Some days it seems as if everything that was hot in the ’80s has made a comeback: “The Transformers,” new wave, Flavor Flaaaaaaaav. Somebody even gave Corey Haim and Corey Feldman a show. For some reason.

So why not Mtley Cre, the undisputed kings of Aqua Net-fueled rock and tonight’s main attraction at Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre?

The band rode a wave of monster hits through the ’80s – “Shout at the Devil,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Dr. Feelgood,” “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” – only to be rendered irrelevant during the grunge explosion of the early ’90s.

Sure, the hits compilations charted pretty well, showing there was an appetite for the Cre’s brand of glam-metal even when it wasn’t exactly in style. But the hard-rockin’, harder livin’ quartet – Seattle boy Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee – didn’t exactly help its comeback bid with lineup shakeups and lackluster studio albums through the ’90s.

How many of even the Cre’s most diehard fans still rock the self-titled disc from 1994, for example, with John Corabi filling in on vocals for the briefly departed Vince Neil? Not many; file with Gary Cherone’s Van Halen. And in 1997, “Generation Swine” also tanked with little fanfare. And by 1999, Lee had bolted to work on other projects.

But the comeback has been years in the making, with tell-all biographies whetting fans appetites for tales of the band’s debauchery-filled behind-the-scenes antics. “The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band,” written with author Neil Strauss, cracked the New York Times bestseller list in 2002, and is being made into a movie. Lee’s “Tommyland” and Sixx’s “The Heroin Diaries” followed, creating more Cre buzz.

And as with other resurgent ’80s stars, reality TV was part of the comeback equation, with Lee appearing on NBC’s “Tommy Lee Goes to College” and Neil showing up on VH1’s “The Surreal Life” and “Remaking Vince Neil.”

And Motleymania was back in full swing in early 2005, as the reunited band released hits collection “Red, White & Cre” and headlined Carnival of Sins, one of the year’s biggest tours.

And now the band is back on top (or close to it, at least) with a hit album, June release “Saints of Los Angeles,” which has reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and a package tour of like-minded bands, Buck Cherry, Papa Roach, Trapt and Sixx: AM

Tonight’s show and the remainder of the tour are sold out, a testament that the public is again hungry for the hedonistic, party hearty vibe the band championed two decades ago. And with Ozzfest no longer touring (having dropped anchor in Dallas this year), it’s one of the frontrunners to fill the void. Could this be a new tradition for metalheads? That remains to be seen. But now, it’s easily one of this summer’s hottest tickets for now.

Ernest A. Jasmin: 253-274-7389