Do any of you remember when Las Vegas was the smarmy uncool lounge singer capitol of the world? Vegas was where retirees went to spend their pensions in double knit leisure suits and coke bottle glasses. This wasn’t so long ago- really it wasn’t. But somehow the marketing cats in Sin City turned the whole thing around.
Apparently what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas (though with social media that’s a joke) and the 40-50 somethings are taking over. They have the cash and the accrued vacation time to do it. What makes me cringe is the new ‘residency’ fad.
“Residency” or multiple night shows in one place, were reserved for the likes of Liberace or maybe oddities like Siegfried and Roy. But now- now its for every aging artist who wants to plop down and have the audience find them. Cher did it, Celine Dionne did it, Elton John did it, and this made perfect sense. Elaborate crystal gowns are a bitch to transport and “My Heart Will Go On” sounds great with an all you can eat buffet.
But Motley Crue? What the hell? This is a blow to the gut to think that hair metal is on the strip. But again aging rockers need to sit still. Lead singer Vince Neil babbled pretty well about it:
Neil, who lives in Las Vegas, said residencies are a “dream come true” for many touring bands.
“Being able to, especially for me living here, pack a lunch and fuckin’ walk to work, you know?” he said. “Basically, we’re touring without having to really tour. It’s great to play every night here at home for me and not have to be on a bus or an airplane.”
Well he will walk but the rest of the band apparently will stay at The Hard Rock and venture home on ‘off days’.
Aside from the classics, Vince says they’ll pull some magic out of their hats,
“I think we’ll dig a little deeper in our bag of songs and do a lot of stuff that we haven’t done in many, many years,” Neil said. “Those are going to be fun – fun for us and fun for the audience. So, it’s new songs, but it ain’t really new songs. They’re old songs, but they’re new to a lot of people.
I find it disturbing, I find it lazy and I think it’ll make a ton of dough. But oh how our idols have fallen.