Music DVD Review: Ted Nugent - Motor City Mayhem: 6,000th Concert - Page 2

The twenty song setlist was a pretty good one, covering most of the essential Nugent classics like "Cat Scratch Fever," "Free For All," "Dog Eat Dog," and "Stranglehold," while also mixing in some covers and a couple of new songs from his latest album, 2007's Love Grenade.

Greg Smith does a fine job singing the Weekend Warriors anthem, "Need You Bad," and Ted should have let him handle the title track as well. It would have been much sweeter had Ted gotten his other former bandmate, Charlie Huhn, to sing a few of his old songs. The main thing that has kept the few Ted Nugent concerts I have seen this past decades from being less than compelling is his insistence on performing as a trio and handling all of the lead vocals - with that stupid microphone wrapped around his face too.

The difference between the three Derek St. Holmes-led performances of "Hey Baby", "Cat Scratch Fever," and "Stranglehold," were like night and day from the rest of the performances. Not only is Holmes still an awesome singer, but his rhythm guitar playing really helps to flesh out the songs. Although Ted sang lead on most of his biggest hits, I'll be kind and just say that he is a guitarist first and foremost - and still a great one at that.

As with any Nugent concert, you'll have to put up with all of his between-song banter, which still sticks to his go-to subjects of patriotism, the troops, hunting, gun rights, killin', grillin', sex, and just how damn awesome he is. Unless you are a far-left liberal, you'll probably still find him fairly amusing as he bellows things like "Yeah, the troops!;" "Yeah, kill them terrorists!;" and "USA, USA, USA."

But it also gets a little old after like the FIRST time seeing him. Seeing Ted, decked out in full Indian chief head dress, shooting a flaming arrow into his "Great White Buffalo" guitar at the end of that song, however, will just never get old.

My favorite subtle quote of the night from him was after his performance with Joe Podorsek where he goes on to say, "That's where it all came from...and then I started writing love songs," - just before launching into "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang." Classic.

Article Author: Paul Roy

Paul Roy is a system administrator by day and amateur music DVD critic by night. When not attending as many live concerts as he possibly can, Paul likes nothing more than to kick back with a good concert DVD and rattle some walls. …

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