Motley Crue announce Las Vegas residency for February

Will there be pyro when Motley Crue plays Las Vegas in February? Most definitely! © Rune Hellestad/Corbis

Motley Crue, long known for elaborate stage productions, have done everything short of shooting drummer Tommy Lee out of a cannon. So what will the band do in their just-announced, 12-show residency in Las Vegas? Without giving away exact details, singer Vince Neil said fans should expect "over-the-top craziness."

Neil and Lee spoke to reporters in a conference call about the group's February stand, dubbed "Motley Crue In Sin City," during which they'll perform at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for 12 shows between February 3rd and February 19th.

Las Vegas has seen many music acts stage residencies - everyone from Cher to Celine Dion to Elton John - but Motley Crue are the first hard rockers to plant their flag for an extended stay. "I think it really opens the doors for the casino owners and managers to say, 'Wow, this really works and this could be something,'" Neil said, who happens to live in Vegas.

"And they can get in some other way cool bands and start doing the residencies also. So it's going to open a lot of doors for bands in this city."

Lee said that the idea of a Vegas run has been in the band's thoughts for a while. "We've gone through a lot of the big Vegas production shows and we all have talked about it many times going, 'God, could you imagine if we could only get our hands on this kind of an opportunity what we could do with it.'"

Expanding on the subject of production, Neil said, "This is Las Vegas. Vegas is based on big, big shows. This show we are putting together right now is something that we have never done in our lives. This is an interactive show we're putting on - it's going to encompass the whole venue, not just the stage that we're standing on. This is going to take over the whole place."

Whether or not the Crue would feature the "Tommycoaster," Lee's 360-degree drum roller coaster, or some new version of it, is up in the air. But a Sin City performance the band's classic Girls, Girls, Girls is in the bag. "This is Vegas, and it sure would be fun to really do it full Vegas style and have there be some nudity," said Lee. "That's why we signed up for this shit."

When asked if there were any rock acts who could serve up the same sort of stage show razzle-dazzle as Motley Crue, Neil said KISS were a likely candidate for a similar Vegas residency. As for other bands, he was somewhat skeptical: "They have to have something to offer when they come on stage. They have to be visual. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the bands that are out there today put on their jeans and sneakers and just go out there and play. That's not very visual or interesting."

As for what the band is planning after the Vegas shows, Lee hinted that recording a new album was a possibility but that it was still early to discuss specifics. "We all write individually," he said. "I've been working on stuff over here and Nikki, Mick has. And typically what we do is kind of put all of our ideas into a pile and then we, you know, tackle them as a unit.

"I'm sure that some point here, we'll throw all of our music in a pile when it becomes time and we'll get at it. That's typically how we do it."