Bulletproof

Last night I saw Velvet Revolver. A friend who had received last minute free tickets called me, knowing that I would appreciate watching such a display of sleaze... and I did, my friends. I did.

Velvet Revolver consists of Guns & Roses (Slash, Duff & Matt Sorum) and Stone Temple Pilots (Scott Weiland) with a token punk guy (Dave Kushner from Wasted Youth) thrown in for cred. And they sound like Guns & Roses and STP with a token punk guy thrown in. For cred.

I also appreciate that they're keeping the firearm theme in place.

Okay, so none of you really care about the music, right? Although I will say that I've always had a weakness for Weiland's voice... and he does darned good impersonations of other singers. So real quick: they rocked like they were playing to the Coliseum. They were musically tight and having a good time, and were nice and loud. It sounded just like Guns and Roses, except with Scott Weiland singing. Which means that sometimes it sounded exactly like Guns and Roses.

Mr. Weiland came out dressed like Rob Halford (leather pants, vest, and biker hat)- it was really nice to see the gay metal contigent so well represented. He also moves like a stripper/ Mick Jagger, which means lots of snaky hip shaking. It only took three songs before all members of the band were shirtless... Well, the punk guy took about 5 songs. I believe all were wearing leather pants, except Slash - who was in torn black jeans. And his hat. Although to be fair, he only put it on at the encore and then made a big fuss over how the fans make a big fuss over the damn hat or something like that. Okay, Slash, we know it's you...

They did their Velvet Revolver stuff, threw in some Guns & Roses and ended the first encore with STP's date rape song ("Sex Type Thing" if you don't remember your early "grunge" classics). It was fun to watch the crowd during G-n-R's "It's So Easy..." when the "Fuck off" line came up, 90% of the crowd raised a middle finger in the standard "I love you" salute. Charming. There was even a bleached blonde girl bouncing around in her tank top on her boyfriend's shoulders... I kept hoping she'd flash the band, but she didn't. Damn.

And since we saw so much flesh, I must comment: Scott - eat a little something. You're looking like an Olsen twin on a bad make-up day. And how is it that heroin junkies/ former heroin junkies always have such tight little bods? Duff - I wouldn't throw ya outta bed. That's all I'm sayin'.

That was basically the show. All in all, a guilty good time. I'm okay with any band that can make a chubby guy with long frizzy hair gesticulate wildly all the lyrics to every metal song performed, as the guy to my left did all night.

Rock on, rock proud.