Slash & Myles Kennedy concert

Wed 11, Aug, 2010.

I flew to Melbourne to see Slash and Myles Kennedy in concert at the Festival Hall. I had planned to arrive in the afternoon, dump my bag, and leisurely stroll around the Melbourne metropolis and go in early to mosh my way right into the front. Unfortunately it seems like every time I fly, something will go wrong and sure enough, I arrived at the check-in 10 minutes too late. As it appears that Tiger airway, although cheap, requires you invest half your day to camp outside its terminal ready to go. On the later flight, I was due to get there at 8pm, doors opened at 7pm. An hour late, no biggie, the opening band is probably still on the stage. On arrival, a rain storm was hovering above Melbourne and we could not land, we circled around for 30 mins before we could approach the airport. I asked the flight attendant for a pair of parachute as I was in a hurry, but he politely declined.

8:30pm on the ground, I ran from the tarmac towards Tiger terminal (was told off for it), and hopped on a cab, told the cabbie to get there ASAP. He took a look at me, asked and made sure that I was not from the city, and proceeded to drive me to the Eastern suburbs (on the opposite side of the city to where I wanted to go). After a hefty cab fair (no, its not fair, its more of a fine) and 40 minutes later, I was really not impressed with him. I'd rather tell a cancer kid that his epileptic dog has no cure, than mess with someone on their way to a concert.

9:15pm. I got out of the cab a street from the Hall, ran across the street, checked my bag into the clock room. As I was checking in...

"Look at the hate we are breeding

Look at the fear we're feeding

Look at the lives we are leading

The way We've always done before.."

Then came the blast of the two signature guitar notes that vibrated the whole venue. It's Civil War, and I know who was on stage. They had come on about 20 minutes ago, I didn't miss too much. The Hall is rectangle shaped, and the stage is right in the middle, and while the people sitting at the far end of the wings were stupid, the crowd in the middle were much more reluctant to give up their space. Luckily I could still squeeze relatively close to the stage even though I was late.

Slash had his trademark appearance: sun-glasses and top-hat, big curly hair down to the shoulder, and his Gibson Les Paul across the chest. Then there was Myles, one of The best rock singer of today, way under-appreciated. He has the voice that I'd give anything to trade for, I have loved his voice since the first time I heard him sing. I am glad that he is recognised by Slash, one of the legends of main-stream hard rock icon. They went on to play Rocket Queen, a few songs from Velvet Revolver repertoire, Starlight (my fav song from the new album), Rise Today (from Alter Bridge, a song that examplifies Myles' vocal), Slash did a solo of the Godfather theme, and encore with Paradise City.

The highlight of my night is, of course, Sweet Child O' Mine. Picture your favourite singer, a voice that you agree exactly how Rock should sound; with your favourite guitarist, ranked 2nd best guitarist of all-time; playing your favourite song live on a stage no more than 20 meters away.

It doesn't get any better than that.