I have both Motley and VH's sets at that US Festival on video, awesome shows!!!! Especially Motley's!!
I totally agree with joolzbentley that the thing missing from most of today's metal, despite any arguments people might put forward about the musicianship or whatever, is that they totally lack individuality or CHARACTER.
Metal now is so defined into subgenres, that its like you have a million "Melodic Speed Metal" bands who sound the same, a million "Melodic Death Metal" bands who sound the same, a million "Epic Power Metal" bands who sound the same, a million "Symphonic Black Metal" bands who sound the same, and you get the jist!
In the '80s it was more like there was just "Heavy Metal" which branched off into thrash on one side and hair/hard rock on the other side. And all the bands had their own unique character. All the vocalists sounded different (nowadays most power metal singers are the same, death metal singers are all the same, etc), every band had their own sound, image and vibe. It was great!
Even the glam scene where alot people say that was "all the same"... I think with that it was just that they looked soooo different from other scenes and all had big hair that it was easy to lump them together, but they were all actually way different even. Because today, all bands pretty much have the long hair, black t-shirt thing and its all the same, no different from all having spandex/leather and hairspray being the same but you just notice the image of the glam bands more. And you could never mistake Poison for Motley Crue or Cinderella for Warrant or Twisted Sister for Quiet Riot or anything, they all had their own trademark about their look which bands today don't have. And the same thing goes with their sound I think.
So that's my little rant on why '80s metal is better than today's metal. It had character, personality, individuality, attitude and spirit. Today's metal is only about the musicianship and sound really.
