By Andrew Bansal
February 17th 2014, The Whisky, West Hollywood CA: After two successful seasons in the year 2013 showcasing some of the best tribute bands in and around Southern California, AXS TV’s “World’s Greatest Tribute Bands” series has moved onto its third season to start off 2014, and has undergone a slight change in scenery as it’s being hosted by the Whisky-A-Go-Go. Hosted as always by Katie Daryl, Season 3 so far has treated the local concertgoers and AXS TV subscribers with tributes to Prince, Beastie Boys, Stevie Nicks and The Eagles among others, and on February 17th it brought the Mötley Crüe tribute band True 2 Crue into the spotlight, for what was Metal Assault’s first visit to an AXS TV tribute gig this season.
Tickets for this free concert were all taken up well in advance, and as a result, the line of people outside the venue was long. Doors opened at around 7:15 and the Whisky got quickly packed. An enjoyable sequence of classic 80s rock tunes by bands such as Whitesnake, Ratt, Skid Row, Van Halen and Queensryche was played on the PA to get the crowd even more pumped for the show than they already were. Lights and cameras for the live AXS TV broadcast were all in place, and exactly at 8 PM, Katie Daryl introduced True 2 Crue onto the stage.
The band hit the stage all guns blazing and played a solid, long set of Crue tunes including the hits as well as some deeper cuts like “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” and “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)”. Musically and in terms of the visual presentation, their performance was absolutely spot on right from the get-go, to such an extent that they put on a better show than the real Mötley Crüe in every aspect imaginable. Most of all, the singer sounded fantastic and his vocal delivery puts modern-day Vince Neil to complete shame, while his band mates fulfilled their roles to perfection as well with an extremely high-energy show. Aside from the four musicians, the stage was graced by two beautifully acrobatic girls who pole-danced during ‘Looks That Kill’, “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)”, ‘Girls Girls Girls’ and ‘Too Fast For Love’. For the audience, this was by all means exactly like an 80s Mötley Crüe live experience. Aside from blowing out the guitar amp briefly, True 2 Crue lived up to their name, staying truer to the Crue than the original band is nowadays, and their spot on AXS TV’s “World’s Greatest Tribute Bands” was very much deserved.
AXS TV and Katie Daryl once again provided the attendees at the Whisky and the TV-watching audience at home with a highly entertaining hour of live music, and with tributes to Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, KISS, AC/DC and a few others, this tribute series seems to be heading towards registering another successful season.
Set List:
01. Kickstart My Heart
02. Wild Side
03. Shout At The Devil
04. Looks That Kill
05. Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
06. Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
07. Home Sweet Home
08. Dr. Feelgood
09. Girls Girls Girls
10. Live Wire
11. Louder Than Hell
12. Too Fast For Love
13. Piece Of Your Action
Visit True 2 Crue on the web:
True2Crue.net
facebook.com/True2Crue
twitter.com/True2Crue
Visit AXS TV on the web:
AXS.TV
facebook.com/AXSTV
twitter.com/AXSTV
instagram.com/AXSTV
Visit Katie Daryl on the web:
facebook.com/Katie.Daryl
twitter.com/KatieDaryl