Man that show was one of the greatest nights in my life. AIC killed it. It was surreal seeing Cantrell up there. He still looks 25 and he's got one some of the cleanest shredding guitar licks I've ever heard live. He's a master of the instrument and new lead singer William DuVall did an admirable job. He's grown on me a lot and seeing him live convinced me he can pull this off. His voice perfectly harmonizes with Jerry's and everyone in the crowd was going crazy. I'd heard that AIC were outshing VR could it be possible?
Alice finished their set with Rooster during which Cantrell's guitar malfunctioned and he dropped out of the song completely. If William hadn't been playing guitar we would have a drum and bass only version of Rooster. Which might have been pretty cool anyway. But Jerry was upset to put it mildly. His guitar first cut out right before his first solo of the song after which he repeatedly stomped on the offending guitar pedal (I'm assuming). At one point he walked off stage and I could see him looking at his guitar tech like "what the fuck?". His tech finally got his guitar going just as the song was ending. Jerry was pissed and walked directly off the stage. The other three band members (DuVall, bassist Mike Inez, and drummer Sean Kinney) tossed picks and drum sticks to the crowd and Inez said goodbye by shouting into the mic with a grin "And buy some t-shirts fuckers!". Which my girlfriend and I did go immediately and buy from the merch stand but we were going to anyway
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There was about an hour between set-changes. And around 9:45 the lights go out and NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" starts blaring out of the PA at full volume. I'd heard they were using it for an intro and was curious but it worked in getting everybody amped up. Then Duff's bass tech come on and does his thing "For a band that needs no introduction but gets one anyway - from Hollywood - Vel-Vet Re-Volver!!!!!!!" And the lights illuminate a screen covering the entire stage. All you can see is that unmistakable Slash shadow busting out the opening riff to "Let it Roll." That image and that sound alone made the price of admission completely worth it for me. The set list was the usual you've probably read before. They did the middle acoustic section starting with TLF (which didn't get near the crowd response it deserved when introduced. Maybe people just haven't heard it yet), then ILS followed by Patience with was so good to hear. The new GNR version gets blown away by this performance. Slash's playing on this cannot be duplicated and Scott did the vocals justice mixing up the timing and words just enough to make it a half step removed from Axl's version.
All in all a sonic eargasm for guitar fans and one of the most entertaining concerts I've been to. I hope we get at least one more album and tour from these guys. And check out AIC live if you ever get the chance. You won't be disappointed.
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