Hair metal lives on with Vince Neil, Rock Sugar

Photo by Lindsey Turner // Buy this photo

Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe plays the Sam's Town Stage today.

Day 3 has started out sunny and warm and smelly as ever. The crowd is light enough right now that people can stick mostly to the sidewalks and spare what intact grass is left. Plastic sheeting and tarps have been scattered around strategic places (cough *beer carts* cough) to minimize the mushiness, but if any more rain falls — which it very well may do this evening — the mess is going to be amplified even more than the loudest stage here tonight.

Photo by Lindsey Turner

Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe plays the Sam's Town Stage today.

Sunday sights and sounds so far have included snippets of Sore Eyes and Boys Like Girls (whose front man Martin Johnson admitted that, after flying straight to Memphis after a 3 a.m. show at Disney World, he had "no f—king idea" where he was), as well as some time watching Rock Sugar mash up '80s pop tunes with hair-metal flair. (Here's a clip of Rock Sugar: ) Fun fact! Rock Sugar's lead singer voiced Wakko in the "Animaniacs" cartoon. Here's a little sample of his voice work. I learn something new every year at this festival, I swear.

Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil found himself and his fancy belt buckle in Memphis when Bret Michaels had to cancel due to some pretty serious health problems. Neil bounced around the Sam's Town Stage with major energy, and his guitarists threw down some of the finest rock-and-roll guitar faces I have ever seen. When they kicked in to "Dr. Feelgood," I knew I had to immediately text my sister once I made my way out of the photo pit. She was a big Crüe fan back in the day. Hell, her senior class song — while not "Dr. Feelgood" — was by Mötley Crüe. And, I'll be honest, they rocked the song, the crowd loved it, and it's been stuck in my head since they played it. So party on, Vince.

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