This is the last night of the European tour for Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators and the Zénith arena is absolutely packed to the rafters with rock fans hungry for some serious riffage. Of course, Slash was last in town nine months ago with Guns N' Roses but the Conspirators (which haven't rolled through Paris in five years) are a different thing altogether. This is clearly Slash's band: no piano ballads (well, maybe just one...), no 12-minute epics, just pure, driving no-frills hard rock, served piping hot.
But if you came to the show expecting songs from Slash's upcoming solo record "Orgy of the Damned" (which is coming out on May 17th), you were in for a disappointment: the Conspirators aren't just a Slash vanity project but a legit band. And to hammer that fact in, they only play one tune from the guitarist's famous main band, concentrating instead on Conspirators material, with an emphasis on the latest record "4" which came out two years ago.
Myles Kennedy is the perfect rock frontman, with a voice that's equal part classic rock and modern alternative. The on-stage rapport he shares with Slash is not your usual antagonistic relationship between singer and guitarist (Slash has enough of that in his other band): they are brothers in music.
The man in the hat, of course, cements his reputation as coolest motherfucker in rock n' roll with each riff and solo. He's the last of the pure American rock n' roll guitar heroes (even though he's English...). Man, can that dude play. He can burn like Joe Perry, be melodic like David Gilmour, inventive like Jeff Beck and fast and precise like Al DiMeola, but even when he shreds he's always in support of the song. He also busted out a pedal steel for a reverent cover of Elton John's Rocket Man, and it will surprise no one to learn that he's also extremely proficient on that instrument. Is there anything the man can't do? As this was the last show of the tour, they Brough up Wolfgang Van Halen who opened the show with his band Mammoth WVH to jam on a raucous rendition of Highway To Hell to the delight of the 7000 people in attendance.
With Izzy seemingly out of commission, Duff playing Americana, Steven Adler slumming it in state fairs playing in what is essentially a GN'R cover band and a reunited Guns N' Roses playing three hour shows with synths, samples and quasi-prog numbers, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators is the last lifeline to the original spirit of the Appetite For Destruction era of Guns N' Roses: sleazy hard rock played with grit and gusto by a gang of like-minded musicians. You know, rock n' roll.
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