Slash and Keb' Mo' in Boston 2024.

       Along with the Pretenders, another musician from the 2023 Guns 'n Roses tour who I wanted to see live was Slash.  While fulfilling (content-wise), a Gibson TV documentary on 2022's album "Four" was what I could label a tease in my book.  The YouTube algorithm propped it up on the main YouTube page this past winter, and I started looking for a 2024  tour featuring Slash, Myles Kennedy, and the Conspirators.  I was a little late.  The silver lining was that Slash and his blues ensemble ("Slash's Blues Ball") had a new album of covers on its way to release.  There was a festival tour that would tie in with the album's launch, and I was sold.  The marketing team had me at "Slash".  The inclusion of Keb' Mo' only sweetened the deal.  

      Slash is extremely versatile, and I Googled what it sounds like when he digs into some blues songs (because when I think of bluesy metal, my mind trees closer to AC/DC riffs than G&R or Velvet Revolver).  Just like that, AC/DC's Brian Johnson appears on the first Slash blues video to appear in my search results.  They were covering a song called "Killing Floor" by Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett.  There was a familiarity.  It was like recognizing Mozart's "Wedding of Figaro" from a Trans Siberian Orchestra album or knowing "the Garland Waltz" by Tchaikovsky as the composition for Disney's "Once Upon a Dream".  That second example is so on the nose that Disney's 1959 version of "Sleeping Beauty" interpreted music from mid-19th century Tchaikovsky ballet based on the same fairy tale.  Digressing, the connection between "Killing Floor" with Led Zeppelin's "Lemon Tree" had me wishing that the guys in Led Zeppelin had been immediately up front about specific inspirations when it comes to the song credits.  Like how how Billy Joel's "Innocent Man" album credited artists from Beethoven to Little Richard as inspirations for the songs he was writing.  With T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday" (a 1947 song covered by Slash, his band and guest vocalist Beth Hart), I was noticing a more removed similarity to a Zeppelin sowwe w Sng.  Knowing the "Led Zeppelin III" track "Since I've Been Loving You", I could anticipate the movements and rhythms of the Walker cover.  It's like recognizing the same automotive engine in two related car models.  The Volkswagen air cooled engine has (through different variations) produced a defining general sound and rhythm.  Whether that engine is powering a Beetle, a Bus, or even an airplane.

     The promotional tour for Slash's "Orgy of the Damned" album is called is the initial run of his "S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival".  Those punctuation marks ruse the curiosity wondering what this anagram stands for.  The answer being "solidarity, engagement, restore, peace, equality 'n (as in 'and') tolerance.  The tickets sold help raise money toward charities representing these principles.  Not even knowing about the humanitarian side of this festival series, I was able to get some friends enthused with about the involved musicians on the billing.

 

    I was trying to get across the city to Souh Boston's Leader Bank Pavilion as quickly as the MBTA and a 30 minute walk could allow.  Robert Randolph and his band were already done when I was getting my ticket checked, and Z.Z. Ward was bringing her set to a close.  It's unfortunate that I missed the first two acts, but I was brimming with excitement for Keb' Mo'.  The artist formally known as "Kevin Moore" is someone who I first learned about through guitar-centric Pandora stations.  Whether it was Makana, Jorma Kaukonen, Tommy Emmanuel, Jesse Cooke, or Jeff Beck, Keb' Mo' was somewhere in the mix.  He then appeared in a Hallmark Channel franchise that I enjoyed. The fictional team of "the Postables" work in a Denver "Dead Letters Department" for the U.S. Postal Service.  Yes, true to Hallmark form, the stories have sappy mixes of romance and heartache.  2017's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Higher Ground" found Eric Mabius's Oliver O'Toole and his Postables team trying to deliver a letter lost in the Hurricane Katrina evacuation of New Orleans.  There was a lovey-dovey reunion between sender and recipient followed by a song performed by Keb' Mo'.  In between songs, a friend and I were texting.  Me asking what I had missed during the first 30 minutes of the festival, and her telling me how amazed she was by this first time hearing Keb' Mo'.  "Suit Case."  "The Worst Is Yet To Come."  "Government Cheese."  To those unfamiliar with this blues icon, the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. set was the perfect sampler of a 50-something year repertoire.  To those who do listen to Keb' Mo', this was just as much an opportunity to see his mastery of the art form present before us.

      I got to convene with my friends after the Keb' Mo' set.  Learning about some shows on their 2024 itinerary, and recommending the Duff McKagan show coming up this fall.  Seeing other members from the "Appetite for Destruction" G & R lineup come to Boston this year, I'm hoping for Izzy Stradlin to find his way here.  One could scoff that I might as well ask for the whole Appetite lineup to perform a reunion tour, but I would like to think that there's a better chance of Izzy performing another Boston show on his own terms and volition.

   

      As exciting it was to see Keb' Mo' perform, it was nothing short of thrilling to see Slash from off center in the 27th row ("AA" comes directly after the first 26 rows, right?).  While also trying to document the concert for r0ck bl0gster, I could feel myself getting starry-eyed watching Slash & the Blue Ball perform.  Since playing in the L.A. Guns era of proto-G 'n R, Slash has become a global icon.  Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis emceed their set while Slash let his guitars do his talking.  Although not the most talkative musician, Slash was engaged with the crowd, a cordial host when Keb' Mo' joined the Blues Ball for a song, and you could tell that the guitar icon was enjoying the moment.  Having seen Eric Clapton disconnected from a TD Garden crowd, an authentic connection between the musicians and the audience makes seeing legends of the industry all the better of an experience.  The current "Blues Ball" lineup includes Zig Zag and bassist Johnny Griparic from '96-98 band.  Michael Jerome is the drummer on this iteration of the band, and Tash Neal plays rhythm guitar.  The "Orgy of the Damned" album features collaborations with musicians from across the music industry.  It was beyond impractical to bring Billy Gibbons, Brian Johnson, Steven Tyler, Gary Clark, Jr., Demi Lovato, Chris Stapleton, and the other guests on the S.E.R.P.EN.T. tour.  Tyler couldn't sing but he played the harmonica on a track.  As strong substitutions, Zig Zag and Tash took the mic for the lead singing roles.  In the best cover that I've heard of the Temptations' "Papa was a Rolling Stone", we're treated to a bass intro by Griparic.  Tash Neal sings lead, and then Slash steps up to a microphone and uses a talk box device.  In all honesty, it was seeing Peter Frampton perform live that showed me just how much skill it takes to perform with that device when some just assume it's a type of voice modulator.  Verbalizing sounds that originate from his guitar playing, Slash' sung in harmony with Tash.  The cover of Robert Johnson's 1936 song "Cross Road" (popularized by Cream) was another big performance, and the cover of Hendrix's "Stone Free" got everyone singing along.

    By this point, people were starting to leave (it was a Thursday night).  The techs brought out pedal steel guitar!!!  Impressing an already astonished audience even more, Slash carefully played that steel guitar to Zig Zag's singing Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry".  Halfway through Elmore James's "Shake Your Money Maker" (the namesake for the Black Crowes' 1990 album).  I started making my way out of the concert space.  You know it's an momentous concert when you can see Live Nation staff members dancing in the information booth.  I walked back to State Street Station, and made my way home.  While culling through my photos during my lunch break, I started planning out exactly how I'll go about writing this post.  With 10 stops left on the tour including an August 4th show in NYC.  I'm hoping that the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. tour link in this blog can help you to catch up with the festival.

Til Next time.