Review & Photos by Joe Schaeffer
Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators returned to Hollywood after touring the States, promoting their new release, Living The Dream. Between his solo career and commitments to Guns ‘N Roses, Slash brought it home to the Hollywood Palladium to close out the first leg of the tour.
Opening the evening were young upstarts Classless Act. Founded in 2016 by childhood friends London Hudson (drums) and Nico Tsangaris (lead guitar), they are rounded out by Derek Day (lead vocals), Dane Pieper (rhythm guitar) and Franco Gravante (bass guitar). The show at The Palladium was the first time the band’s co-founder and drummer, 16-year-old Hudson, shared the stage with his dad, Slash.
The band drove through the night on all cylinders. Armed with some catchy riffs and a firm hammering drum attack and not to mention the talented Derek Day on lead vocals, the band gave the crowd a look into the future of hard driving rock and roll music. Days’s stage presence is a definite high point of this great young band.
Ending their set were “Mad House” and “Pass The Medicine,” two ferocious songs which drove it home and left us wanting more. If Classless Act’s undertaking was to create some epic rock and roll they delivered, covering all the bases and then some. Watch out for these young stallions!
At roughly 8:55pm, Slash with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators took the stage. Kicking it off in loud, hard fashion was “The Call of the Wild” from Living The Dream. “Halo” then proceeded to draw the crowd in, giving us a listen into the remarkable vocal range of Myles Kennedy.
Kennedy who also fronts Alter Bridge never disappoints with his truly remarkable vocal style and ability. Along with Slash and Kennedy rounding out the band on stage were the very proficient Frank Sidoris on rhythm guitar, Brent Fitz on drums and Todd ‘Dammit’ Kerns on bass.
The band played quite a few songs from the new album including “My Antidote,” “Serve You Right,” “Mind Your Manners” and “Driving Rain.” The latter of which was great to hear since a fantastic new music video was just recently released.
Mid-set, Kennedy disappeared for a breather while the pristine throated Kerns further showed off his own range. If there were any doubts about Kerns’ abilities as a stand-alone singer, he squashed them on “We’re Gonna Die” and “Doctor Alibi.” “Todd Dammit Kerns!” Kennedy exclaimed as he resurfaced.
With a deep catalog to sift through nowadays, his solo album along with “Apocalyptic Love” and 2014’s killer disc World On Fire all got equal attention. How could they not? We were treated to the likes of “Back from Cali,” “Ghost,” “You’re A Lie” and “Wicked Stone.”
iIn previous tours, the set list was filled with quite a few Guns ‘N Roses tunes. Slash has been on the road with Axl, Duff and company for the past two years on GNR’s immensely successful Not in This Lifetime tour, so you can’t blame him for giving those tunes a break. One of the GNR songs we heard was “Rocket Queen.” It featured quite a lengthy solo from Slash, where the whole spotlight was on the legendary guitarist. As he repeatedly edged towards resolution, the rest of the band stood by and kept the rhythm moving. Even in the dark we were all infatuated with Slash jamming on his trademark Les Paul guitar.
We heard another fantastic new tune “The Great Pretender” before concluding the set with “World on Fire.” The band returned with GNR bassist Duff McKagan for “It’s So Easy” co-sung by Duff and Todd Kerns. “Shadow Life” and “Anastasia” concluded what was a remarkable night of kick-ass rock and roll.
All in all, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators put on an absolutely killer performance, one which I could find no faults with. They gave Hollywood the loud, bombastic, in your face hard rock we all hoped for, and then some.
In November, he’ll launch a Guns N’ Roses tour — whose current ‘Not In This Lifetime’ run is already the third highest grossing tour of all time, and in February 2019, he’ll continue with his SMKC band for dates in the U.S. and Europe.
