Velvet Revolver - Hollywood CA
Location: Wiltern Theater
Author: Arturo Perez
Photography: Dan Winters
Velvet Revolver is the super band everyone's been talking about. Unless you have been living under a rock you must already know that this super group is much like that other super group from last year, Audioslave. All star band (Guns N' Roses) gets dissed by rock star prima donna (Axl) and joins forces with a vocalist from the grunge era (Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland).
On the day that their debut album comes out in stores, the band is playing a sold out show at the Wiltern Theater in Hollywood CA to a crowd that is a mix between old school rockers who haven't bought a new CD in over 10 years, and the college kids that bought Audioslave but not Good Charlotte.
Starting an hour later because of the Lakers game overtime, and probably some obligatory celebration after that, the announcer graciously makes it up to the crowd by saying, "bringing back the punk in punktuality, here is Velvet Revolver!"
Due to the long delay, the crowd is ready to embrace whatever comes out, as they blast it off with their opening track from Contraband, "Sucker Train Blues." It's loud rock and roll with all the stage trickeries of the 80's. The crowd loves, the girls start to dance, energy is felt all across the room.
And after a few more songs it's clear that the energy is all fuzz, as the songs start to wear down with their monotony, Weiland's change of voice becomes painfully obvious that it's not very natural, and you start thinking, hey, Slash looks kind of fat and worn down.
Many among the crowd do enjoy the show and keep it up with the excitement, but the dancing does slow down, and the frenzy becomes one big standing room, with some heads bopping. The applauses do continue, but you get the feeling, it's more of the crowd's energy coming from a long desire to see Guns N' Roses or Stone Temple Pilots rather than this new spawn of rock n' roll.
Even when Slash plays with his guitar backwards, it looks constricted and out of style. Everyone can do that now Slash; it's not that great of a trick.
But not all is bad, there are highlights, like when the band plays the single "Slither," one of the best songs on the new album, finally I went, whoa, listen, Weiland's voice is actually there!
The best songs come in the way of a couple of covers from the members' previous bands, STP's "Sex Type Thing" and Crackerman," and GnR's "It's So Easy" and "Used to Love Her." So what does this say about Velvet Revolver? It is one of the best cover bands of our time! You have to see it though, they are still one of the few straight rock n' roll bands we've got.
More Velvet Revolver content at Kludge....
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