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Monster Circus a rocker's Vegas
TWISTED:
Dee Snider flashes the horns to the crowd. / Photos
by Ben Hansen
By Ben Hansen, special contributor
May 1, 2009 | Have you ever been to a rock 'n' roll
circus before? If you are planning a trip to Las Vegas
in the next couple of months, you will definitely want
to figure this into your plans.
Monster Circus is a new Vegas Show, performed at the
Las Vegas Hilton Theater several nights a week. The
show is the brainchild of Great White guitarist Tony
Montana, who has assembled a band of world-renown talent,
consisting of himself, guitarist/vocalist John Corabi
(Motley Crue), guitarist Dave Kushner (Velvet Revolver),
bassist Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot), and
drummer Fred Coury (Cinderella). The show combines anthem
rock classics from each band member's prior bands, along
with classic rock favorites, circus acts, and sexy rock
dancers. This was a show that I had to go see for myself.
The party kicked off at 11 p.m. in Las Vegas and quickly
got straight to business, delivering an instantly pleasing
cover of Motley Crue's early fist pounder, Live Wire.
Dancers seemed to appear from every corner of the stage,
indulging in the debauchery that was strewn forth from
the stage all over the audience. The audience knew almost
immediately that this show was going to deliver.
It took me a song or two to identify, but sure enough,
Velvet Revolver axe man extraordinaire Dave Kushner
was in the band this evening, and rolled the band straight
into the second song in the set Slither from his
own Velvet Revolver's first album.
Both John Corabi and Tony Montana switched off vocal
duties through these and Judas Priest's You've Got Another
Thing Coming. During the Priest cover, an audience member
was brought up to try to jam (a la guitar hero style
and projected onto video screens for the audience to
watch) with the band. Corabi gave the gentleman a band
T-shirt after a somewhat above average performance on
the game, while jesting to him him, "If you would
have just gotten 2 percentage points better, we'd be
giving you one of our dancers to take home instead!"
Six songs into the set, the night lit up like the
Vegas Strip as Dee Snider stormed onto the stage. The
audience applause was thunderous as he jokingly shouted
to the audience, "Nice…now be seated." Dee them belted
out the opening lyrics to his Twisted Sister classic
We're Not Gonna Take It, met word for word with the
audience singing along.
Dee delivered high note after high note on several
other covers throughout the evening, including classics
Rock You Like a Hurricane by the Scorpions and Highway
to Hell by ACDC. Just before the ACDC cover, Snider
made us all remember our devotion to rock by reminiscing
on when it is appropriate to use the "horns,"
while recalling his own experience watching Ronnie James
Dio introduce the gesture in the early '80s. Dee stretched
his arm to the audience, symbol outstretched on his
hand, proclaiming, "This is OUR symbol! We represent
this…explain to me when P-Diddy started going like this?
And when did the Jonas Brothers start doing this? There
is something SERIOUSLY wrong!"
With Dee leading the way, Rudy Sarzo, Tony Montana,
and John Corabi all took turns performing in the aisles,
and directly on top of some of the seats in the audience.
This show, in all terms, was literally taken directly
to the audience. I was the benefactor of a face to face
lyric with Snider and Sarzo jamming on his bass directly
over audience members, prompting them to stay enthralled
and out of their seats throughout the set.
After an exceptional double encore of Twisted Sister's
I Wanna Rock and Quiet Riot's Mental Health, the band
closed out the evening by offering up an enormous birthday
cake to their own John Corabi, complete with an upside
down "50" candle.
In summary, this show delivered what rock was all
about, with tons of extra visual elements that helped
put it over the top. This is a must-see for any die
hard rock fan from the 80's genre, and well worth the
short trip to Vegas, with or without Dee Snider performing
as a guest with the band. Don't forget to book early,
as the fans in the closest seats definitely get the
most in-the-audience interaction with the band.
For more information on Monster Circus, check out
www.myspace.com/monstercircuslasvegas
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