Slash
Cotillion Ballroom
Wichita, Kansas
January 21, 2011By Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
Set List:
Ghost | Sucker Train Blues | Been There Lately | Mr. Brownstone
| Back From Cali | Civil War | Rocket Queen | Beautiful
Dangerous | Doctor Alibi | Nothing to Say | Patience | Jizz Da
Pit | Just Like Anything | Starlight | Sweet Child O Mine | Rise
Today | Slither
Encore:
By the Sword | My Michelle | Paradise City
For those fans waiting for a Guns N' Roses reunion, iconic
GNR guitarist Slash has stated numerous times that you shouldn't
hold your breath.
In a 2010 interview with GQ.com, the curly-haired,
top-hat-wearing guitarist stated, "I don't think there's ever a
chance of a reunion. Things were so abrasive by the time I left.
I've never thought, 'Oh, wouldn't it be nice to get back
together.' Because I know it wouldn't."
The 1,500 fans who filled the Cotillion Ballroom on Friday
night to see Slash on his current "We're All Gonna Die" tour
might have only gotten one-fifth of the original Guns lineup,
but he brought a glimpse of how well that music still endures
nearly 25 years later.
Opening act Taddy Porter, a blues/rock foursome from
Stillwater, Okla., looked and sounded, as though they'd been
shot on stage straight from a classic-rock radio station.
Nevertheless, the band energized an appreciative Cotillion crowd
for 45 minutes before the main act.
When Slash took the stage with trademark top hat and
sunglasses, the band opened with the song "Ghost," sung
originally by the Cult's Ian Astbury but handled easily by front
man Myles Kennedy, on loan from the band Alter Bridge. By the
third song, "Been There Lately," the crowd was whipped into a
frenzy with one crowd surfer after another spilling over the
railing near the front of the stage.
To the delight of the crowd, Slash and Kennedy tore through
numerous Guns N' Roses staples like "Mr. Brownstone," "Rocket
Queen," "Civil War" and "Sweet Child O' Mine."
This show, however, was not to be mistaken as a simple Guns
N' Roses tribute hour. With the impressive vocal range possessed
by Kennedy, the band, which also features co-guitarist Bobby
Schneck, bassist Todd Kerns and drummer Brent Fitz, handled
songs from Slash's entire catalog of music.
They included selections from his recent band, Velvet
Revolver, and from Slash's 2010 self-titled solo album, which
featured an all-star lineup of singers.
Kennedy was an impressive stand-in, able to cover the wide
palette of the rock voices who have played with Slash over the
years, including Velvet Revolver's Scott Weiland, Motorhead's
Lemmy Kilmister and, of course, Axl Rose, whose trademark
shrillness was easily mimicked by Kennedy.
Not to limit himself, Kennedy even handled vocals on the song
"Beautiful/Dangerous," which Slash recorded with female pop star
Fergie.
All of 22 years old when the blockbuster Guns N' Roses debut
album "Appetite for Destruction" was released in 1987, Slash —
now 45 — played and worked the stage with an energy evident of
someone clearly still enjoying themselves, running across the
stage.
As with any performer whose career spans nearly a quarter
century, the audience at Friday's show was a patchwork of music
fans young and old, with no shortage of teens with parents in
tow: Moms and dads who were GNR fans during the band's 1980s
heyday.
