Still Motley after all these years

The schedule posted at the Inglewood Forum noted that the next event following Wednesday’s Motley Crue concert would be Sunday’s Easter Resurrection Service for the church owning the arena.

Some things just write themselves.

See, the last time the Crue toured, five years ago, the band couldn’t get arrested. Well, its members could get arrested. They were good at that. But in terms of selling concert tickets, they were lifeless.

Today they’re selling out arenas across the country on the top rock tour of 2005 so far.

What happened? The obvious answer is that this tour features the full original lineup, while the last one went on without bad-boy drummer Tommy Lee. That void was cited for a lack of interest by many fans in the Forum parking lot Wednesday before the quintessential ‘80s hair-metal band’s concert.

“He makes the show,” said Martin Gonzalez, 32, enjoying a beer with a friend.

But it was more than that. Most fans also stayed away from late-’90s shows with Lee aboard.

Recent years have also seen the pop culture profiles of Lee, singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx and guitarist Mick Mars boosted through scandals, rehab, jail and reality TV stints, “Behind the Music,” the Lee and Pamela Anderson sexcapade video and the sensational 2002 tell-all autobiography, “The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band.”

But that’s not the whole story either. No, what’s changed has less to do with the band than with the fans.

“It was too close to my youth,” said Manuel Cypert, 34, explaining why he skipped the group’s last few tours. “Now I’m further down the road.”

Exactly. People raised on the Crue have hit that point where they’re distant enough from their teen past not to be embarrassed by it and, in fact, are craving to reconnect with their simpler, pre-job/family/whatever selves, even if just for a few hours.

“For me it’s about the old stuff from when I was in high school,” said Suzanne, a 30-year-old fan who declined to give her last name while sitting inside just before show time.

Motley Crue gave her exactly that. From the opening “Shout at the Devil” through a rousing “Girls, Girls, Girls” (still one of the great dumb-rock songs of all time) and “Dr. Feelgood,” the Crue conducted a generous celebration of juvenile fantasies and hedonism unburdened by intellectual or emotional complexities. The circus-themed presentation did have three stripper-acrobats (some rather impressive feats, actually), a dwarf, a Claymation film and retina-searing flame effects.

Metal cliches flew faster and thicker than a favorite profanity from Neil’s mouth, but they were the right cliches.

The music never transcended genre, but all these years after its ‘80s heyday, Motley Crue owns the genre.

The crowd overall did show signs of maturity, with few dolled up in metal gear and most just looking like regular people.

The band showed few signs of maturity, despite Sixx having his teenage son join on guitar for an encore of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” But that too was right for the situation. A matured Crue would have been useless to the fans this night.

Of course, that meant there was no way to avoid such antics as Lee taking a video camera to show female fans, most eagerly exposing their breasts for all to see on the big screens -- a ritual that just had a mechanical air.

Speaking of which, the Forum’s next event after Easter? “Robotics Competition” on April 1 and 2.