Take a trip back to the '80s with this Tucson hair metal cover band concert

Mötley Crüe is heading to Marana this weekend.

OK, so it’s not the real Mötley Crüe, but when you pass along The Station on Marana’s West Silverbell Road Saturday, May 1, you will probably swear that the sound coming from the parking lot is Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee.

Mötley Crüe’s No. 1 hits — “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Looks That Kill” and the ubiquitous “Dr. Feelgood” — are among the songs the Tucson metal cover band The Dirt will play at the Station Parking Lot Party on Saturday, May 1. Admission is $5 and the gates open at 5 p.m., music starts at 7 at The Station Pub and Grill, 8235 N. Silverbell Road in Continental Ranch.

“It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a wild night for sure,” said Andy Saenz, drummer for The Dirt, a band that launched in late 2019 just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The show will be only the third live show for The Dirt, which turns to the top hair metal bands of the 1980s — Ratt, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Warrant, Scorpions, Skid Row and Mötley Crüe — for inspiration and a setlist. The band did a show at the Station right before COVID hit — 650 people turned out, Saenz said — and another in Phoenix before everything shut down.

Saenz said the band has been rehearsing for the past couple months, preparing for a big show in El Paso, Texas, on May 2. He said they decided to add the Marana show as a warmup.

Expect to hear Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Ratt’s “Round and Round” and Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark.”

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“We sing all the No. 1, biggest, sing-along hits,” said Saenz, who with The Dirt guitarist Gage Schmidt is also a member of the Tucson country cover band Backroads.

Saturday’s concert is being presented by Tierra Antigua Realty, where Andy Saenz works as a Realtor. Saenz said they are bringing in a big stage and lighting effects that will create a 1980s arena show ambience. The band also is encouraging people to deck out in their favorite 1980s big hair, heavy metal finery to match the band.

“We’ll be in full makeup with wigs and leather,” Saenz said. “The show is over the top like in the ‘80s.”

As more COVID-19 restrictions are lifted around the country, The Dirt, which took its name from the 2019 Netflix Mötley Crüe biopic of the same name, is starting to book more shows. Saenz said they have been in talks with a couple of festivals and casinos and hope to be more than a weekender band.

“We are definitely taking more bookings,” he said, adding that the band’s performances include a “crazy light show” and stage production. “It’s pretty intense. It’s not just five guys jamming out. It’s a full production.”

In addition to Saenz and Schmidt, The Dirt includes Michael Charron on guitar, Jon Cornely on lead vocals and Saenz’s brother Abe, who lives in San Diego, on bass.