Guitar Gods

Within the last 7 days I've seen Eddie Van Halen as well as Jerry Cantrell and Slash live. Last night a group of us went to see Alice in Chains and Velvet Revolver at Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre here in Atlanta.

At 60 bucks a ticket I guess the show didn't sell very well cause Ticketmaster ended up giving tickets away for free. We were the lucky ones to not have bought tickets before hand. I personally got 4 tickets and all I paid for was the $2.50 fee to print them and a $1.50 processing that they hit you with. So the 4 tickets cost me $4 total. Parking at Hi Fi Buys was free as well. You just can't beat that deal.

Alice in Chains went on first and they stole the show. The crowd really seemed to be more into them than VR. I was really excited to see them. The first time I saw them was around 1991/1992 when they opened for Van Halen. How funny is that?? Something that Buck pointed out at the show last night. That was the first show we saw together and we've seen both bands within 4 days of each other.

I saw Jerry Cantrell solo at Music Midtown but he hurt his hand a few days before the show and could only sing. So it was not the full expereince of seeing Jerry play.

AIC opened with Again and then tore through their set which ended with Rooster. William Duvall (who is actually from Atlanta) took over on vocals and sounded really good. Enough effect of his voice that he sounded pretty close to Layne. Jerry sings a lot of backup so that helped the sound out a lot.

Other stuff they played in no order:

Man In The Box

Rain When I Die

Them Bones

Would?

We Die Young

Nutshell

No Excuses

Angry Chair

Grind

Sludge Factory

Brother

Those are the ones I can remember. There might have been one of two more.

Stage set up was pretty basic with one screen behind them. The amps were white so they were used really well for the different lights. During Rooster they put up parts from the video as well as some images of Bush, Cheney, and Condi. One image said Bush Lied And People Died and at the end of the song NO WAR appeared in big letters as the drummer pointed to the screen.

This is the second time I've seen Velvet Revolver. I saw them on their first tour in 2005 at the same venue. Hoobastank was the opening act.

VR opened with Let It Roll and closed with Slither. Let It Roll started with Slash behind this black curtain and white lights on from behind him so you could see him. Once the band joined in off the opening riff the curtain came flying down towards the stage.

They had good energy throughout and even played a few of the slower songs sitting on stools. The crowd seemed to be just passively into the set. The mood really picked up when an Stone Temple Pilots or Guns n Roses song was played. The crowd would usually go nuts for those ones.

Songs again in no order:

She Mine

Get Out The Door

The Last Flight

Pills, Demons & Etc

Sucker Train Blues
Do It For The Kids

Big Machine

Superhuman

Vasoline (STP)

Patience (GNR)

Interstate Love Song (GNR)

Sex Type Thing (STP)

Mr. Brownstone (GNR)

It's So Easy (GNR)

She Builds Quick Machines

Fall To Pieces

Highlights were It's So Easy and Slither. I was really, really rocking to those two. Overall they were really good. I'm not a big fan of Scott Weiland's voice live. It sounds really ripped up. If you go back and listen to the first STP album and listen to him now it is almost a completely different voice. Especially after listening to something like Sex Type Thing.

Slash was awesome as expected. He even got in a guitar solo that was pretty good.

The stage show was good. They had two video screens on the side and a big one behind them. One song they had a montage of serial killers on the screens and another there were naked women so in S & M poses and others just naked.

Velvet Revolver just oozes what a rock and roll band should be like. I enjoyed their set but I have to say that Alice in Chains put on a better show.