Mötley Crüe announced today plans for their Saints of Los Angeles 2009 Winter Tour, hours before headlining a special one off performance at the historic Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The Live Nation produced, Saints of Los Angeles 2009 Tour, will feature special guests — Hinder, Theory of a Deadman and The Last Vegas. The tour kicks off February 2nd in San Diego, CA with 29 shows throughout North America, including a date at Madison Square Garden, with the final performance on March 18th in Portland, ME. Tickets go on sale beginning November 21st at www.livenation.com and www.motley.com.

American Express Card members will have access to presale tickets beginning Friday, November 14 at 5pm local time through Thursday, November 20 at 10pm local time via www.motley.com.

“It’s great to go back out on a tour like this where the bands are all about returning rock to the forefront of music today,” says Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe. “On top of it, we get to introduce a new band who jumped the line to arenas through the Guitar Center: On Stage contest. Just like Ozzy gave us a chance and took us on tour at the start of our career, we’re looking forward to taking The Last Vegas on the road and giving them the same opportunity.”

Hinder front man Austin Winkler said, “Mötley Crüe is a massive influence on us, and an inspiration on so many levels for what we do! Mick even played on the title track for our new album. It will be an honor and privilege for us to tour with one of the greatest rock bands ever! And we can’t wait to party our asses off with them!”

“We are so pumped to be a part of what I think will be the biggest and most bad ass tour of 2009. Three kick ass bands on one bill, not to mention how honored we are to play with one of the best rock n roll bands of all f#@%kn time, Mötley f#@%kn Crüe,” said Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Deadman.

Rock icons Mötley Crüe recently returned to the charts with Saints of Los Angeles, their first new studio album with the original line-up — Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil — in over a decade and the ninth studio album in their career. Based on the band’s New York Times bestseller The Dirt, the disc debuted at #1 on the Independent Album chart and was the top debut of the week on the Billboard’s top 200 at #4.

For more information on Mötley Crüe, please visit: www.motley.com and www.myspace.com/motleycrue.

SAINTS OF LOS ANGELES 2009 TOUR DATES

2/2-3/18 with Hinder, Theory of a Deadman and The Last Vegas

- Mötley Crüe and The Last Vegas only on February 6 and 7 in Las Vegas, March 3 in Miami -

* Indicates On-Sale November 21

** Indicates On-Sale November 22

*** Indicates On-Sale December 6

FEBRUARY

2 San Diego, CA Cox Arena **

4 Reno, NV Reno Events Center **

6 Las Vegas, NV The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel**

7 Las Vegas, NV The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel **

10 Omaha, NE Quest Center **

11 Moline, IL iWireless Center **

13 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena **

14 Madison, WI Alliant Energy Center **

15 Rockford, IL MetroCentre **

17 Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena **

18 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center **

19 Green Bay, WI Resch Center **

21 Nashville, TN Sommet Center **

22 Birmingham, AL BJCC Arena**

25 Greenville, SC BI-LO Center **

27 Lafayette, LA Cajun Dome ***

28 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena ***

MARCH

3 Miami, FL Hard Rock Casino***

4 Orlando, FL UCF Arena **

6 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa **

7 Erie, PA Erie Civic Center **

8 Hershey, PA Giant Center ***

10 Ottawa, ON Scotiabank Place *

11 Hamilton, ON Copps Coliseum *

13 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena **

14 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena **

16 New York, NY Madison Square Garden **

17 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena**

18 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center **

The goods:
“Down at the Whisky” – This will remind old Crue fans of better days. Again, Mick is phenomenal. (read our Mick Mars interview from way back)
“Saints of Los Angeles” – The song has some good and bad. The chorus is lame, but the verses are great. The open line of the chorus “We are the saints/ we signed our life away” sounds contrived and forced. It’s a shame a little more work wasn’t put into the chorus to equal the power of the verses.
“This Ain’t A Love Song” – The Crue try to reinvent Buckcherry’s “Crazy Bitch” and don’t do a bad job of it.

Somewhere in the middle:
“Animal In Me” – Not an entirely bad song. It sounds too much like a modern rock band with all the angst and shoe-gazing. The Crue wrote love songs in the past that never really sounded downhearted. They always had a good time even when they had their hearts ripped out. This sounds like M.C. Hammer trying to be a ganster rapper. It’s not the tried-and-true Crue formula that made these guys great. Just compare “Animal In Me” with “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away).”

The rest:
“L.A.M.F.” – L.A.M.E.
“Face Down in the Dirt” – Singing about how they’d rather be dead with a bullet in their head than wearing a three-piece suit or getting a real job is funny coming from a bunch of rich guys. The irony is that Nikki Sixx was named the president of Eleven Seven Records–maybe he doesn’t have to wear a three-piece suit but he has a job that’s more than writing songs and playing bass. The other interesting item is that three other people contributed to writing the songs–aside from Nikki Sixx. How can this be the band’s voice when they didn’t write the song?
“What’s It Gonna Take?” – The best part of the song is Mick’s solo. Even with his health problems, Mick is phenomenal. And Tommy Lee rips it up. The song is too monotonous and doesn’t have the big, glam chorus that they produced in the past. The problem is that the Crue cast a big shadow–one that is very hard to live up to.
“Motherf**ker of the Year” – There is no way the old Crue would have written a song like this–probably because their record label wouldn’t have let them. No matter how provocative the song is it isn’t very good.

Finally:
I grew up a Crue fan… and would have never predicted that they would ever disappear. They seemed like a franchise that could never die. They were the Google of rock.. that is until “Dr. Feelgood,” or maybe it was “Girls, Girls, Girls.” At that point they tipped from a rock band for metal fans to a rock band for the jocks and cheerleaders. I will admit to liking “Girls…” as a teenager. It was catchy as hell and impossible to get some of the songs out of your head. But it was all too corporate rock. The biggest problem with “Saints of Los Angeles” is that it wasn’t really written entirely by the Crue. They have some combination of James Michael, Dj Ashba, and Marti Frederiksen on every song. Also, there are some very good songs and some terrible songs (”Welcome to the Machine”). There is no perfect Crue album and yet some are classics. This is easily their best effort since their heyday and that says a lot. It’s a better effort than anything the Rolling Stones have given us in decades.

Watch the video for “Saints of Los Angeles”