As many of you have already seen, I was not particularly kind to the new Velvet Revolver CD. Even though I absolutely love Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N? Roses, I felt that the idea of this band was far better than the results. But when I heard that Velvet Revolver would be performing at the 1400 capacity venue The Joint in Las Vegas, film critic Adam Mast and I couldn't resist. Adam was smart enough to call ahead and ask the good people at the Hard Rock what time Velvet Revolver would be going on, and to our surprise, they told us 9:15 which is early for that caliber of show at The Joint.

As I came to find out later however, Adam only called to confirm the time so that he could sneak off and go see the 7:30 sneak preview of Steven Spielberg's The Terminal, that bastard. (If you don't know by now, Adam would sleep with Spielberg if given the chance). So as I'm standing by myself at 9:15 waiting for the show to start (Adam, you dick!) it occurred to me that I was actually getting excited to see this show. So I wait. And wait. And wait some more. I look at my watch. 9:30. Huh. Typical rock stars I think to myself, always going on late. So I wait. And wait. Next thing I know, it's 9:40, and the buzz I was working on from all those Corona's has now been officially killed.

Strangely enough I must not have been the only one thinking this, because the entire crowd started to boo in sync with each other. The booing must have woke the band up though because they finally came out at 9:45. Slash, Duff, Matt, and the guy that ain't Izzy exploded into the opener Sucker Train Blues, as Weiland walked out on stage in the silliest tribute to Rob Halford getup that I've ever seen. I'm not kidding, the hat, the leather vest, the aviator glasses, the whole shebang. After the song was done Weiland in his best smart-ass tone says to the audience "Were you guys out here calling for more booze?" (boos=booze get it! What an asshole) "Sorry we were late" Weiland apologized, "I was backstage trying to get rid of this bronchitis and laryngitis." A comment like that did not make me hopeful for the rest of the show, and sure enough Weiland sounded like shit throughout. The next two songs they performed, "Do It For the Kids" and "Headspace" sounded awful. After those two, Weiland says to the crowd "Here's one you may know" as they kicked into STP's "Crackerman." To my surprise, Weiland's voice picked up, and the boys sounded amazing. Slash's guitar solo at the end was kick ass. Sadly enough it was one of the few highlights of the set. 45 minutes into the show, and after the extremely weak performance of "Set Me Free," Velvet Revolver to my dismay walked off stage. The crowd also seemed to be in disbelief, because instead of frantic cheering, there was nothing but a hushed, almost pissed off silence. Ten friggin' minutes later they finally came back out, and one of the few smiles was put on my face when Slash ended up putting the ol' top hat on. Velvet Revolver kicked into the GN'R staple "Mr. Brownstone," and after that, they performed another in "I Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her)." As great as the band sounded though, Weiland sounded equally terrible. For the most part, Weiland just never got going. He was obviously affected by his ongoing illness (heroin withdrawal perhaps? What did I go too far?) Velvet Revolver ended the encore with an average performance at best of "Slither." When they came back out for a second encore of STP's "Sex Type Thing," I just didn't care anymore. That was the only song of the second encore, and the entire show only ended up being 12 songs, and an hour and five minutes long. An extremely mediocre performance for what's looking to be an extremely piss-weak project.

Set List:

1. Sucker Train Blues
2. Do It For the Kids
3. Headspace
4. Crackerman (STP)
5. Illegal I Song
6. It?s So Easy (GN'R)
7. Big Machine
8. Set Me Free
____________________

First Encore:
9. Mr. Brownstone (GN'R)
10. Used to Love Her (GN'R)
11. Slither