When Cape Town heard that Slash was coming to town excitement immediately shot through rock lovers’ hearts. But who are Kings of Chaos? Bits and pieces of some of the world’s best rock bands. But South Africa is skeptical when it comes to parts of bands coming to town. We’ve been duped before by some poor shows. But when I saw Twitter exploding on Friday night with information about how awesome the show had been in Jozi, my excitement arrived.
On Saturday my friend and I rushed off to the Grand Arena and of course the queue was LONG! But a little Grand West van arrived and shuttled us off to the back entrance and voi la! Took us less than 60 seconds to get into the building. SUCH a happy win!
Grand Arena was sold out so getting a drink and back to my seat but the moment the show started, I knew we were in for a treat. I didn’t even know the first song they played but it was followed by Smoke on the Water which everybody knew. Glen Hughes, who fronted both Black Sabbath and Deep Purples at some points in time, was a killer singer who set the show off in the right tone. Later he performed an acoustic version of Deep Purple’s Mistreated and OWNED it! I’m so sorry I didn’t record it but I was totally sucked in by how brilliant his version was.
Collective Soul front man Ed Roland then performed 2 tracks followed by Def Leppard’s front man Joe Elliot. He sang Animal which was awesome as well as Pour Some Sugar on me which I’ve actually been sick of in recent years but live was a different story. It really rocked and was such a laugh. The show also included pyrotechnics which was awesome. Fire bursting out of the front of the stage, good ol’ rock n roll!
Of course the crowd went wild when Slash came on stage and later the band pulled out some ottomans, couches and a lamp and sat down for an acoustic session. It was a lovely change of tone in the concert and sounded awesome.
The final segment included Alter Bridge front man Miles Kennedy. Initially I didn’t know who he was but I knew Alter Bridge had formed from Creed and learnt that he was their lead singer. He had an amazing voice and rocked the Guns n Roses covers with no problem starting with Knocking on Heaven’s Door. Joe Elliot also covered All the Young Dudes (Bowie) but this had a mixed review – some people knew it, some didn’t.
The show ended off with a the G&R covers of Sweet Child of Mind and Paradise City which sent the crowd into a final sing a long for the night. Before we went to the concert my partner had said it was going to be a cheesy eighties sing a long and he was damn right! And what’s wrong with that? It was awesome seeing these guys in concert, watching Slash play those quintessential Guns lead guitar solos and singing along to great rock n roll classics. The band promised to be back and if so, make sure you don’t miss it next time! It really was a great musical night out in the Mother City.
P.S I took so many videos but there was just too much to use! So here’s a snippet below 😉
We are in your vid! This is so freakin’ awesome! I hope you don’t mind if I post a link to your vid? All credit to you of course 🙂
No problem 😀