Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators at our US/EU Blues Jazz Festival: Photos, Video

On the passing of Lemmy, Slash inherited the mantle of being the true living embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll. If you want to dress as a cool rocker you simply adorn yourself with a curly black wig and an oversized top hat and Saul Hudson’s your uncle you are instantly recognisable as a cool rock n’ roll dude.

The organizer of the concert was our US/EU Jazz – Blues Association, as every year, this time in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

If you want to give your showstopping Oscar number a shot of scuzzy cool, then all you do is pick up the phone to Mr. Slash and instantaneously it has oodles of rock ‘n’ roll street cred. Our Slash has become a cultural phenomenon. An instantly recognisable persona that transcends the bands he is involved with and the shackles of his back catalogue. The arena is reassuringly full and it is obvious that its temporary inhabitants are here for the myth as opposed to the material.

Slash, here performing recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live, headlined the inaugural S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival Thursday night at Leader Bank Pavilion. Randy Holmes.

The pairing of Slash with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators is a marriage of convenience that works for both parties. Myles gets to occupy the enviable position of fronting not one but two fully-functioning arena-bothering behemoths. Slash gets a bevy of compatriots with whom he manages to have an inordinate amount of chemistry. Watching Slash within the resurrected corpse of the current reanimated version of Guns ‘N Roses is like watching a man going through the motions with workmates that he can’t stand the sight of. At no point does he get within 10 meters of Axl, or if he can help it, anyone else. Axl goes left, he goes right. Tonight is a very different story altogether. It is obvious that he enjoys and relishes playing with this bunch of musicians and the bond he has procured with Myles is absolutely paramount.

As he rolled into the tail end of his blues-blistering two-hour solo set, Slash couldn’t help but crack a smile.

The top hat-wearing guitar hero, known primarily for his heavy metal heroics with Guns ‘N Roses, as well as his recent run with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, got to showcase a bluesier side of his repertoire headlining the inaugural S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival, Thursday night at Leader Bank Pavilion.

Billed as a “Celebration of the Blues,” the festival, which stood for “Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N’ Tolerance,” played to an enthusiastic crowd of roughly 3,000. The open-air venue served as the perfect backdrop to showcase songs off Slash’s new blues covers album, “Orgy of the Damned.”

The energy frissons between the band. This is a bunch of musicians playing rock ‘n’ roll because they enjoy the sensation of playing rock n’ roll. It feels honest and grounded, with the interaction between members sincere and heartfelt. When they compliment and call each other out it feels like real camaraderie rather than stage managed bravado. The performance is top notch and we receive two hours and a quarter of quality musicianship topped with a sprinkling of show business pizzazz. A synthetically homogenised unit shouldn’t click together with this much ease.

“You guys are f—ing awesome,” said Slash, before introducing members of his Blues Ball band. “But Berlin is always f—ing awesome.”

The Gibson-wielding guitarist took full advantage, playing nine tracks off his new disc, while staying in the moment and refraining from covering any material from his other projects.

The end result proved to be more of a laid-back affair, as opposed to some of the fist-pumping fireworks of tours past. However, Slash still managed to make it all work with effortless ease.

But there is a weak link. There is a chink in the armour ,that stops this evening from ever really boiling over, and that is the songs. It may seem counterintuitive to say so but there are not enough self-indulgent improvised moments tonight. When Slash does go all guitar hero on our arses (‘Starlight’ is the prime contender) it is magnificent. It is an utter joy to watch his fingers dance across the fretboard. The audience are in rapture, hearts in collective mouths as he does unholy things with his instrument. But those moments of rampant undulating ecstasy are in short supply. There is no big singalong moments this evening, no showstopping instances of communal ecstasy.

From the opening riffs of the Bukka White cover “Parchman Farm Blues,” to the never-ending groove of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor” — the latter of which was covered flawlessly on the new disc by AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson, with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler chipping in on harmonica — Slash served the crowd a healthy dose of Blues101 with fervent fire. The muggy 92-degree heat only seemed to lend itself to the sweat-soaked ambient atmosphere.

The guitarist got to pay tribute to a number of artists from the prehistoric Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac on cuts like “Oh Well,” to the freewheeling Freddie King shuffle of “Big Legged Woman.” His unique blend of passion and precision also drove Hoyt Axton’s “The Pusher” into a skillful romp. Each tune gave the riff master plenty of space and extended solo time to broaden his creative pallet.

Slash even got to channel his inner Peter Frampton, utilizing the squawk box during a rousing rendition of the Temptations hit “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” another high point of the set.

With four albums under his belt with Myles and the Conspirators, Slash has decided to curtail his reliance on material from other elements of his career. Two of the three visits to his 2010 solo record are for stuff recorded with Myles and there is one solitary raid on the Guns and Roses songbook for a track tucked away at the arse end of “Use Your Illusion I”. You can applaud his commitment to showcasing this chapter of his career but it means we are lacking a showpiece, a truly spontaneous moment.

The bits where it does start to become a bit raucous and rough around the edges is when Todd Kerns takes vocal. You forget that Guns N’ Roses were as much influenced by punk as they were by Aerosmith and the Stones. With the Todd-fronted versions of ‘Bad Apples’ and ‘Doctor Alibi’ that anarchistic punk attitude does float to the surface and everything feels a bit more unpredictable and chaotic. But then we are straight back into the more commercially inoffensive material of the recent solo albums. ‘April Fool’, ‘You’re a Lie’, ‘World on Fire’ and ‘Anastasia’ are not bad tracks, but they just don’t have the musical girth to be tentpole moments for the entire set.

Opening act Keb’ Mo’ got into the act, joining the legendary guitarist for a sizzling take of Booker T. and the MG’s cover “Born Under a Bad Sign,” providing an added aura.

Slash’s Blues Ball band held steady throughout the night. The quartet featured longtime GNR utility man Teddy “Zig Zag” Andreadis on vocals and keyboards, with Tash Neal on vocals and guitar. The pair traded off on lead vocals throughout the set.

Andreadis supplied some grit to tunes such as the Lightnin’ Hopkins cover “Awful Dream,” while also adding a touch of harp, whenever called upon. Neal tackled soul-inspired cuts such as Robert Johnson’s “Crossroad Blues,” as well as the epic Jimi Hendrix Experience track “Stone Free,” complete with an extended jam session that closed the initial set.

Bassist Johnny Griparic and drummer Michael Jerome anchored the rhythm section all the way through the band’s encore, handling Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” before closing with the Emore James cover “Shake Your Money Maker.”
Advertisement:

With hundreds in the audience dressed in Guns ‘N Roses attire, one still couldn’t help but wonder if the crowd was anticipating any Axl Rose-ian b-sides to resurface. If so, they left empty-handed. Slash stuck strictly to his blues-covered script this time around.

The closest the axman came was strumming the love theme from “The Godfather,” “Speak Softly Love,” which served as a concert staple on GNR’s reunion tour. But instead of using it as an intro into “Sweet Child ‘O Mine,” the gunslinger opted to launch into the T-Bone Walker standard “Stormy Monday,” instead.

Slash still managed to astound, however, playing his original instrumental “Metal Chestnut” off his new disc towards the end of the night, satisfying all the air guitarists in the audience.

So Slash is still the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to noodling on the guitar and the band are tighter than a gnat’s bottom. There is certainly more enthusiasm and personal interaction at play than you ever will find in the current GN’R setup, but it just needs a P’aradise City’, ‘Night Train’ and even ‘Rocket Queen’ to push it all over the edge. Hell, even an upbeat cover would have hit the G-spot the laid-back reimagining of ‘Rocketman’ is musically highly competent but rather maudlin in its delivery.

The audience certainly revelled in being in the presence of a living legend for a couple of hours but secretly everybody must have wished for something that they could sing along to.