News

August 27, 2007

Velvet Revolver fires up the crowd in Moosic Review

Kill Hannah and Alice in Chains also were on the bill Friday at Toyota Pavilion.

MOOSIC – Slash’s silhouette appeared on a curtain, the light behind him making him larger than life.

Maybe it wasn’t the light. It could have been the signature hat, the way he held his guitar or the fact that he is one of rock’s modern day icons. Whatever the case, one look at the guitarist and the crowd went wild. It was ready for a show.

The curtain lifted, and there was Velvet Revolver, the supergroup formed of the picked up pieces of Guns N’ Roses, Stone Temple Pilots and Wasted Youth.

Scott Weiland, the band’s mouthpiece, might be one of the only performers who isn’t intimidated by Slash’s legacy. Or, if he is, he didn’t show it on stage. Slash was front and center for much of the show, but Weiland stole the attention.

He stripped to just pants during the third and fourth songs, and it was amazing to wonder how such a small frame could contain so much rock star.

Six songs into the set, the band took a break to let the roadies rearrange the set. The five band members – Weiland, Slash, Dave Kusher, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum – sat in a row on the front of the stage, succeeding in making an arena show intimate.

The band played three songs that way, ending with GNR’s “Patience,” a version that, if Axl Rose heard it, would have him kicking himself for taking so long to put out “Chinese Democracy.”

But it wasn’t only Slash’s former band that Velvet Revolver played homage to. The band played STP’s “Vasoline.”

And, of course, the Velvet Revolver hits were plentiful. And much of the crowd sang along with every word, proving just how huge the band actually is.

Alice in Chains should have taken a page out of Velvet Revolver’s charisma handbook. Alice in Chains wasn’t anything special to watch, but what it lacked in animation from its members, it made up for in its production. The band’s bright colored lights attracted everyone’s eyes, and the sound and guitars were great.

The audience didn’t seem to mind that vocalist William DuVall was the only one who made his rounds to all parts of the stage – as opposed to the others (save drummer Sean Kinney) who went center stage only for guitar solos, which the audience loved.

There was very little interaction with the audience during the 11-song set, except for the introduction of the band members. There was no calling out of song names – but it wasn’t needed. The crowd knew from the very first note, and a wave of enthusiasm started in the back of the 200 section (the lawn was closed for the show) and ended at the stage.

Some of the crowd was a bit too enthusiastic, like the man who nearly tackled two girls and knocked over a few folding chairs in the 103 section to shamelessly catch Kinney’s drum head.

He flung the drum head in the air and showed the people sitting closest to him. He wasn’t ashamed that he almost flattened two girls in the process. He was taking home his souvenir -- and a concert is nothing without a few bruises and battle wounds.

The crowd was calmer for Chicago’s Kill Hannah, which opened the show. The band danced under black lights, which lit up a strip of paint along Mat Devine’s eyes.

The band looked a little small for the stage at the beginning of its six-song set, but with each song, the audience responded louder, actually enjoying each of the opener’s songs instead of just clapping because it was one song closer to Velvet Revolver.

If the alternative rock tunes played on guitars equipped with lights on them (so the band members wouldn’t knock into each other in the dark, one might presume) weren’t enough to win over the crowd – and they seemed like they were – Devine announced that Friday was special for the band because his great-great-grandfather was a coal miner in Scranton.

Winning the sympathy of the crowd, the band used that attention to seamlessly move into a cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell.”

It was an appropriate song for the crowd, the rebels, the ones who have waited all summer for this weekend of rock to close out the season at Montage.

Reach Lisa Sokolowski, a Times Leader staff writer, at 970-7222.

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