Velvet Revolver/Alice in Chains
Sleep Train Pavilion, Concord, CA
September 14, 2007
By Dan Wall
Velvet
Revolver Set List: Let It Roll, She Mine, Sucker Train Blues, Do it For the
Kids, Big Machine, Vasoline, The Last Fight, Interstate Love Song, Patience,
It’s So Easy, Get Out the Door, She Builds Quick Machines, Fall To Pieces, Set
Me Free. Encore: Mr. Brownstone, Sex Type Thing, Slither. 80 minutes.
You’ve
heard the song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” right? Friday night, Velvet
Revolver left its singer in San Francisco.
With
the rest of the band tucked away comfortably backstage at the Sleep Train
Pavilion in Concord, vocalist Scott Weiland was in the city by the bay, over 30
miles away, at showtime. The band was nearly an hour late for its performance
when the erstwhile vocalist finally arrived (by cab, mind you) at the venue.
If this
had been five years ago, we would have assumed that Mr. Weiland or one of the
other merry men in this supergroup had either relapsed, got into a fight with a
former band member or found a real good looking groupie for a pre-show quickie.
Not now, though, as it seems Mr. Weiland thought the gig was in San Francisco
(the site of the previous three VR appearances in the Bay Area), and simply got
mixed up on the travel details.
We’ll
give him, and the rest of the boys, the benefit of a doubt because no one looked
drunk, pissed off or out of sorts one bit. The only drag with the band’s late
arrival was that the fact that five songs had to be knocked off the regular set
list, but truth be told, it might have tightened things up a bit. The band’s
80-minute set blazed by in a flash as the group worked hard to get off by
curfew.
Weiland
(the former singer for Stone Temple Pilots) looked and sounded great, and so did
Slash, who fired off riffs and solos just like he did all those years ago with
Guns N Roses. Bassist Duff McKagen and drummer Matt Sorum, both former Gunners,
were rock solid, and second guitarist Dave Kushner basically plays his role and
stays out of the way of the stars, which have found a way to meld the sounds of
their former bands into a tasty rock and roll stew that has revived their
careers.
The
lighting was bright, the sound was good and the video was entertaining. The band
filled out the set list with the best of its two records and a number of songs
from the band member’s former projects, and it looked and felt like a real rock
show. So how come the set never really caught fire?
Two
reasons, and it had nothing to do with the tardiness of the headliners. First,
despite the brilliance of the band’s two records, the crowd really only came
alive when the STP and GNR songs that were played. I like the VR stuff just
fine, but there is something about the beginning of “Mr. Brownstone” that just
gets you up and moving. Second, that same crowd only numbered about 4000 fans,
and left many wondering just what has happened to the Bay Area’s rock and roll
crowd.
Especially with Alice in Chains along as the special guest, one has to wonder
just what you have to do these days to fill these amphitheaters up. The band
played a theater show nearby last year, but this was the group’s first major gig
here since 1993, when the late vocalist Layne Staley was still fronting the
band. His replacement, William Duvall, does a fine job onstage in front of
longtime members Mike Inez (bass), Sean Kinney (drums) and guitar god Jerry
Cantrell.
Duvall
sounds enough like Staley that the music is authentic, but he doesn’t do a
straight impression. And he certainly doesn’t have the same sort of stage
presence-the last time I saw AIC, the show was very dark, Staley hardly moved
and the whole place felt like a heroin den (which is not a stretch for AIC, if
you know the band’s history).
This
time, the mood was cheerful, the lights colorful and bright, and the songs (a
decent selection of tunes from all three of the band’s full-length records,
including “Man in a Box,” “Would,” “We Die Young” and “Them Bones), while still
as somber as ever, actually rocked with this version of the band. And much of
that has to do with Cantrell, who really roared on guitar on this night.
His
playing was as fluid as ever, as the long blonde-haired, skinny-as-a-rail
guitarist rocked the house with wah-wah soaked solos and big, beefy riffs. An
argument could be made, and it probably was at some time during the night, that
Cantrell was the more impressive of the guitarists who played at this show, and
that’s saying something when that other guitarist is Slash.
One
great thing about this show that I mentioned earlier-it looked like a rock show,
despite the attendance. These musicians wear their leather pants, frilly shirts
and tattoos proudly. Most of these guys have long hair and you can actually see
the miles on their faces and the scars from years on the road. They look like
they’ve all lived the rock and roll lifestyle, and along the way have either
done a stint in rehab, had a dust-up with a fellow musician or lost a good
friend to the evils of the business. These guys played that way as well, and its
too bad there were so few here to see it all.
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