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“Hi”. It came a full 45 minutes into the set and the single word was all Slash had to say to his audience all night until the customary end of show thanks as we were ready to leave.
It didn’t matter. When you’ve a back catalogue which includes being in the biggest rock group of the 90s, several other uber successful rock bands, and a cracking solo album, you can keep in song banter to a minimum and just bang out riff after riff and still keep the people happy.
This was the second of two sold out nights at Brixton for Slash featuring Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators (Todd Kerns, Brent Fitz). Over the course of two full hours the veritable guitar legend throttled his electric Les Paul Gibson to within an inch of its life. As expected and hoped for Guns material featured heavily through the night, Appetite classics Mr Brownstone, Nighttrain, Rocket Queen and Sweet Child of Mine being particular highlights of the main set. The songs sounded as relevant as they did back in the day and certainly truer to the originals than that peddled by the current Guns n Roses line up. More recent tunes included Ghost, Doctor Alibi and Back From Cali and these were just as well received.
As sweat dripped down from the long ‘fro so freely it could be seen falling from rows back, Myles Kennedy on lead vocals peacocked and slithered around the stage with some serious swagger. His stage persona on the Slash tours seems far more cocksure and perfectly arrogant than when with Alter Bridge in a way that works just right with the grittier material. On occasions his voice seemed to struggle, due to wear rather than capability, and Todd Kearns took over vocal duties for 3 songs. Kennedy made it back for Starlight, captivating the audience and invoking a mass singalong in the packed out venue.
As they began their 2 song encore Kennedy’s Alter Bridge band mate Mark Tremonti whose new outfit Tremonti had supported earlier in the night, joined them for a cover of Alter Bridge’s Rise Today. The mutual lovein on stage was evident. Kearns took vocals again for the perfect closing number, Welcome To The Jungle, and the Brixton massive departed happy.