Concert Review: Velvet Revolver and Alice in Chains Las Vegas

[Copernicus]

Another great show this summer.

Opening act Sparta was meh, they started early and kept it short, and they have some potential, but the time should have been given to AiC for a longer set.

AiC took no prisoners. William Duvall is a very capable replacement for Layne Staley. Not an imitator, but with very similar range and delivery. He doesn't have the stage presence that Layne had, and Jerry Cantrell has to carry that load a bit more, but was up to it. If anything his guitar has gotten cleaner and faster, and he harmonizes with Duvall as well as he did with LS. The set was as much of a "best of" as you could squeeze into an hour +, so no extended solos, but Cantrell nailed every solo on the head. If they can write songs at the same level as they did with Layne they will be around for a while.

Velvet Revolver was very on. They've been taking some heat from low sales of Libertad and reviews that say AiC has been stealing the show, and it looked like they were putting out a lot of effort to counter it. Scott Weiland is the most interesting front man in rock, imo, with Jagger and Tyler just too old to pull it off any longer. He's become a little more of a screamer with the heavier VR sound than he was with STP, but on the slower songs (Interstate Love Song and Patience in particular) his voice was still great. Slash was really on, looking like he was trying to outdo Cantrell. The GnR crew is much better with Weiland than they were with Axl Rose imo. The problem is the songs are lightweight standard rockers, nothing memorable about them, as opposed to the dark depths of Alice and Layne or the sex/evil of STP. Still Scott Weiland makes them all interesting.

check them out, its worth it.