The Crue has spoken and the message is clear: heavy metal will never die.

Motley Crue kicked off its “Greatest Hits” tour with one of the greatest shows the foursome has ever played in Iowa Wednesday night at Stephens Auditorium.

As the bright lights rose up from the stage, showering the foggy scene with an intense white heat, the Crue came forth and slammed into the power-driven “Dr. Feelgood.”

The band looked like it was standing among the clouds as the gates of heaven opened up — purely the angels of rock ‘n’ roll. Vince Neil stomped around wearing a white lab coat as he tore through the lyrics while the rest of the band, clad in black leather, kept the energy building.

Before chopping into another oldie, “Girls, Girls, Girls,” Neil fired hundreds of colored papers into the air from his mammoth confetti gun.

“You mother fuckers really know how to rock,” he screamed.

The band then rocked through the new tune “Enslaved” off of the forthcoming “Greatest Hits.” It went over well with the crowd, especially the feedback solo from Nikki Sixx.

The Crue reached back a few years with three more songs, the high point of the triple threat being “Shout At The Devil.” It was a wild regala of call and response yelling between Neil and the entire auditorium.

Next, Tommy Lee came out from his hiding spot behind the drums, and gave his version of a thank-you speech for everyone being there for him when he was down. He was genuinely grateful for his fans’ support, especially after serving jail time.

“I’m out, we’re out, and my dick is hard,” Lee said before the rest of the band joined him back on stage for the hard-hitting “Wild Side.”

Neil was crazed with rage as he bounded around the stage punching at the air hitting every scream of “Wild Side!” with his microphone.

Finally it was time to slow things down. What would a Crue concert be without a “Zippo” ballad? Out came the hundreds of lighters as soon as the piano solo struck forth on the favorite “Home Sweet Home.”

After playing the band’s second new tune, “Bitter Pill,” Neil shared his thoughts on being out on the road again.

“It’s our first night on tour, and I’m loving life!” he said. “It’s good to see Tommy back … fucking jailbird.”

The Crue went on to rock through some more old-school material including “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away),” “Same Old Situation” and the ass-kicking “Kickstart My Heart” which ended the set with explosions of silver confetti.

Motley Crue came back out one more time, but only long enough to crank out two more songs, the show-closer being “Smokin’ In The Boys Room.”

Ames band 35″ Mudder opened the show with the group’s signature hip hop/distortion-heavy style. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get the energy flowing.

Mudder had hardly any lighting, so the band was playing under a dark and dreary wash of red and blue. It looked like five guys snuck up on stage and starting playing music while security was looking the other way.

Hearing the band at 50,000 watts in a giant auditorium didn’t do justice to its finely-tuned club show. It was an all-out unintelligible scream-for-all. The group should take a lesson from Rage Against the Machine.

The surprise middle act that followed was the Motley Records recording artists Laidlaw. The guys came out on stage donning Burger King crowns and sporting the casual jeans and T-shirt look that Candlebox has mastered.

The group started out the short set with a friendly blues-rock tune, surprising to hear from a bunch of guys that looked like a time-warped ’80s hair band.

Soon the group was punching through its heavy metal sound similar to Guns ‘N’ Roses and Skid Row. The lead singer even held the stage presence of a skinny, tight pants-wearing Axl Rose.

The band ended with a rocking cover of Rick Derringer’s “Rock And Roll Hootchie Koo.” It was awesomely powerful, but only because it wasn’t this burned-out band’s original material.