Recent Van Andel Gigs

I suppose that in many ways, the novelty has worn off for me when it comes to working big-time entertainment events at the Van Andel Arena. It was just around a year ago that I worked my first show there at the concession stand, raising money for my sons in the Wyoming Park High School Marching Band. That night in May 2004, Metallica came to play and it was pretty exciting for me to be a part of that. Ever since, I've done a pretty good job of blogging about my impressions of the various performers I've seen. But I've been there two times in the past couple of weeks, and have not (up until now) been all that moved to journal about any of them.

But I have a tradition to maintain, so here's a catch-all post covering those three events. I'll be quick.

The first of the pair was a John Mellencamp show. He drew an audience of mostly middle-aged midwestern folks who got through the 80's listening to his songs on the radio more often than we consciously ever noticed. Mellencamp, formerly known as John Cougar when he first broke into the pop music scene, has styled himself as a rootsy, authentic "heart of America" kind of guy for nearly twenty years now, and it's a persona that will probably serve him well in years to come. He has an impressive catalog of familiar hits, as he proved when he strung together a strong series of tunes to open and close the evening. He opened the night himself, singing his anthem "Small Town," to the surprise of a fair number of late-comers who figured that they could stroll in after the opening act had begun his set. But Mellencamp didn't arrange just to have some mediocre run-o'-the-mill band start things off - instead, he enlisted the former hippie-dippie flower child and British folk-rock pioneer Donovan to come on toward the middle of the evening, where they performed a couple of songs together, sandwiched around a set of classic 60's hits - "Sunshine Superman," "Mellow Yellow," "Hurdy Gurdy Man," "Season of the Witch" and "Atlantis" among them.

I really dug that portion of the show, since I have fond memories of listening to my mom's "Donovan's Greatest Hits" record when I was a little kid. I still like Donovan's music from that era and consider him to be one of the premier songwriters of the 1960's. He's totally far out and groovy, man!

Mellencamp also impressed me with his straightforward approach to his music. Lining up his hits at the end of the set, it occurred to me that he had a catalog of songs that a lot of artists can be jealous of - "R.O.C.K. in the USA," "Jack and Diane," "Lonely Ol' Night," "Authority Song," "Hurts So Good," and "Little Pink Houses," just to name a few. They aren't songs that I think about a whole lot, but they got the house rocking pretty good as he cranked out one familiar nugget after another. Furthermore, he sold his recently released hits collection "Words and Music" for a very reasonable $22 at the arena, two CDs worth of solid material, without gouging the fans. Tickets were relatively cheap as well, in the $35-40 range, much more reasonable than most of the performers who've played the arena this year.

Then there was last Wednesday's show... Motley Crue came to town, on their "Red White and Crue" tour. I got to watch them warm up a bit, practicing their song "Wild Side." Stripped of all the rambunctious razzle-dazzle, it became apparent to me how generic and indistinct their talent really is. Vince Neil, the singer, doesn't really have much of a voice. Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx on guitars just hack out undemanding, simplistic riffs that enable them to get on stage in whatever degree of intoxication they feel the urge to achieve without sacrificing much in the way of musicianship. I'll give Tommy Lee some credit for his drumming, which is pretty athletic, by any measure. But there just isn't anything that I found challenging or stimulating in what they present on stage, the only act that I can really say that about of all the headliners I've heard at Van Andel.

I will make this entry brief. I wasn't impressed. I never was a big fan of the band. When they were first coming up, I was still a part of the West Coast punk scene, and we knew about them as they rose up through the ranks of SoCal metalheads. They were about glitz, glam, leather and spandex, teased hair and make-up. I had no interest or time for such vain poseurs and furthermore, their music sucked. And it still does.

Still I was interested to see what the show would be like. What kind of an audience they would draw, what kind of a spectacle they'd put on, etc.

Well what I saw was a most tiresome bunch of cliches and nothing either musical or intellectual or life-affirming to kick it all into effect. The theme of the show is the tired "demented circus" motif, complete with a fire-breathing midget MC, surgically enhanced showgirls and strippers running around on stage and roadies wearing wicked clown masks. The stage is covered by a big-top tent and there are plenty of smoke-bombs and other crazy effects that bombard the senses for no apparent purpose but to give the illusion of a good time being had in a raucous carnival atmosphere. I suppose if it's your thing, this is the band that will give it to you. Motley Crue was always to me a plasticized rip-off version of Kiss, who were pretty plastic and cheezy themselves. Even though my teen years were spent as a Kiss fan, I've never returned to the fold with much sense of nostaligia as I have with many other old musical faves from years gone by.

Some of the fans were fun, but even they, as a group, weren't as colorful or as impassioned as I had hoped they would be.

Anyway, I could go off on a rant about how asinine and empty and vacuous Motley Crue is but it's not really worth my time. Just a couple of short anecdotes... One is about how they crassly merchandise their "bad boy" image. Their production company is "Evil Entertainment." The souvenir stand sells shirts that read "Motley Fucking Crue" and "Bastards of Disaster." One can also purchase red foam fingers (in the "devil horn" position, index and pinkies up) that read "Fuck You I'm With the Crue." Pretty clever, hey? They mass produce this stuff in overseas factories and then bring it with them on tour, catering to the rowdy juveniles of all ages who feel the need to make that statement.

The other interesting note I have to drop is how the crowd was coached by a film crew prior to the concert to scream "Crue! Crue!! Crue!!!" and generally carry on in fits before the band ever took stage. This was to get some cool reaction shots that they could splice into the DVD that the band will release later this year. Apparently, Motley Crue chose Grand Rapids as the place where they wanted to shoot the official tour footage. Our city fathers have never been prouder, I'm sure. So rather than waste any more time on this miscreant heap of losers, I'll just wrap it up and check out for now.

I'm excited to work the Green Day concert coming this Saturday though!