Motley Crue bring the girls to Toronto’s waterfront with Carnival of Sins Tour

Published Jul 23, 2026  •  Last updated 23 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Mötley Crüe play the RBC Stage at Ottawa Bluesfest Saturday, July 13, 2024. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

When in doubt, girl, girls, girls, right, Motley Crue?

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The veteran heavy metal band, who’ve been around for 45 years, returned to Toronto on Wednesday night at the RBC Amphitheatre with the 20th anniversary of their Carnival of Sins Tour and brought four scantily-clad female singers/dancers with them.

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Sometimes they danced, sometimes they crawled on the ground, sometimes they writhed around, sometimes they cracked whips.

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Whatever the women did, they were never boring and perhaps a bit of a distraction given Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil, 65, seems to still be recovering from a serious Christmas 2024 stroke that left his entire left side paralyzed and had him learning to walk again, never mind performing on a stage in front of a live audience.

So, if Neil was a bit stiff as a performer, he can definitely be forgiven.

Under a red-and-white striped big top tent with plenty of creepy clown videos and various versions of black leather outfits, the band — rounded out by bassist Nikki Sixx, 67, drummer Tommy Lee, 63, and guitarist John 5, 55, (the lone wearer of shiny black PVC) — provided the rest of the energy during a 17-song, 90-minute set with the tunes chosen by fans.

Opening with Red Hot, the group segued easily into Louder than Hell, and Wild Side before hitting their stride with Shout at the Devil, Take Me To The Top, and Primal Scream.

At times, it was hard to see them, especially Lee at the very back behind his enormous drum kit, due to all the dry-iced produced smoke on stage.

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Thankfully, there was a camera fixed on Lee so you could see his heavily tattooed arms at work.

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The only time the pace slowed to a crawl was mysteriously before the stand-out power ballad Home Sweet Home, and Sixx took some time to thank Canadian fans for supporting the group and invoked everyone from Keith Richards to Ozzy Osbourne as group influences.

Lee appeared on the piano for the song and Neil came out of the wings and seemed to look at the lyrics on a piece of paper but didn’t appear to need them when he actually sang the tune.

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Following that, the show’s latter highlights included Girls, Girls, Girls and Dr. Feelgood before the group wrapped up with Kickstart My Heart.

Background on band’s legal battle

Meanwhile, John 5 (real name John Lowery), a former member of David Lee Roth’s band, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie who replaced original axeman Mick Mars, 73, in 2022 as a touring member before becoming a full-time member in 2023, proved to be a highly watchable soloist.

Mars, who suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) which is a chronic, painful form of inflammatory arthritis that caused his vertebrae to fuse together and limited his mobility, sued the band but in January Motley Crue won the legal battle.

After selling more than 100 million albums worldwide, the band is showing no signs of slowing down even though it should be pointed out they did do a farewell tour in 2015 which was followed by a 2022 reunion tour and so on.

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SET LIST

Red Hot

Louder Than Hell

Wild Side

Shout at the Devil

Too Fast for Love

Looks That Kill

Too Young to Fall in Love

Take Me to the Top

Primal Scream

Afraid

Home Sweet Home

Guitar Solo

Smokin’ in the Boys Room

Live Wire

Girls, Girls, Girls

Dr. Feelgood

RATING: *** (3 out of four)

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