Note: I wrote this Friday night after returning from the LA Guns concert.
I just got home from the LA Guns show at Suzy’s in Auburn , NY
That’s right, the new ones, because not only did LA Guns
decide to come around to lowly old Auburn in between shows in New Hampshire and
Seattle, they also recently released a brand new album about a week ago
entitled Hollywood Forever.
First, let’s talk about the concert though, which is
entirely appropriate because, without a doubt, LA Guns is a live band. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the
concert was not perfect from start to finish.
The band went on around 1045 and the first forty minutes or so was just
marred by technical difficulties. The
first song went fine but sounded a little off, but during the second song (“Sex
Action”) they got through about a minute and a half of the song before they
stopped. Initially I thought it was
because frontman Phil Lewis called out the people in the front row that were
taking pictures of the band while using the flash on their cameras/camera
phones. While this is not forbidden by
any means, as a common courtesy to the band, the people should have stopped
after the first few. Now you may think
that this is not that big of a deal but the stage at Suzy’s and the “pit”
basically occupy the same space. The
individuals in the front row were literally inches away from the band as
opposed to many venues where the band is feet away. Now think about multiple flashbulbs going off
in your eyes while you are trying to do your job and you may understand Lewis’s
ire at that moment.
Unfortunately that was not the sole reason for the stoppage
in play however. The real issue was with
the sound, or lack thereof that was coming out of the amp of guitarist Stacey
Blades. After a lengthy delay, they
picked up where they left off in the song and finished it. However at the end of that song there was
another delay while they fixed the sound yet again. This went on long enough for my brother to
remark “I hope they get through three songs before I leave.” Finally, they got everything working right
and started in on the rest of their set.
While it would have been great for all of this to have been worked out
ahead of time, the quality of the concert itself increased exponentially once
everything was fixed, so I would call it a wash. What happened after that though is what
should be remembered, and why LA Guns is definitely the best live band you have
never seen.
From the moment they started that third song until the end
of the show, they had complete control of the room. LA Guns was built for this kind of
venue. I have been to large indoor and
outdoor venues as well as larger clubs, and while many bands would dream of
selling 15,000 tickets to a huge show in a sports arena, the small club show is
where LA Guns thrives. As I said before,
the crowd was not huge, but they were vocal and they loved seeing the band in
their little town, even though they had to wait through numerous delays just to
do so. The highlight of the night, and
coincidentally right after my brother departed (he had to work in the morning,
pansy) was their closing set. They
started with a Steve Riley drum solo that eventually gave way to the rest of
the band coming in and accompanying him through a killer instrumental set. At this point Phil Lewis came out and they
broke into “Electric Gypsy” from their self titled debut which brought the
house down. I have never seen a crowd
that engaged in singing along and just downright enjoying a song like
that. It was then time for the band to
break out their “hit” “Ballad of Jane” because; as Lewis said “they wouldn’t
let us leave if we didn’t play it.” The
performance on this was not only well executed, but also well received by the
audience, who never failed to miss a note.
They really ramped up the energy on “Rip & Tear” as their closer for
the night though upon completion the crowd went crazy and chanted their name
until the band returned to a rousing rendition of “No Mercy”. This closed the show and as the small crowd
filtered out into the Auburn night, I felt a
little cheated by the length of the show (it ran at around 90 minutes but that
included the multiple technical difficulties, but I felt incredibly satisfied
by the quality of the show that I saw.
However I also felt bad that a band that puts on as good a live show as
LA Guns had to perform for a handful of people in Auburn New York
Now is your chance though.
Be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
With the release of the 80’s metal musical Rock of Ages I would like to think that
this kind of music would again find a foothold in modern American culture
(though after seeing the first weekend’s numbers that may be just a pipe
dream). It is, however unfair to lump LA
Guns in with the rest of the “hair metal” scene based solely on the decade that
they originated in. The negative
connotations of that kind of band far outweigh the positives and I can honestly
say that LA Guns does not share those traits with any of their
contemporaries. I have heard a lot of
music from that genre and that decade. I
have listened to both good and bad hair metal and I know that the main
complaint (lame songs without much substance beyond a decent guitar solo) fails
to describe LA Guns. The way that I
describe them to people that are unfamiliar with the band is “Guns ‘N Roses but
more raw and dirty.” I stick behind that
description wholeheartedly. Could their
lack of polish be what prevented them from breaking in and sustaining a
superstar career? That’s entirely
possible as longevity and consistency has not been a problem. LA Guns has continuously produced music since
their debut self titled album in 1988.
There have been lineup changes, sure.
They seem to go through bassists at almost a Spinal Tap-ian rate, Phil
Lewis left the band for a few years and two albums in the mid nineties, and
original guitarist Tracii Guns has not been with the band since 2002’s Waking the Dead album.
This has not stopped LA Guns from giving it their all on
every album and always producing solid work that they can be proud of and that
their fans pick up religiously (there is no better testament to this than the
fact that Hollywood Forever debuted
at number twenty-five on the Billboard charts, from a band that has not released
an album of original material in seven years).
If you like metal music at all, not just from the 80’s, you owe it to
yourself to pick up the back catalog of LA Guns material. Start with their self-titled debut as well as
their sophomore album: Cocked and Loaded
to get the best representation of their sound and swagger, but do not dismiss
their most recent albums as Waking the
Dead and 2005’s Tales from the Strip
are can’t miss prospects as well.
Their new album Hollywood
Forever is another solid effort and definitely should be added to any
collection. While it is not as
consistent top to bottom as Tales from
the Strip (their other album sans Tracii Guns) it is still an LA Guns album
that should not be missed.
The main thing here is that more people should be listening
to LA Guns. Period. If you are apprehensive about purchasing an
album, go on itunes and download a couple songs, make that investment of three
or four dollars and you will not be disappointed. Hell, just download the handful of songs that
I mentioned by name above and you will be able to hear what this band is all
about. If all else fails, ask me, I have
all of the albums and would be happy to share and convert more people to fans
of LA Guns.
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