October 2 2013 – On Friday September 27th a very magical night of Rock n Roll shook the eastern edge of Toronto’s downtown. The venue was The Courthouse which is easily the coolest looking “bar” we have ever seen. The historical venue has soaring 25 foot ceilings with a balcony overlooking the main room, fireplaces, leather couches and an incredible intimate vibe made this instantly a place where we hope to see many more rock shows.
CRUED was appropriately the headliner tonight. The Motley Crue tribute band took the opportunity of the 30th anniversary of the multi platinum Shout At The Devil album to throw a party of the highest magnitude. The thing that struck us most about CRUED is the amount of detail they put on tonight’s party. Every little thing was thought out and meticulously labored over for many hours and it showed. From the detailed reproduction of the Motley Crue outfits circa 1983, to the objects strategically placed on stage, to their glamorous march to the stage to kick off the show – this is clearly a tribute band that gets it.
CRUED consists of Ziggy as Tommy Lee, Robbie Roxx as Mick Mars , Karl-Yves Hovington as Nikki Sixx , and Bryndon Boonstra as Vince Neil. The band were phenomenal on stage and gave it their all in a highly entertaining set that consisted of Shout At The Devil end to end and then a smattering of various Motley Crue hits. What elevated the band even higher tonight is that it was vocalist Boonstra’s 23rd birthday (yup not a typo) but let me tell you that dude can sing. From his first notes we were all shaking our head in disbelief as to how amazing he sounded. The rest of the band was tight, crisp and on fire and impressed every single person crowded around the stage for their set.
Clearly they have been practicing for a very long time and their mastery showed. Not only did they capture the essence of Motley Crue’s music, they captured a bygone era of hairspray, man makeup, leather and chains in such a perfect manner that anyone who was a teenager in ’83 would have had flashbacks of Much Music or the Q107 Top 10 at 10 countdown and all the great music on TV and radio. Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout At The Deviiiiil!
CRUED put on a show that deserves to be playing in theaters across North America similar ‘to tribute shows like Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience (reviewed here) and Brit Floyd (reviewed here). In other words their performance is too grandiose to be confined to bars and clubs and would benefit from full on multi million dollar sound and light systems.
CRUED has become a new favorite T.O. band for us and we intend on catching as many shows as we can and we will be interviewing the band on video in the near future. Kudos for an incredible job guys – your attention to detail did not go unnoticed. Check out the video of the show opener:
CRUED’s setlist was:
- Shout At The Devil
- Looks That Kill
- Bastard
- God Bless
- Helter Skelter
- Red Hott
- Too Young To Fall In Love
- Knock’ Em Dead
- Ten Seconds
- Danger
- Dr. Feelgood
- Girls Girls Girls
- Don’t Go Away Mad mashed up with CeeLo’s F*k You
- Same Old Situation
- Louder Than Hell
- Home Sweet Home
- Smokin In The Boys Room
- Saints of Los Angeles
- Too Fast
- Take Me To the Top
- Livewire
- Anarchy
- Wildside
- Kickstart My Heart
Let’s take a look at another band now:
Opening the night was a Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne tribute band called Blizzard of Ozz. They had the tough task of warming up the audience but succeeded with ease to get people standing, headbanging and throwing up the horns. We thoroughly enjoyed their set and apparently they did as well as both their guitarist Roland Roxx and bassist Lady Evil wandered into the audience during songs and helped get the party going. Overall an excellent choice to be part of the Monsters of Mock lineup and for Sabbath lovers like ourselves a sure treat. T-Mak World strongly recommends Blizzard of Ozz as a kick ass Sabbath band. Check out War Pigs from the show:
Their setlist consisted of :
- Bark At The Moon
- Miracle Man
- I Don’t Know
- NIB
- Mr. Crowley
- Iron Man/Children Of The Grave
- Suicide Solution
- War Pigs
- Paranoid
- Crazy Train
Second up were AC/DC band For Those About To Rock. James “Problem Child”, Rob “Riff Raff”, Al “Big Balls”, Jim “Thuderstruck” and Eric “Moneytalks” really impressed. Bon Scott and Brian Johnson are tough guys to imitate but James did it with eerie power. This guy must have mutant lungs because the intensity and accuracy of his singing was truly surreal. The rest of the band was impressive in their outpouring of AC/DC classics and we were left very satisfied. Every band tonight came up with their best game face on and FTATR really got the audience up and rocking. We are new fans guys! Check out the video of You Shook Me All Night Long:
Their setlist consisted of:
- Hell Aint A Bad Place To Be
- Hells Bells
- Have A Drink On Me
- Jailbreak
- TNT
- Dirty Deeds
- Shoot Ta Thrill
- Back In Black
- Shook Me All Night Long
- Ride On
- Shot Down In Flames
- Highway to Hell
- For Those About To Rock
- Whole Lotta Rosie
Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 – 
Monsters of Mock had it all: three incredible tribute bands, a gorgeous venue, the buzz of a major league rock show, and an adoring audience. We wish that Monsters of Mock becomes an annual tradition (or even better a quarterly one). If you missed out on this show kick yourself. If you were at the show, you know what I’m talking about (wink). We have a separate photo gallery article which you can check out right here for tons of pictures from the night.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself!!!!! Kick ass show…these guys rock!!!!!!