Alice Cooper & Tommy Lee Describe Budokan’s “Traffic Signal” for Crowd Control
January 23, 2015



Chuck Nowlin
Listen weekday afternoons from 2pm-7pm on 100.7 WZLX



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...

munichhilton wrote on Jan 24^th, 2015 at 9:06am:


Yep.

pffft...check out the Clash's filmed for TV gig in Tokyo from Sun Plaza Hall Feb. 2, 1982. The band are actually a bit off (for the Clash) as Joe had the flu, but the Jap kids are all standing and wildly enthusiastic. Very different from the usual preconceptions of Japaneses audiences. Maybe it was just the band, though...

mojoman wrote on Jan 25^th, 2015 at 2:48pm:



Will you be postin? I should be doing the same (cold, cold beer) but if I start again, that will definitely result in some kind of Hurricane SheRat sitch. Don't need that this week....