Slash Takes Toronto
to Paradise City
Veteran rocker Slash rolled into Toronto to play at The Sound Academy this
past Sunday September 23rd.
When I had first heard about the show I had mild interest but was not
chomping at the bit to go as I had not been terribly impressed with his non
Guns and Roses and Velvet Revolver work. Then Sunday rolled around and finding myself having a rare Sunday night off of work, I made the spur
of the moment decision to trek down to T.O. and check out the show. I grabbed my ticket on line to make sure
there was one available before I got all the way down there. The ticket price of just under $50 was a bit
steep I thought for a club show, but what the hell I’d already decided to
go. The bill was titled as Slash
featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators and as I had no idea who they
were, I assumed they were the opening band.
Doors at 7:30pm were stated on the ticket and when I arrived
at 7:40pm I was a bit surprised to see a huge line-up waiting to get into the
venue. Perhaps it is sold out, although
I had had no trouble getting my ticket earlier that morning. The crowd filed toward the entrance and
encompassed a diverse age range, with lots of excited chatter and song speculation. By
the time I got through the doors it was just after 8pm and the opening band was
already onstage. I seem to remember back
in the day that you were always made to wait for what seemed like an eternity
for the show to begin after you got into the venue, but this was the second
time in as many concerts that things seemed to get going at a lightning quick
pace. I guess times are a-changin' as my grand-pa used to say!
No matter, on with the show as they say! As I wormed my way through the already thick
crowd working my way closer to the front, I was impressed by the sound quality
of this unknown band gracing the stage.
The singer was just announcing the next song and I quote, “my favourite time of the day, The Holy
Touch”, as I found an acceptable standing area with not too many tall
people in front of me and began to focus on the performers. The singer claimed that the next tune was
written by him and Rob Zombie and it did contain a smidgen of Dragula. The band themselves appears quite eclectic
with the keyboardist drawing most of my attention early on. He had a shaved head and a decently long
beard that will one day make ZZ Top proud I’m sure. He was into the tunes and rockin’ hard, standing on his keyboard, playing with his feet and his facial expressions easily gave away that he was generally having a great time. The bass player had a huge mane of curly
shoulder length brown hair which appeared to be dyed blonde underneath and the
trumpet player often threw his instrument in the air and caught it a few
seconds later. They blew through a
couple more tunes called Yes, Yes, Yes and then Killing It, with the singer, Eric, performing a laugh out loud funny monologue between each
number. Then came I Like It, after which Eric asked for a cigarette from the audience. He received three or four smokes and he lit them all and took a couple of puffs simultaneously while he asked for the lights to be turned down. He then blew the ash embers into the air and proceeded to eat the still lit cigarettes. Their final song was The Temple, at the end of which the band left the stage all
except vocalist Eric, who said into the microphone 
“I wish I had a big mirror
on stage so I could watch myself sing” and no sooner had the last word left his
lips he dropped the mic and with a clatter of feedback as it hit the stage, he
was gone. I was able to find out that
they were called Foxy Shazam and I listened to several crowd members’ remark
about how good their performance was. I purchased their CD for only $10 and after
listening to it the next day, I realised that this is a
band that must be seen live to be fully appreciated. The CD, The Church of Rock and Roll, is still worth a
listen by all means and I will search out their other recordings, but their live performance is where it's at.
By this time I had figured out that Myles Kennedy and The
Conspirators were Slash’s lead singer and backup band.
The crowd tightened up as everyone tried to squeeze closer to the stage
for Slash and there was not much room to breathe as the band came out, roaring into Halo from the latest record Apocalyptic Love. A cheer went out as the second number came
from Guns N' Roses' iconic record, Appetite for Destruction in the form of Nightrain as the
crowd attempted to dance even though they were shoulder to shoulder. Again everything sounded great and Slash
looked just like he did when I’d seen Guns N’ Roses back in the early nineties
with his trademark curly black hair, sunglasses and leather top hat. Ghost from the Slash CD was
followed by Standing In The Sun from Apocalyptic Love before
going back to Slash for Back From Cali. The songs sounded awesome as the band rocked
through them that I couldn’t help think that I’d done an injustice to Slash and
should give his recordings another more concentrated listen to. Been There Lately from Slash’s
Snakepit led us into Civil War and right through into Rocket Queen, the crowd singing every word. I couldn’t help but notice that vocalist Myles Kennedy sounded very similar to
Axel Rose and the classic Gunners tunes sounded bang on and still hold up today
as some of the best rock ever released.
Two more from the latest release followed in 
No
More Heroes and the bass and rhythm guitarists gave very energetic stage
performances. Myles introduced bassist
Todd Kerns and said that he would be taking on vocal duties for a bit. Todd looked to be having a blast as he
powered through We’re All Gonna Die and then broke into the G N’ R
classic You’re Crazy to an overwhelming response from the audience. Throughout the next few numbers of Not For
Me, Starlight, Anastasia and You’re A Lie, which
contained a couple of mini Slash
guitar solos, I noticed that Slash seemed to
be almost talking to his guitar as his lips were constantly moving. The crowd, especially the ladies went crazy
as Slash played the opening to Sweet Child O’ Mine and the audience all
sang along knowing every word. The
Velvet Revolver hit Slither wrapped up the initial portion of the show and they left the stage
for a short break before returning to play another Velvet Revolver track in Fall
to Pieces. The crowd went nuts again
as 
Cheers,
The Meister
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