Alice Cooper & Tommy Lee Describe Budokan’s “Traffic Signal” for Crowd ControlJanuary 23, 2015
Chuck Nowlin
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Motley Crue and Alice Cooper continue to tour all over the world, and in the case of the Crue this is their farewell tour.
It’s being billed as “one final victory lap” for Motley Crue.
As for Alice? Pretty sure he’s un-dead, so he will be performing forever – no hologram required.
Alice and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee both joined Chuck Nowlin on the phone Friday afternoon to talk about the tour and the interesting places they’ve played. They offered some unique insight into Tokyo’s iconic Nippon Budokan, commonly known as just “Budokan.”
Ozzy Osbourne, Cheap Trick, and other classic bands have released famous “Live at Budokan” concerts, and Motley Crue are headed back there with Alice in February. The most striking aspect of playing a show there, according to Tommy, is the incredible crowd control. After songs ended, the crowd would stand and cheer in unison, then uncannily go silent and sit back down together.
Tommy describes the audience control as a “traffic signal” – there is literally a man with buttons who controls the behavior of the fans, much like “Applause” signs in TV studios. And there is apparently a “red button” that turns on the house lights. Tommy said the Crue have had to pay the guy off not to hit that button.It makes you wonder if an American audience could ever possibly be controlled by something like that. Do Americans have that kind of discipline and respect at rock concerts? Probably not.
Audio interview here:
http://wzlx.cbslocal.com/2015/01/23/alice-cooper-tommy-lee-describe-budokans-tra...