Love ‘em or hate ‘em Motley Crue are undisputedly one of the biggest hard rock acts of the past twenty years. That they are still relevant and viable today shows that these four sleazy rock n rollers must be doing something right. Last year the Crue released another greatest hits compilation Red White And Crue which was a nice walk down memory lane for old school fans and a great way to introduce a younger fan into the world of Motley Crue. In October this double DVD set surfaced and despite my affinity for the Crue I put this on the backburner and neglected to pick it up for a few weeks. That I can tell you was a mistake for this is one of the most entertaining DVD releases by any band that I have every seen. Everything about it is top quality and each and every fan gets his money’s worth with Carnival Of Sins.

Motley Crue have always been a fun live band to see and they pulled out all the stops for this tour. Pyrotechnics, scantily clad women, insane midgets, and great special effects are just the icing on top of the terrific performance. The show on disc one is unofficially split into two sets, For the first ten songs only material from Theatre Of Pain, Shout At The Devil, and Too Fast For Love are played thus meaning we get to hear long lost fan favorites such as On With The Show, Louder Than Hell, Ten Seconds To Love and more. The greatest hits are then rolled out off the Motley assembling line and there is only one head scratcher to be found, Glitter. Don’t Go Away Mad, Home Sweet Home, Wildside you name it it’s on here. I couldn’t be happier with the setlist that was chosen and I’m sure that many fans share this same sentiment. Despite the fact that Mick is about a hundred years old and Vince and Tommy just did their separate reality TV shows the individual performances of the band members are better than I personally have seen in years. Vince’s weight loss has let him run around while he sings and not skip every other word from being out of breath. Nikki is his usual excitable self and reminds me of an energetic teenager who had a caffeine dump injected straight into his veins. Tommy runs around when he’s not behind the kit getting girls to flash the camera and Mick, well Mick just plays his guitar and that’s ok with me. I really can’t find anything to complain about here. I’ve heard all the rumors of unrest and cautious alliances within the band but here at least on tape (where it matters) the band looks and performs like a complete unit, internal squabbles set aside.

Professionally packaged and played Carnival Of Sins is a definite must buy for even the lightest of Motley Crue fans