The ’80s returned in force to Club Lime, Friday, April 19, with two excellent tribute bands dressed in their glam rock best and playing the hits.
It’s always a lot of fun when a tribute band dresses the part.
Calgary based Motley Crüe tribute Live Wire, featuring drummer Steve Jacobson dressed as Tommy Lee, Vocalist/guitarist Eric Paulin dressed as frontman Vince Neil, guitarist Bryan Berger as Mick Mars, and bassist Shawn Tiedemann dressed as Nikki Sixx.
They wore full spandex, makeup and ’80s style wigs and even their instruments looked like Motley Crüe’s. Tiedemann was playing a B.C. Rich Warlock bass.
The night was full of Crüe’s hits popular like Dr. Feelgood, which they were playing as I arrived.
And you couldn’t have an ’80s show without a big drum solo, so there was one of those as well.
They invited some of their female fans on stage to dance to “Girls, Girls, Girls.”
They tried to get the crowd to call and response to “Ten Seconds To Love,” and they eventually did, when they realized what line they were supposed to sing.
“Smokin’ In the Boys Room was a highlight. They wound down with a tender version of “Home Sweet Home,” featuring Tiedmann playing the intro keyboard riff and kicked things up a notch again with “Kickstart My Heart.” They were definitely a Motley Crüe experience and brought the audience back to a more ’80s frame of mind.
Stage Fright did the same for Def Leppard fans, though I only caught a few songs.
They dressed like ’80s Def Leppard and payed a lot of hits, starting with “Rock! Rock! Till You Drop.”
Chevelles bassist Kitty Chevelle aka Dave Chomiak nailed Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott’s vocals and was able to strut around the stage like he was playing a stadium instead of Club Lime as Tyrants of Chaos bassist Paul Denton was handling bass duties.
They had the look down, with a massive Union Jack covering the drum kit before their set began and massive Stage Fright banners hanging behind the stage.
In between sets, Shawn Tiedemann switched from bass to guitar and dressed in what looked like colonel’s uniform with bright red ascot, the other guitarist pretty much nailed the Def Leppard guitar solos. They also nailed Leppard’s gang vocals.
I left for other shows during “Woman.”