Live Review: Velvet Revolver at The Wiltern LG in Los Angeles
by Gabriel Sheffer
liveDaily Contributor
June 09, 2004 12:25 PM - Old-fashioned hard rock took center stage Tuesday night (6/8) in Los Angeles. A month after flooring the crowd at The Roxy on Sunset Strip, the all-star amalgam that is Velvet Revolver did the same thing for an excited, sold-out crowd at the larger Wiltern LG theater.
Featuring former Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland, three former members of Guns n' Roses (guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagen and drummer Matt Sorum), plus guitarist Dave Kushner (McKagan's onetime Loaded partner and ex-Wasted Youth guitarist), Velvet Revolver is most definitely a supergroup. Though its debut album, "Contraband," hit stores on Tuesday, the band already has been on the road for nearly a month.
When the lights went dark at 9:40--about 30 minutes later than scheduled--the crowd shrieked in unison. Then VR took the stage. McKagan, standing front and center, plucked an intense, boiling, bass line as Sorum pounded a meaty beat. Then--all at once--the lights exploded and the band was in full throttle. Weiland looked eerily like Axl Rose, wearing aviator sunglasses and a bawdy police cap. For much of the night, he snaked across the stage, his left hand clutching his hip.
"Hollywood," the singer announced, "do you believe in rock and roll?" And, true to form, this night included nearly every hard-rock cliche out there: sweaty, long-haired guys without shirts, singers posing atop the stage's manifold monitors, guitarists spitting out fast solos, and even the requisite shoulder-to-shoulder posturing. "This band's about rock and roll, people," the singer later reminded the crowd. Indeed.
The nearly 90-minute set featured several tracks off the group's debut, including "Headspace" and the ballad "Fall to Pieces," which Weiland said was inspired by his wife. "Big Machine" was a locomotive of distortion. After rebuking the moshing numbskulls down front, Weiland and boys launched into "Set Me Free," their hard charging contribution to "The Hulk" soundtrack. Here, Slash offered a quick, pissed-off guitar solo on his Les Paul. It was tight, screaming, vintage Slash. And while loyal fans rocked out to tunes they had yet to learn, some just couldn't wait for the more familiar stuff.
It was no surprise, then, that the tunes that earned the loudest applause were the ones that most attendees already had in their music collections.
GN'R fans were rewarded with "It's So Easy" and "I Used to Love Her," which opened the show's encore. Next came VR's first single, "Slither," with Weiland clutching the microphone with both hands. The song included some dramatic interludes with Slash dipping angry guitar licks into the mix.
Likewise, STP fans got what they were looking for when the group offered "Sex Type Thing." With a dangling cigarette peering from behind his poodle hair, Slash made the song his own, rocking out as he ran across the stage. But the clear fan favorite was "Mr. Brownstone," which showed up toward the end of the night. At the peak of his guitar solo, Slash leaned back onto Weiland's shoulders, two rock stars getting down and intimate.
With Scott Weiland, this band, which began its life as something called The Project--and in search of a lead singer--has managed to discover a primo rock-star frontman, preening, sexy, and powerful (sort of like their last singer). The Wiltern was also the right place for this band, with its massive sound system blasting gobs of distortion out into the crowd and its myriad lights blazing colors across the room.
By the show's encore, all the rockers onstage were shirtless. Slash had donned his signature top hat and played a solo behind his back, Weiland had spouted sweet rock nothings into his bullhorn, and the crack rhythm section of Kushner, McKagan and Sorum had obliterated any notion that they were past their prime.
As Velvet Revolver left the stage, sirens, noise, thunderous drums and lightning crashes filled the room. And if the avalanche of sound that recoiled across the Wiltern auditorium was any proof, hard rock remains alive and well--even in 2004.
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