HERRIMAN, Utah, March 18, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — P.J. Estrella has vivid memories of his first attempt to hear favorite band Mötley Crüe play a sold-out concert at the Salt Palace.
Tragically, Estrella and fellow teenage friends arrived with no tickets to the one band that meant the world to them.
“It was back in the cassette era days, when you put a cassette tape into your car player, and you left it for months at a time because it just kept playing over and over,” Estrella recalled. “That was me and Mötley Crüe, for sure.”
The young friends needed a miracle, and they got one when additional tickets were released, and they were able to buy some. The hair-metal band’s concert was high energy and still in its glam stage, and the whole experience was sublime.
“It was lightning in a bottle,” Estrella said, the awe still obvious in his voice.
Shared by Rüde & Crüe’d.
A few decades later, Estrella and other members of their tribute band, Rüde & Crüe’d, do their best to deliver the same kind of glam garb and bottled bolts for Utah audiences. The band plays Herriman’s Redemption Bar & Grill, a 21 and older venue, on Friday. Buy your tickets here, before they are gone. Regular and VIP tickets are available.
Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and the show starts at 9:30 at the south valley hotspot, at 3517 W. Maradona Drive. Fans are also welcome to dress for the era. Hair band-inspired hairspray is optional.
Estrella and the band love Redemption, he said.
“It’s great, because they’re out there, in their own corner of the valley, and it’s like they have their own world out there. It’s a whole other world, with lots of Crüe fans in Herriman and the Daybreak areas.
Estrella also likes that the entertainment stage is in the basement, which seems to add an element of containment and intensification to the space.
“It fills up, and then the energy is so awesome in that intimate little space. We love Redemption. It’s a lot of fun playing there, not to mention that the people are great and the food is fantastic.”
But the show is all about the music, of course, which brings us back to the early version of Mötley Crüe. Estrella, on guitar, performs in the approximate costume and role of Mick Mars. Kurt Anderson, on bass, plays Nikki Sixx. Bill Morris, on drums, plays the Tommy Lee role, and Christina Holbrook, on vocals, plays a female version of Vince Neil.
“And that goes over so well, people love it,” Estrella said of Holbrook. “She kicks butt on all the songs, and she’s wearing the costume, but also has the sexiness of her own style. People just love it.”
Shared by Rüde & Crüe’d.
Estrella has seen almost every Mötley Crüe concert to come to Utah over the years, but there will always be something special about his first. He remembers the high energy, the musical mastery of each band member, the hard-living, reckless personas, and the larger-than-life presentation.
And Rüde & Crüe’d does its best to deliver the same kind of experience.
“We’ve had fans come up to us and say they just saw Motley Crue a month or two ago, ‘and you guys blow them away.’ At first I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa. Slow down.’ You know, Motley Crue is Motley Crue. But after hearing it a few times, it’s like, hey, that’s really cool, that people think that, for sure.
“People feel our vibe, and they can tell that we’re really enjoying it, and thus, you know that they enjoy it as well. It’s a great thing.”
Shared by Rüde & Crüe’d.
Redemption Bar & Grill is a proud sponsor of Gephardt Daily and supporter of independent local journalism in Utah.
