Velvet Revolver Review - Ambassador Theatre, Dublin

[FunkyMonkey]

Slash and burn plus a little Patience

By Ed Power
Friday March 14 2008

LIKE all the best self-parodies, Velvet Revolver are cheerfully oblivious to their own ridiculousness. Springing from the ashes of Guns N' Roses -- former grunge wild-child Scott Weiland fills the boots of frontman Axl Rose -- the LA five-piece hark exuberantly back to rock's days of groupie-fuelled, shaggy-permed excess.

When tattoo-splashed Weiland declares, "We play f***king rock and roll," it sounds as if he's barking the words from the depths of his soul.

Twisting and snaking about the stage, Weiland makes for pulse-raising eye-candy. But the real star is guitarist Slash. Cigarette cocked rebelliously in mouth, iconic stove-pipe hat perched atop his vast curly mop, he looks as if he's just staggered out of a Sunset Strip dive bar circa 1985.

Slash composed one of the most distinctive riffs in rock history -- the opening refrain to 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. And tonight it is his virtuoso fretwork that keeps the show afloat, elevating Velvet Revolver above the jam-band shtick into which, you fear, they might otherwise descend.

Fist-pumping

If anything prevents Velvet Revolver from being the best fantasy rock and roll crew of all time, it is their songbook.

Over two albums, the group have waxed indulgently. The latest, 'Libertad', is stuffed with dreary, fist-pumping anthems and interminable showboating.

Weiland works the room like a trooper; but at the Ambassador, the flaws in the band's canon are cruelly laid bare.

Not surprisingly, then, the evening's outstanding moment is a reworking of the old G N' R power ballad 'Patience'. Bassist Duff McKagan clambers on to a stool and strums an acoustic guitar while Slash crouches over a double-headed Stratocaster. He could be starring in his own tribute act. Yet when he plunges into the song's keening outro, every hair on your head stands up.

- Ed Power

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/slash-and-burn-plus-a-little-patience-1316116.html

[Ines_rocks!]

Cool! Can?t wait to see them in Amsterdam! 

[coolman78SLASH]

Dident know Slash had started to play Fenders? I havent really seen a double headed Fender actually??

[W. Adam S]

It was a double neck acoustic actually, I think it may have been an Ovation like the one Jimmy Page plays.

[Smokey]

I was at the gig he used a Guild, top half acoustic bottom half electric.

[FunkyMonkey]

Another review...looks like Scott got his teeth fixed.

Velvet Revolver

Leeds University

Dave Simpson
Tuesday March 18, 2008
The Guardian

When a band includes three former members of Guns N' Roses, a former Stone Temple Pilot, and has a chequered personal history including near death experiences, an exploding pancreas, and heroin, booze and sex addiction, you have some idea what to expect. "Stop your grinning and drop your linen," begins vocalist Scott Weiland, which isn't an introduction you would get with Bloc Party. But, as Weiland says, this band "does not play pop music, we play rock'n'roll". The tone is set for an evening of blistering, incorrigible hard rock.

Not many bands play this hard and long, and those that do - Foo Fighters, say - temper the barrage with reasonably civilised acoustic sections and singsongs. With Velvet Revolver, the jugular is well and truly gone for, as songs power forward over Matt Sorum's brutal drumming. Considerable audience excitement centres around being in the presence of legendary guitarist Slash, whose trademark insouciance and molten fretwork define the label "axe hero", despite what for some would be the unpalatable realisation that he is now a married father who has given up drinking.

With topless bassist Duff McKagan recently a sober if tattooed finance student, these are not the wild boys of yore, although Weiland keeps a hand in the naughtiness stakes, undergoing rehab earlier this month and producing a megaphone to sing through when the band need to go one louder. Only his Hollywood dental work appears incongruous and conjures the uncomfortable spectacle of Bee Gee Robin Gibb, though Weiland's surgery was almost certainly prompted by rock'n'roll behaviour.

The singer - who recently lost a brother to a drugs overdose - is certainly able to invest songs with emotional depth, particularly the anthemic The Last Fight and G'n'R heavyweights Patience and Mr Brownstone. If there is an achilles heel, it is the Revolver's apparent embarrassment at varying the tempo. Although their recent album, Libertad, contains ballads, country and an ELO cover, here only Fall to Pieces softens the mood, causing Weiland to mumble: "Love song time, grab someone and get down." The quietest moment is Slash's solo spot, when he unleashes a torrent of urban blues. Maybe, when you rock this hard, to do anything else is seen as sissy.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2266181,00.html

[Ines_rocks!]

Can anyone tell me the setlist of this recent shows?

[Smokey]

Can anyone tell me the setlist of this recent shows?

Let it roll
She mine
Sucker train blues
do it for the kids
american man
get out the door
superhuman
big machine
just 16
fall to pieces
vasoline
its so easy
set me free
she builds quick machines
the last fight
interstate love song

encore
mr brownstone
sex type thing
slither

There all the songs they played last week in dublin on the first night, on the second night it was the same minus just 16(my favourite)... Not sure about the order in the middle of the set but the encore and first 4 songs are exactly as they were both nights...

On the first night before brownstone matt played you could be mine and on the second night he done his drum solo that he always does....

[Ines_rocks!]

Thanks a lot Smokey! 

[FunkyMonkey]

A review this time from the Apollo @ Manchester...it is similar to the review from Leeds.

Live reviews

Velvet Revolver @ Apollo

19/ 3/2008

BETWEEN them, the battle-scarred veterans of `supergroup' Velvet Revolver have written the A to Z of excess. In their own blood.

During their time in Guns 'n' Roses, legendary guitarist Slash was pronounced dead twice, while bassist Duff McKagan's pancreas exploded after a night on the sauce. Not to be outdone, Revolver frontman Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, has frequently topped up points on his rehab clubcard as well as endured a stint in prison.

Given their legacy, it's easy to see why people have paid to see a group where it isn't just astonishing they're playing live, but alive full stop. With two albums behind them it seems nothing will stop this restart programme, but by the end of this trundling two-hour set, you conclude the only reason they're `survivors' is because even death doesn't want to book Velvet Revolver.

It's not as if they lack talent. Lest we forget, Slash, peering out from under his trademark top hat, was responsible for the riff of Sweet Child O' Mine. Clearly the star, he gets rapturous applause during spotlight assisted axe solos. Similarly, Matt Sorum is a propulsive drummer, while Weiland peacocks camply onstage.

Together though, they're less than the sum of their parts. When they plunder GNR's back-catalogue for incendiary renditions of Patience and Mr Brownstone, it highlights precisely what Velvet Revolver lack: decent songs.

Instead, we chug through the same fist-raising clich?d template over and over again, punctuated by the occasional ballad to waste lighter fluid to. Still, the fans are having a whale of a time. It's just a shame that all of the things that make music interesting - excitement, humour, risk-taking and youth culture - couldn't be further from the building, replaced by a Spinal Tap tribute band without the laughs or pyrotechnics.

Gary Ryan

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/live_reviews/s/1041555_velvet_revolver__apollo

[gnr2k6]

people need to remember that all these guys have done what others will never achieve and just want to play music......its not about bettering their past accomplishments and people need to realize this......
saying that iv seen VR loads of times now and they just get better and better.

[FunkyMonkey]

Velvet Revolver in Dublin last night: Slash?s solo

Slash solo part 1 & 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH468GxHgUs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sqMyGmM_dY

[Smoking Guns]

Velvet Revolver in Dublin last night: Slash?s solo

Slash solo part 1 & 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH468GxHgUs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sqMyGmM_dY

very cool, thanks.

[SlashRock]

A review this time from the Apollo @ Manchester...it is similar to the review from Leeds.

Live reviews

Velvet Revolver @ Apollo

19/ 3/2008

BETWEEN them, the battle-scarred veterans of `supergroup' Velvet Revolver have written the A to Z of excess. In their own blood.

During their time in Guns 'n' Roses, legendary guitarist Slash was pronounced dead twice, while bassist Duff McKagan's pancreas exploded after a night on the sauce. Not to be outdone, Revolver frontman Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, has frequently topped up points on his rehab clubcard as well as endured a stint in prison.

Given their legacy, it's easy to see why people have paid to see a group where it isn't just astonishing they're playing live, but alive full stop. With two albums behind them it seems nothing will stop this restart programme, but by the end of this trundling two-hour set, you conclude the only reason they're `survivors' is because even death doesn't want to book Velvet Revolver.

It's not as if they lack talent. Lest we forget, Slash, peering out from under his trademark top hat, was responsible for the riff of Sweet Child O' Mine. Clearly the star, he gets rapturous applause during spotlight assisted axe solos. Similarly, Matt Sorum is a propulsive drummer, while Weiland peacocks camply onstage.

Together though, they're less than the sum of their parts. When they plunder GNR's back-catalogue for incendiary renditions of Patience and Mr Brownstone, it highlights precisely what Velvet Revolver lack: decent songs.

Instead, we chug through the same fist-raising clich?d template over and over again, punctuated by the occasional ballad to waste lighter fluid to. Still, the fans are having a whale of a time. It's just a shame that all of the things that make music interesting - excitement, humour, risk-taking and youth culture - couldn't be further from the building, replaced by a Spinal Tap tribute band without the laughs or pyrotechnics.

Gary Ryan

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/live_reviews/s/1041555_velvet_revolver__apollo

Was I at the same gig as this guy?! Seriously, if he didn't see just how brilliant VR were that night he needs a new pair of fucking ears!

Still, the fans are having a whale of a time.

Says it all really.