VR Review Boston Herald

[FunkyMonkey]

Slash bites the bullet; Revolver fires blanks

By Jed Gottlieb

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Updated: 07:08 PM EST

Some rules you can?t break.

     Velvet Revolver can pull a mini-Axl Rose and go on 45 minutes late. The supergroup can recast herky-jerky "Psycho Killer" in its own hard-rock image for a poorly conceived encore. But the band cannot demote Slash to a bit player the way it did at its sold-out Avalon date Wednesday. Unforgivable.

     Slash is the sleaziest sleaze-rock guitarist of all time: a Gibson master second only to Page and Perry; a guy who legitimized metal guitar by infusing blues riffs with a genuine punk aesthetic. Scott Weiland, famous for fronting Stone Temple Pilots (and filling gossip pages with his drug-related problems), is a decent frontman for Velvet Revolver, but there?s just no reason for him to box in Slash?s guitar with his unremitting singing, talking, moaning, screeching and bullhorn shenanigans.

     It wasn?t all Weiland?s fault. The singer may have trespassed on Slash?s territory, but he did his job. Looking like a strung-out skeleton and dressed as a flamboyant WWI flying ace complete with aviator glasses and pilot cap, Weiland spun around the stage (more than once invoking Rose with his serpentine hips) propelling the band through songs from its forthcoming CD, "Libertad" (due out July 3), and 2004?s "Contraband." No, there?s plenty of blame to go around.

     Whoever was running sound did an awful job by pushing Slash far back in the mix. Second guitarist Dave Kushner needs to give Slash space the way Izzy Stradlin did in Guns N? Roses. And Slash has to assert himself and solo for more than two bars at a time.

     Good grief! Slash was half of what made GNR the world?s biggest band. He still wears his trademark top hat (which under close scrutiny is likely pinned to his head) during shows. His name is Slash! If he can?t assert himself, who can?

     The good news is that new songs such as "Get Out the Door," "Just Sixteen" and "The Last Fight," which is bound to be the big hit from "Libertad," have better riffs than most of what?s found on the uninspired "Contraband."

     The showstopper (and the best Axl-irony tune) was encore "Wish You Were Here." Slash began the song by looping a double-necked guitar and playing a David Gilmore-meets-Hendrix solo. It was what Velvet Revolver was meant to be: Slash spearheading a good hard-rock band.
   
 VELVET REVOLVER

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=1001791

[-Jack-]

I'm not sure if this review is biased or not, because who knows.. maybe this guy is just a big GNR fan and didn't give the band a chance, but he DOES have a point.

Why doesn't Slash play a bigger role in VR? It seems like he's cramped. Is he afraid to? Does he care to?

[estebanf]

it's just a matter of time to this dude Jed Gottlieb to be accused of being a Jarmo asslicker, an axlite and all those typical arguements...

[Smoking Guns]

The point is, we all want Slash to be the Guitar hero he is.  In GNR, there was no doubt about the Lead Guitar/Lead Vocalist Dynamic. 

I wish Slash had 10 solo's per show. 

I wish he was better in the mix. 

I wish the band would just jam with out weiland some. 

But the review wasn't "bad".  It talks nicely of the new songs.

It is actually flattering to Slash cause this guy is a huge fan and wants him to shine.  I agree with that!

[Naupis]

I was waiting for one of these at some point, can't win them all. If you Google VR right now in the news section, there are good reviews all over the place. You can't win them all.

He is right about Slash being too far back in the mix. I noticed that in Chicago, it was worse at some times than others, but it is an issue.

Just because the guy didn't like the show doesn't make him biased, it just means he didn't like the show. For every bad one there is a good one, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Good grief! Slash was half of what made GNR the world?s biggest band.

On second thought, we know this guy has to be out of his mind because he didn't get the memo that Axl Rose is Guns n' Roses and was the sole driving force in making the band what it became. At least we know he must not be much of a GNR fan for not knowing that ahead of time. At least we know he isn't biased against VR because he is obviously not much of a GNR fan with crazy talk like that.

[Genesis]

Pretty much agree with the article.

The good news is that new songs such as "Get Out the Door," "Just Sixteen" and "The Last Fight," which is bound to be the big hit from "Libertad," have better riffs than most of what?s found on the uninspired "Contraband."

That's good news indeed.

[Smoking Guns]

I was waiting for one of these at some point, can't win them all. If you Google VR right now in the news section, there are good reviews all over the place. You can't win them all.

He is right about Slash being too far back in the mix. I noticed that in Chicago, it was worse at some times than others, but it is an issue.

Just because the guy didn't like the show doesn't make him biased, it just means he didn't like the show. For every bad one there is a good one, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Good grief! Slash was half of what made GNR the world?s biggest band.

On second thought, we know this guy has to be out of his mind because he didn't get the memo that Axl Rose is Guns n' Roses and was the sole driving force in making the band what it became. At least we know he must not be much of a GNR fan for not knowing that ahead of time. At least we know he is biased against VR because he is obviously not much of a GNR fan with crazy talk like that.

Ha!!!!!!!!! ?Any true GNR fan knows Axl was the driving force and anybody plus Axl = GNR. ?

[Genesis]

Ha!!!!!!!!!  Any true GNR fan knows Axl was the driving force and anybody plus Axl = GNR. 

Such utter sacrilege! Are you even a 'true' GN'R fan?
Anybody + Axl = GN'R?

Any 'true' GN'R fan knows that it's:
Axl = GN'R. Period.

[Naupis]

Any 'true' GN'R fan knows that it's:
Axl = GN'R. Period.

We should all bombard this asshole with emails about what a dumbass he is because he is spreading lies and creating havoc on the internet making blasphemous statements about Axl only being half the reason GNR got famous. Someone needs to set this guy straight already.

[ShotgunBlues1978]

He probably isn't that big of a GNR fan.  If he was he wouldn't be perpetuating the myth that GNR was all about Axl and Slash while ignoring the songwriting and musical dynamic Izzy brought to the table 

[cfcsfc]

Poor review. It wasn't so much as a review of the gig or the band, but rather just Slash. The word 'Slash' actually came up 12 times. I like Slash as much as the next guy, but it sounds like this reviewer wants VR to be "Slash feat. those other guys'.

[D]

For real guys, Does this reviewer not know that Axl whistled all of Slash's riffs and solos to him?

GEEZ!

[estebanf]

Poor review. It wasn't so much as a review of the gig or the band, but rather just Slash.

Have you ever seen Velvet Revolver live? My experience (and the experience of all my friends and the majority of the people I've talked to) is basically attending to a ''Slash'' show. He's magnetic: you are all the time looking at him and just him, his moves, his gestures, his fingers, his cigarrette... The cameras were following him all the time, almost forgetting that there's a rhythm guitarist, a bassist, a singer and a drummer onstage too. And the concert ends and all your memories, all the good things you're able to remember a week after are things related to him. When the new songs appeared, I tried hardly to abstract myself from everything sounding there except for his guitar, his beautiful and soulful melodies, because all the other surrounding music was crap.

The day after the show, was the time for ''reviews'' at the spanish speaking forum where I post. All reviews, dont matter if they were positive or not, talked about him, the sensations that he provoked on us, comments about his solos, his facial expression, how he was dressed, etc. I, for example, dont have a single memory from Duff (all I know is that he was stood up in front of his mic for one hour), nothing about Matt, and I've paid a ticket to see VR and I dont know if I put my eyes in Kushner once. Who cares?

What I want to say is that is kinda understandable for anyone reviewing a VR show to focus mostly on Slash. Slash and his Gibson Les Paul are the 95% of the reasons to pay a ticket for a VR show. Divide the remaining 5% in Weiland/Duff/Matt and the music in general. And if you read this pro-review carefully, the dude says a lot of nice things about Slash, and I agree with him (and I think everybody will) in almost all of them. Slash is a fucking rock god, and he will still be a rock god, no matter how many Scott Weiland's he finds in his career from now on.

[metallex78]

I feel bad for you estebanf if you've seen such a bad show as you claim. The two VR shows I saw in Sydney in 2005, the whole band was awesome, Dave, Duff, Slash and Scott were all over the stage giving energetic performances throughout the whole gig. Even Matt who's stuck behind his kit was really enthusiastic up there too.

I guess anyone expecting a show that solely focuses on Slash and Slash alone might be going in with the wrong expectations, as these guys are very much a band, at least that's the impression I got from seeing them live.

[Doc Emmett Brown]

For real guys, Does this reviewer not know that Axl whistled all of Slash's riffs and solos to him?

GEEZ!

   Is this why you're at -4 karma now? 


well, I'm excited to hear the 3 songs he mentioned, I'll let them be a surprise for when I buy the album.

[mrlee]

Good grief! Slash was half of what made GNR the world?s biggest band.

On second thought, we know this guy has to be out of his mind because he didn't get the memo that Axl Rose is Guns n' Roses and was the sole driving force in making the band what it became. At least we know he must not be much of a GNR fan for not knowing that ahead of time. At least we know he isn't biased against VR because he is obviously not much of a GNR fan with crazy talk like that.

Well your quite the fool arnt you.

[GeraldFord]

I'ce emailed Jed Gottlieb back-and-forth. He's a cool guy, but pretty hard on the bands he writes about.

[guns_n_motley]

thats how I always felt about Slash in VR. like hes holding back.