall we say, on the musical laurels of their past.
I had the chance to catch up with the ever-creative, ever-moving, ever-present bassist and founding member, Nikki Sixx, who opened up to me about love, sex, music, and just about every topic you can think of in a talk full of candor and honest …shall we say, lust for life.
How would you describe today’s Mötley Crüe?
Nikki Sixx: I think you’ll get a different answer from everybody in the band, that’s what I love about our band; it’s like four different personalities. But in my opinion, I feel Mötley Crüe is built to insult you. We’re here to assault you. I’m not interested in snuggling and a kiss. I just want to get right to fuckin’.
And it’s, like, Sixx:AM is seductive, sexually charged, beautiful evening out under the moon that ends up making love. Fortunately in a grave yard.
Mötley Crüe, it’s just like fucking a nasty stripper that’s probably gonna give you a disease. And I’m proud of that. I don’t want us to be tame; I don’t ever want us to be rightable. The things that we do and say. And our lyrics, it amazes me to this day that they will play ‘Shout at the Devil’ on radio. It says ‘I’ll be the love in your eyes; I’ll be the blood between your thighs.’ I’m like, ‘Are you sure you’re listening to the lyrics?’ We’re not Bon Jovi. It’s a miracle; the whole thing’s a miracle.
What keeps you creatively stimulated after all these years?
Nikki Sixx: Well I have plateaus. You know, I push and push and push myself, and I a lot of times watch other people in shock and awe, and they take on the energy of Mötley Crüe or my radio show or clothing and they go ‘Oh, we’re all about that.’
When I work with pyrotechnic companies, they don’t ever come to me anymore and go ‘Oh this is our pyro.’ They come to me and go ‘We designed a new head that shoots fire 30 feet and it will end with an explosion that’s never been used before.’ Any time I’m involved in anything, everyone is always trying to find something new and exciting because we sort of pull that out of people.
I love your book, and I was particularly moved by chapter four, it really touched me. How would you compare your humility and success?
Nikki Sixx: Thank you. You know that’s the greatest compliment I can get. You know I struggle every day. And when I put it on paper it helps me work out what it is I’m doing with my life. And you realize that you’re not alone. You know when you write a book and people say ‘Man, you know that touched me and I related to that.’ I have so many young readers that are like ‘Dude, I totally know where you’re coming from.’ Or fathers that have said ‘I totally understand your struggle.’ And you know when you keep it to yourself you don’t realize. It’s kind of like these AA meetings. When you go to an AA meeting you go ‘Well, I’m not the only one that’s having a hard day.’ And I think that’s part of the beauty of writing is that you can just write it out, even if it’s only for yourself. You sort of start to get it out. And that’s what photography is for me, too. You know I see something like You Will Not Grow. And I remember I felt like I was being told by small-minded people that I could not be successful, I could not achieve my dream. And they were my dreams, not their dreams. And they were telling me what I can dream. And when I was doing the You Will Not Grow sessions I wanted to capture that by having a very small person in Selena and having a very large person in George the Giant capturing that. Now whether or not that relates to other people or not, but it like un-corks something in you. You know what I mean?
I don’t think we really have an end zone in life. I think a lot of times people think ‘I’m gonna work to get that car.’ ‘I’m gonna really get myself in shape to get that girl.’ And ‘I’m gonna work really hard to get that promotion.’ But that isn’t really, that’s never really enough. So I’m trying to figure all that out myself, just like everybody else is but if you live in the moment, in the click of the camera, or in just the downbeat of the song, and if you can actually stay in that exact moment, in the moment that you can just smell her perfume, that moment, and don’t worry about what’s after that. If I can do that, put that on paper, or capture that in a song, or capture that on my radio show, I know so many people relate and I feel so good. Because I don’t feel alone.
Speaking of your sobriety and AA, that’s inspirational to so many.
Nikki Sixx: I’ll tell you; one thing I find about AA is that they’re very much like a lot of things that are inspiring to me. It’s really about just the moment. Like everybody goes ‘they’re struggling with the moment.’ It’s like one day at a time, one minute at a time. And I guess it’s all like one thing at a time, like one click of the camera at a time. You know one breath at a time. Like, I’m trying to slow down; I’m trying to capture it all. I know I’m on a clock, you know, I want to maximize my happiness and I want to minimize my drama.
When you write about going to a drug ‘shooting gallery’ with the harshest of addicts to capture those dark moments, what did you think when they asked you to come back and visit? That to me, was very deep.
Nikki Sixx: It’s just such an amazing moment, because it took so much just to get in. First it took a long time to find the place, then to get into the place. And then once I was in, I was not accepted — nor should I be. And then after hours and hours I was let into sort of a sacred society. And then that came in. And it was like, wow, everyone just wants to be loved.
I know, I was telling my friend. ‘You know I scare people for a living.’ Whether they’re little kids in a supermarket or fathers in the front row. That’s what I get to do. Every day to me is like seeing what trouble I can get into or what limits I can push. Including speed limits. Whether I’m doing photography or the radio show or designing clothes, that’s who I plug into every day. Dude, don’t get fuckin’ old. It’s all in your head.
Speaking of age, the Mötley Crüe summer tour was a huge success, celebrating the band’s 30 years in music. How did you pick the bands to go out with after all these years?
Nikki Sixx: We took Poison because that’s what the fans wanted, we didn’t want ‘em. I didn’t want them; we never said we wanted to tour with any ’80s bands. You know we came from 1981, by ’84 or ’83 we were gone. And we never looked back. And then there kind of came this movement after us and we got rolled into it. We’re about Black Sabbath and The Ramones and AC/DC. To me, it was like we were like NY Dolls juiced up on, you know, Van Halen.
So we never understood the correlation, and have been very vocal about it. It’s not that we have anything against a lot of these bands personally; it was just, you know, we didn’t want to be associated with it. I don’t think that U2 wants to be associated with Flock of Seagulls. They’re from the same fucking time. You know, U2, the Go-Go’s, Fleetwood Mac, but they said ‘No. We are our own band.’ And that’s what we said, but when we were going out and doing this ‘Let’s see what the fans want for a tour.’
And you speak of photography as getting you out of the norm. How is that?
Nikki Sixx: I will build you up to tear you down, whatever I need to do to capture what I’m looking for. And it’s not always safe, and it’s not always sane, and it’s not always nice, and it’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be real and raw. And when I capture it I’m done, you’re gone. I’ve got what I wanted; I’ve got what I needed. It’s finished something inside of me.
I think its part of me trying to finish out my issues. I was talking to a photographer friend of mine the other day and he said ‘What are you working on?, — you know we talk ‘What project are you working on?’ And songwriters are like ‘Hey man, whatcha been writing?’ And photographers are like ‘What project?’ We look at bodies of work in like paragraphs in a story. And I said what I’m working on, something I’m not going to disclose, but something that I’m working on right now which may not be available for quite a few years. But it’s nothing that I’ve shot before. It is nothing like anything I’ve shot before. And he raised his eyebrow and looked at me and said ‘People aren’t going to expect that.’ And I said, ‘Perfect.’
So it’s always about trying to get that little bit of fear, feeling something.
What is it you hoped to accomplish with your photography and getting it out to the people?
Nikki Sixx: That people are looking at my photography as if it’s real. I’ve already been accepted as this musician or not excepted, I accept that. This is the layer of something that I never really thought would be exposed.
It’s so interesting because I’m so guilty of what I don’t want. I, a lot of times, get inundated with so much stuff and I get so entrepreneurial in my head. And the problem with entrepreneurs is that they start a lot of stuff and don’t finish a lot of stuff. I get so into a movie that I never finish the movie because I have to check my email. I never finish my email because I want to go read the manual on my new camera. And I never learn the camera because I want to finish the chorus of that song I started. And I have to stop myself and just capture these beautiful moments.
Thanks Nikki!
Nikki Sixx: Thank you, I always love doing an interview with you!

This interview was originally published on Powerline. For more interesting interviews, reviews and metal news check them out here: PowerlineMag