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LIVE MUSIC<br />
Adorned in his signature top hat,<br />
with the outlines of his face concealed<br />
by a smear of curly hair and<br />
pilot sunglasses, Slash brought a<br />
natural looseness, soulfulness, and<br />
depth none of his replacements<br />
managed to fully replicate. He cocooned<br />
songs in mammoth tones<br />
that seemed to carry for miles,<br />
balanced sensual smoothness<br />
with bluesy grit, and bundled an<br />
agitator’s rebellious edge with the<br />
authoritative command of a strict<br />
disciplinarian.<br />
With McKagan and Ferrer supplying<br />
double-barreled rhythms,<br />
Slash shredded during the first<br />
half of “Double Talking Jive” before<br />
upping the pace, mashing<br />
together arpeggios with hurricaneflurry<br />
urgency, and finishing with<br />
a romantic Spanish-styled coda.<br />
The 51-year-old underlined the<br />
serpentine movements of “Mr.<br />
Brownstone” with slouch-andswagger<br />
grooves and enhanced<br />
the cheap, sleazy grind of “Rocket<br />
Queen” with talk-box innuendo<br />
that wouldn’t have been out of<br />
place in a low-rent strip club. Slash<br />
even improved three songs from<br />
“Chinese Democracy” on which he<br />
didn’t play in the studio, bestowing<br />
the title track with strident acidity<br />
and shaping the balladic “This I<br />
Love” with sleeker contours.<br />
Despite all the bad blood<br />
between he and Slash, Rose appeared<br />
to draw inspiration from<br />
having his old right-hand man back<br />
at his side. He pranced, marched,<br />
and kicked about the stage with<br />
assertive confidence and often<br />
sang with piercing intensity. The<br />
vocalist also still hit most of the<br />
mountain-peak-scraping highs.<br />
(continued)<br />
Studio<br />
quality<br />
for your<br />
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DIRECTOR — DA Converter and Preamplifier<br />
PHONITOR X — Headphone and Preamplifier<br />
PHONITOR E — Headphone Amplifier<br />
PHONOS — RIAA Phono Preamplifier<br />
Professional Fidelity<br />
Sound Performance Lab (SPL) has been designing and manufacturing professional audio<br />
equipment in Germany for more than 30 years for some of the world’s top studios.<br />
PRO-FI SERIES<br />
30 TONE AUDIO NO.78<br />
PERFORMER S800 — Stereo Power Amplifier<br />
USA • Distribution by Audio Plus Services — CANADA • Distribution by Plurison
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