Worcester Centrum review

[tomass74]

The centrum has always been known for shitty sound. The place needs to be leveled. I was on the floor in the middle though and it was pretty good there. Scott was still a bit muffled. I just talked to a couple other people that went who said the sound was "Great". They were also on the floor, it depends where you were I guess.

The Centrum holds 15,000 and it was about 70% full. Like I said I was on the Floor so I can't speak for the the rest of the place but the crowd on the floor was nuts. People were crowd surfing all over the place, and a couple little pits broke out. People were puffing and enjoying themselves. The crowd went really nuts during the Gn'R and STP tunes the most along with Slither.

The band was tight although the sound wasn't the best. They all sat down and jammed awhile before Used To Love Her and that was really cool. There were actually a few extended jams like in Set Me Free that were cool and at one point Dave went off for awhile! It was pretty damn sweet...One of my two favorite moments were Slash's It's So Easy solo that was intense and the second by far was Illegal I. It may not be peoples favorite but they just fucking jammed out in the middle for like 5 minutes. It was awesome I actually forgot they were playing the song for awhile until they got back into it. This also happend in No More No More when they rocked the fuck out.

Scott- The sound was shitty but he did his job. I have seen them before and STP twice so that was no surprise. The guy can really keep your attention at times I would forget Slash was there.

Slash-He was completely on his game, Slash at his best. Nuff said.

Dave-Also on his game.

Duff- He was Duff.


One thing I was surprised about was there was no stage show. Usually when you play an arena you have some special lights or something. All they had was what they had at? the club shows which is nothing. There wasn't even a Screen behind them. I don't think I have ever seen a show at an arena without a screen. You really need that type of shit to keep the fans who are seated further back. They had more of a stage show at that free show they did...

Good show over all, I would give it a 7/10. I think Friday in Manchester will be better!!

Edit: I feel 15 songs for? a headlining band is not enough, especially when you have 3 Kick ass tunes like Dirty Little Thing, Loving The Alien and You Got No Right just being ignored........Superhuman was graet by the way!!

[Eazy E]

Seems like they're doing the same thing as the club tour except they threw in Superhuman and No More No More.... that kind of sucks.

Was the arena set up in an end-stage way?  or concert bowl?  Like were there actually 15,000 seats available, or only half?

[tomass74]

The stage was at the end like most concerts. They weren't selling the seats behind the stage if that is what you mean. There was probably 10,000 there. 

[C0ma]

I was there towards the back of the floor, I think the estimate of 10,000 is a bit too high...... there were almost no people in the upper sections, and the rear of the floor was totally empty. I'd say 5-6K is a better guess of the crowd size.

Also, the sound is generally terrible at the Centrum, but their sound crew was much more to blame for that...... Their highs and lows were peaked the whole show, they made no attempts to alter the sound in any way (of course there were 5 or 6 strippers in the sound "booth", I know I wouldn't have been to worried about the sound myself)

[tomass74]

I was there towards the back of the floor, I think the estimate of 10,000 is a bit too high...... there were almost no people in the upper sections, and the rear of the floor was totally empty. I'd say 5-6K is a better guess of the crowd size.

Also, the sound is generally terrible at the Centrum, but their sound crew was much more to blame for that...... Their highs and lows were peaked the whole show, they made no attempts to alter the sound in any way (of course there were 5 or 6 strippers in the sound "booth", I know I wouldn't have been to worried about the sound myself)

  I'm gonna stick with 10,000 or pretty close. The floor was sold out still, they only sell enough to fill up the first 3/4. The Floor and the first tier take up 2/3rds of the tickets sold at the Centrum and they were sold out. The second tier was basically empty and the 3rd tier was too but the tiers get smaller as they go up with the 3rd tier only have 14 small sections with like 5 rows. Either way they arent going to sell anywhere out. I am going to Manchester tommorrow which holds only 10,000 for shows and that is far from selling out. You should have told that sound guy to wake the fuck up lol....

[jarmo]

Velvet Revolver right on target in Worcester show

Velvet Revolver offered nothing but hype

That group debuted locally Tuesday night at Worcester Centrum Centre delivering a short and wholly unsatisfying 70-minute set in front of a half-full arena.


If he's right, 10000 seems a bit optimistic don't you think?


/jarmo

[mikegiuliana]

It's possible, the guy who went from here tomass desribed the place to us.. Remember when gnr played some said half empty arenas but it wasn't 100 percent accurate..

if a place holds 15 and there are only ten it will look like it's half empty ,especially if most fans are crowded up front.

[AxlGunner]

Velvet Revolver right on target in Worcester show

Velvet Revolver offered nothing but hype

That group debuted locally Tuesday night at Worcester Centrum Centre delivering a short and wholly unsatisfying 70-minute set in front of a half-full arena.


If he's right, 10000 seems a bit optimistic don't you think?


/jarmo

If tomass is right, half-full seems a bit pessimistic don't you think?

[tomass74]

Velvet Revolver right on target in Worcester show

Velvet Revolver offered nothing but hype

That group debuted locally Tuesday night at Worcester Centrum Centre delivering a short and wholly unsatisfying 70-minute set in front of a half-full arena.


If he's right, 10000 seems a bit optimistic don't you think?


/jarmo

Well jarmo,
1.)That guy also said "70-minute" in the same sentence. They played 90 minutes..

2.)Then he said "The band worked down the list of their 13 songs from "Do It For The Kids" to "Dirty Little Thing," all the while sounding rushed and unfocused."-- They only played 9 of their songs and "Dorty Little Thing wasn't one of them

He exagerated everything in the review....

[jarmo]

If tomass is right, half-full seems a bit pessimistic don't you think?

Another concert goer, C0ma says 5-6000.

Isn't that about half full?

He exagerated everything in the review....

Maybe. But sometimes the reporters actually get ticket sale info. Who knows.




/jarmo

[dave-gnfnr2k]

Velvet Revolver offered nothing but hype
Friday, November 12, 2004
By DONNIE MOORHOUSE
Music writer

WORCESTER - We waited for this?


While former Stone Temple Pilots front man Scott Weiland rehabbed and relapsed and rehabbed again, rock'n' roll fans drooled over rumors of his pending super group which would feature Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum, once of Guns'N Roses.


That group debuted locally Tuesday night at Worcester Centrum Centre delivering a short and wholly unsatisfying 70-minute set in front of a half-full arena.


In the empty room, the concert had the feel of a small-time show, a fledgling rock tour that had rolled into town. That was before the show started. The band did nothing to dispel that notion.


Velvet Revolver has a single album, "Contraband," and enough hype to warrant the arena tour. They brought little else to the table.


Following a recorded announcement to "stop your grinnin' and drop your linen," the band took the stage and opened with "Sucker Train Blues" while a blistering bank of strobe lights flooded the venue.

Weiland strutted around the stage, overplaying the front man routine like some odd fusion of Bono's The Fly and the motorcycle cop from the Village People. His main accoutrement for the night was a megaphone, a hackneyed rock tool that was overused long before Weiland's abuse of the mechanism.


In fact, if it weren't for the flickering strobe and the megaphone - one of which was used on every song, both were used on most - the band had an empty bag of tricks. It became quite apparent early on, particularly when fans took up a random chant of "Yankees Suck!" during the show, that there was little on stage worth watching.


The band worked down the list of their 13 songs from "Do It For The Kids" to "Dirty Little Thing," all the while sounding rushed and unfocused.


Weiland announced that "Fall to Pieces" was the song that originally brought the band together, and the power-chord rock ballad stood out in the set, but was hardly inspirational enough to warrant forming a band and ruining everyone's Tuesday night.


Through "Big Machine" (again sung through the megaphone) and "Set Me Free," the band kept pushing a big rock up a very big hill, getting nowhere fast. When they left the stage after 55 minutes, the crowd seemed stunned.


Was that it? Were they coming back? Should we applaud?


While the audience mingled in a state of confusion the band was backstage in a quandary. They were supposed to return for an encore, but they weren't being called back with any measurable level of enthusiasm.


They came back anyway, and worked up their best song of the night, Aerosmith's "No More, No More." They closed the show with two Guns'N Roses songs, "Used to Love Her" and "Mr. Brownstone," followed by the VR original "Slither."

[Booker Floyd]

(Sigh)

So what high school paper did you get this from, Dave?

[younggunner]

not that i care...but how come every negative review comes from a high school paper?

[Booker Floyd]

Maybe. But sometimes the reporters actually get ticket sale info. Who knows.

I cant believe that "reporter"s writing was actually featured in a legitimate newspaper...It seems that every "reporter" that trashes VR cant really write...Just a coincidence, Im sure.

[Booker Floyd]

Apparently, this comes from The Republican...no idea how prestigious that paper is.  It just seems that every time a negative review is posted (usually by Dave), its so poorly written that I automatically assume its an amateur effort.

For what its worth, The Boton Herald, you know, a real newspaper, saw things a little differently.

Velvet Revolver right on target in Worcester show
By Christopher Blagg
Thursday, November 11, 2004

While new wave-inspired acts such as the Killers and Interpol have brought the Reagan era back into the mainstream, glam-grunge supergroup Velvet Revolver has arrived to bridge the gap between late '80s and early '90s nostalgia.
 
     Oft-rehabbed singer Scott Weiland and Guns 'N Roses alums Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum brought their high-octane arena rock excesses to the Worcester Centrum on Tuesday night to the delight of long-deprived hair metal and alt-rock fans from throughout Massachusetts.
 
     Axl Rose may have been nowhere in sight, but Weiland's over-the-top stage exploits provided an equally excessive frontman substitute. The former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist bounded onto the stage sporting an outfit that could only be described as military chic, complete with Iron Cross insignias, prompting Weiland to add a Weimar Republic march to his slinky stage calisthenics.
 
     His main ax-man, Slash, looked much the same, minus the iconic black top hat, but still rocking his signature unkempt black mane. The opening tune of their debut record, ``Sucker Train Blues,'' also opened their set, its barreling rock rumble stating their rock-or-die manifesto in no uncertain terms.
 
     Early in the show, the band dipped into the past with the Stone Temple Pilots nugget ``Crackerman,'' complete with Weiland's patented bullhorn vocal technique, the original grungey alt-rock feel of the tune getting a glam-rock sheen courtesy of his ex-GnR bandmates.
 
     Velvet Revolver somehow managed to reconcile the excesses of glam rock with the dour bite of grunge. The audience responded by combining arena-rock gestures such as the obligatory lighter salute and the breast-baring-girls-on-their-boyfriends'-shoulders routine with '90s-style crowd-surfing and moshing.
 
     Some moments remained firmly entrenched in one camp or the other, exemplified by the impressive flashback power ballad ``Fall to Pieces,'' but most of the tunes borrowed heavily from both the Sunset Strip and the Seattle traditions.
 
     Weiland's voice proved to be every bit as powerful and engaging as that of Rose. But the chameleon tag that dogged him in the early '90s did seem to hold true at times, especially on covers of such GnR classics as ``Mr. Brownstone,'' on which his voice sounded suspiciously similar to Rose's nasal howl.
 
     Slash, on the other hand, sounded exactly as he did back in the early ``Paradise City'' days, his signature cascading guitar riffs making their way into every tune.
 
     For an encore, the boys went acoustic, sitting down on the front of the stage to earnestly pluck the misogynist GnR anthem ``I Used To Love Her,'' followed by an electrified cover of Aerosmith's ``No More No More.'' The show ended on a fist-pumping note with the group's hit single ``Slither,'' a tune so catchy and explosive that it drowned out the sound of clashing genres.

[younggunner]

its so poorly written that I automatically assume its an amateur effort.

Whetrehr it comes from a bigtime newspaper or not, what difference does it make? As long as the reporter isnt biased and doesnt have an agenda towards the band then why arent they allowed to see things differently than someone else?

Actually there were more Axl mentions in the "real" newspaper than in the amateur one

[C0ma]

I was there, the first review wasn't far off......
But it was mainly due to horrible sound (due to the sub par sound crew)

He is right on with Scott over using the Bull horn, I wanted to get up on stage and hit him in the mouth with it when he brought it out durring Mr. Brownstone.

[C0ma]

I stand very firm.....there were closer to 5000 people at that show.
But in Tom-ass' defense, if he were right up front the energy of the stage may have made everything seem a little "bigger"

[Jizzo]

that review must be from a VR hater

[Ignatius]

that review must be from a VR hater

 

Will some of you ever admit the evidence that even VR may have a bad day?

You are constantly bashing Dave for surfing around the internet in his quest to find negative reviews about the band, but some of you have a tendency to get annoyed when a bad review actually surfaces.

What difference does it make whether the review comes from " The republican" or " the Boston Herald"? they are both different reviews anyway. Had " The Republican" review? been good, we wouldn't be talking about a biased review written by an amateur who doesn't even have writing skills.

What about the Boston Herald review? maybe it was written by a VR lover? Who the fuck knows! truth is, good and bad reviews come in every tour. Some of you just can't take it. The fact that is always Dave the one who posts the bad reviews, it's another reason for you not to give these reviews the credit they deserve.

On the other hand, some of the facts detailed in " The republican" review can be confirmed. Was the show half empty? ( or half full being optimisitc? ?) If this show wasn't a part of any festival, Why such a short set? Isn't this supposed to be an Arena tour?