Everyone’s favourite top hat supporting, bad ass guitarist is in Dublin! No matter how many times Slash visits this country, the excitement of knowing he’s here never seems to wane and he isn’t shy about turning up. Ireland has been fortunate to receive him with Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and now with his solo project, Slash (featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators). Ireland loves Slash and by a happy coincidence, Slash seems to love us too. The fact that he gets on stage every time he pops over and plays a mean set of mother f**king rock ‘n’ roll is just a bonus. Tonight’s crowd in the Olympia are a resounding endorsement of that love.
No matter what style of music you favour, job you have, hipster trend you follow or back alley you like to sleep through your hangover in, you’re represented here (I will volunteer to speak for the latter). The venue is rammed very soon after opening time and everyone is gasping with excitement and anticipation. Opening band, The Treatment, leap on stage and blow the crowd away with some good old fashioned 80’s sleaze cock rock. The whole band throw themselves into the performance and explode with heavy riffs, sing-along, hair metal boldness and alluring choruses. Supporting someone like Slash is a daunting task and it’s easy to ignore the support but The Treatment manage to get everyone on board tonight. Closing with ‘Shake the Mountain’, the band depart conquering heroes and for a moment you could almost forget the night is only starting.
Well, Charlie Sheen isn’t here – but we got those losers from Sunday night beat. In attendance tonight we have the legendary Martin ‘Eddie Durkan’ Maloney of Hardy Bucks fame in the house. Many pics were taken, many a scene played out. No warm Castletown intro for headliners unfortunately, but you can’t have it all. All of a sudden the houselights go dark, the PA kicks in and it’s time for the main event.
Slash arrives on stage to the throng of 1,600 voices screaming. The sight of the legendary axe man sends the Olympia into hysterics with people clamouring to squeeze as close to the barrier as possible as the band kicks off with ‘Halo’, from last year’s Apocalyptic Love album. The band sound great and considering this is the final date of a very long tour European tour, they’re still bursting with energy and charisma. Like or loath Myles Kennedy, the man knows how to get a crowd going and tonight he’s working overtime. Every note from Slash’s guitar rings loud above everything else as they blister through ‘Nightrain’, ‘Ghost’ and ‘Back From Cali’, the second single from his self-titled debut. Everything is getting an airing tonight from GN’R, Slash’s Snakepit to Velvet Revolver and his solo material and they’re in no rush to wrap things up quickly. ‘By The Sword’ sees the energy continue to grow in the band and crowd alike before bassist, Todd Kerns takes over vocals for ‘Dr. Alibi’ and Guns classic, ‘You’re Crazy’. I don’t know if Alter Bridge fans will forgive me, but Todd sort of blows Myles Kennedy off stage as his voice lacks the clean safety that Myles has and instead delivers a grittier, harder take on the tracks.
Not speaking much, Slash let’s his guitar do the talking but does take enough time to thank the crowd and speak about the tour wrapping up. The epic ‘Civil War’ solidifies the crowd’s devotion before an extended jam laden rendition of ‘Rocket Queen’ blows the place apart, helped by a good five+ minute solo from Slash. It’s here that Myles can genuinely deliver a Guns song as he perfectly hits every note with perfection. Returning to his two solo albums, Slash knocks out ‘No More Heroes’, ‘Starlight’, ‘Anastasia’ and ‘You’re A Lie’ before closing the main set with fan favourites; ‘Sweet Child O’Mine’ and Velvet Revolver’s ‘Slither’. Over an hour and a half and we’re still hungry for more. They return to finish us off with ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ (again featuring Todd on vocals) and ‘Paradise City’, complete with exploding confetti and all. This part of the night gets blurry for yours truly. A lethal concoction of Guinness, Jack N’ Cokes and Slash left me hell for leather in the midst of sweat, booze, head banging and sing along pit behaviour.
Two hours of classics, icons and good vibes. There’s not a lot €40 buys you in Ireland these days, but Slash knows how to deliver value for money and you couldn’t have asked for better value tonight. Come back soon Slash, you’re welcome anytime.
The slickest guitar God since Hendrix has announced this morning that he’ll be kicking off his 2014 European tour in Dublin this November. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators will be hitting the road to support their third studio album, World On Fire. This will be Slash’s largest headlining solo show on Irish soil and is sure to see a great selection of Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and of course, solo material.
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