VELVET REVOLVER
ANYBODY who was looking for Guns N’ Roses II at the New York City debut of Velvet Revolver would have walked out of the Roseland Ballroom Wednesday sorely disappointed.
Although the majority of VR’s crew are ex-Gunners – Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum – this band, which features former Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland as its axle, definitely has a personality all its own.
Together, these boys made music with an old-fashioned heaviness and aggression that spits in the face of modern pop.
This was music to bang your head to – part metal, part industrial, edged with a sense of danger.
The bombastic arena ballads that GNR was famous for were MIA during this tight, 90-minute show.
This was only the sixth public performance VR has played, so it wasn’t perfect. But nobody expected that.
The chemistry between the former Guns was intact, but Weiland, who in the past suffered from a bad case of lead singer syndrome, was still feeling his way through the music.
Take the concert opener, “Sucker Train Blues.” Although it’s easily one of the top tracks on the band’s upcoming “Contraband” album, Weiland projected the walking-on-glass attitude of a weekend guest who almost spilled red wine on the new white couch.
But as the show progressed, Weiland ditched his inhibitions, eventually turning in a riveting performance.
The turn-around song was “Fall to Pieces,” which the cavernously thin singer introduced by telling the fans he had just kicked heroin and lost his wife when he first heard the tune.
From then on, any sense of aloofness was gone. Weiland sang back to back with guitar ace Slash ripping through tunes, he climbed the drum riser to get up-close appreciation of Sorum’s beats and he worked the front rows like the pro he is.
Guns fans were given a taste of the past with the oldie “Used to Love Her” and a top-shelf “Mr. Brownstone,” while devotees of Stone Temple Pilots were treated to “Sex Type Thing.”
If Velvet Revolver gets polished by the rigors of the road, the band will become one of rock’s most dangerous weapons of mass distraction.