Velvet Revolver/Alice In Chains - Concord, CA 09/14/07

Since this is a Velvet Revolver board, I'll keep the Alice In Chains review out of it except to say that the band sounded fantastic, particulary Jerry Cantrell.? William DuVall is an extremely technically skilled singer who did the best Layne Staley impression I've ever heard.

Now on to Velvet Revolver.? The band opened with "Let It Roll" after a very surprising and interesting vamp courtesy of N.W.A.? Yes, that N.W.A.? The one out of Compton.? The band sounded fantastic, but right from the get go I got a sense that Scott wasn't at the top of his game.? His energy level seemed a little down and his voice, both the strength of it and the tone, weren't quite as good as when I saw VR behind Contraband.? Which is not to say it was bad by any means.? The band went on to play "She Mine", "Sucker Train Blues", "Do It For The Kids" and I believe "Vasoline".? They broke for the mid-set slow down/acoustic set which consisted of a fantastic version of "The Last Fight", where I was extremely disappointed by the audience's lack of enthusiasm, a very cool version of "Interstate Love Song" and "Patience".? As far as "Patience" goes, I thought that Matt did a good job with the whistling and that the band sounded good, particularly Slash during the solo.? I don't think the vocal tone Scott had going throughout the night worked very well on this song and his lack of vocal range that was clearly evident during the outtro of the song took away from the dramatic emotional impact created in the original version's outtro.

The band followed up the mid-set slowdown/acoustic said with "It's So Easy", which the band sounded great on.? Slash in particular seemed more energized during this song than he had up until then.? Scott sounded pretty good during the song, except his particular vocal tone during this version didn't convey the same venom that the original's vocals had.? Again, his lack of vocal range took away from the impact of the outtro.? The band then went on to play "Big Machine", "Get Out The Door", "She Builds Quick Machines", "Fall To Pieces" and "Set Me Free".? "Get Out The Door", "Fall To Pieces" and "Set Me Free" sounded great.? The band broke for the encore which started with a great version of "Mr. Brownstone".? The band seemed very energized during the song and Slash did a great job with the solo.? Scott's voice on this night worked best with this song of all the GN'R songs.? They went on to do a teased-out version of "Sex Type Thing" which sounded great with sped-up closing that the lifted the energy of the show before closing with "Slither", which was a great way to close the show.

The crowd during VR's set was awful.? It was cold out, but the crowd seemed to me to be very unenergized.? It was disappointing considering they were seeing one of the greatest lead guitarists of all time.? The band sounded great.? Matt, Duff and Dave were rock solid.? This was the sharpest I've ever seen Slash play and his tone was beautiful.? I think Slash is playing better than ever, at least live.? I do have to say that it seemed to me and my friends, to whom I asked about this and who are not big VR fans, that Slash seemed most energized during "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone".? Not that his playing was better, but more movement on stage and during "It's So Easy" a glimpse of the old Slash move of running across stage with his guitar.? Weiland and the whole band's energy level seemed somewhat low.? At times, it almost felt like they were sleepwalking through their set.? I'm sure the unenthusiastic crowd did not help, but I couldn't help but notice that there was not a great deal of interaction among the band and that I saw virtually no interaction between Weiland and the band members.? My friends noticed this too.? I think the lack of interaction among the bandmembers took away from the overall energy level of the show.

The band played great, but the energy and camaraderie weren't there consistently throughout the show.? However, I think Slash has never played better live and he was the unquestioned star of the show.

Song List:

Let It Roll (opener)
She Mine
Sucker Train Blues
Do It For The Kids
Vasoline
The Last Fight
Interstate Love Song
Patience
It's So Easy
Big Machine
Get Out The Door
She Builds Quick Machines
Fall To Pieces
Set Me Free

Encore:

Mr. Brownstone
Sex Type Thing
Slither

Ali