Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 08/12/2008
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
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