30 Years on and I Still Kinda Wanna Be Slash…

It is literally impossible for a “rocker” to age gracefully… Like, it actually can’t happen… You either die (ideally, halfway through the recording of your sophomore effort) or you...

It is literally impossible for a “rocker” to age gracefully… Like, it actually can’t happen… You either die (ideally, halfway through the recording of your sophomore effort) or you become a mega-corporate arena-filling dinosaur rock entity who is best known for gouging suburban moms and dads of the paychecks earned by their desk jobs and remaining entirely irrelevant to the current generation of in-the-know music fans or you find yourself relegated to the stages of state fairs and laughably out-of-touch clubs called things like “Jaxx” and “Whiskey Tango.”  However, there are those artists who manage to toe the line to a degree that doesn’t exactly make them “hip” in the present tense but doesn’t exactly deface their beautifully decadent and “Rock’N’Roll” accomplishments of yesteryear…

I would like to think that Slash, who I spent much of my youth wanting to be, falls into that category… Best known as lead guitarist for the once-brilliant Guns ‘N Roses (which he got booted from right before they decided to get lame as shit), Slash has spent the past two decades slinging an axe for his own (criminally underrated) Slash’s Snakepit, supergroup Velvet Revolver, and, most recently “Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators,” who have released two studio albums in the past three years that, while far from touching the work in the previously mentioned bands, have actually managed to churn out some of the best and most badass radio rock since the first two Buckcherry records…

Out next Tuesday, courtesy of Eagle Vision, is Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators: Live at the Roxy 9.25.14, a DVD, Blu-ray, 3LP, or 2CD documenting Slash returning to one of the clubs where he got his start and earliest notoriety.  Admirably, the setlist equally boasts not only Slash and Kennedy’s recent output (which, let’s face it, most fans don’t really care about, but displays that not only is Slash still a formidable guitar slinger, but that he’s unwilling to rely on past glories or pander to his fans of yesteryear), but also half-a-dozen of the tracks that gained him his status as a legend (“Nightrain,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Slither,” and the best renditions of “You Could Be Mine,” “Rocket Queen,” and “Paradise City” I’ve heard since the Use Your Illusion Tour).

The nearly-90-minute set presented on Live at the Roxy 9.25.14 is not nearly as exciting as the club shows courtesy of Velvet Revolver slightly more than a decade ago, when Slash was standing alongside Duff, Matt, and Scott Weiland, but it does display an unnecessary humbleness on behalf of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer that is charming in his knowledge that real home of Rock’N’Roll is in sweaty and sticky clubs and not arenas or stadiums… and also that tight black leather, denim, and Chucks are an essential part of that equation… So if you have a dad or favorite uncle that first introduced you to the greatest rock album of all-time that is Appetite for Destruction when you were in your single digits, that you’ve yet to buy a Father’s Day present for, this might be the perfect solution… Crack a PBR for yourself and a Coors Light for said family member, press “Play,” and get ready to rock the fuck out… albeit in his mancave… where you have to be slightly aware of not disturbing the rest of the family in the kitchen.

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During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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