Duff McKagan
Tenderness Live In Los
Angeles HTTPS://DUFFONLINE.COM/
GN’R bassist scales things down on solo live double.
Duff McKagan’s late-career repositioning asa heart-on-sleeve punk-rock troubadour is no surprise. Even at Guns N’ Roses’ imperial height, the bassist kept one foot in the Seattle dives he grew up in.
Recorded at LA‘s intimate El Rey theatre shortly after the release of 2019’s impressive, bare-bones solo album Tenderness, with McKagan backed by collaborator Shooter Jennings and his band, this album is as unvarnished and unshowy as a multimillionaire rock star can get.
The 17-song set mixes Tenderness originals with a trio of barroom-friendly GN’R deep cuts (You Ain’t The First, Dust And Bones, Dead Horse) and covers of songs by Seattle Supergroup Mad Season (River Of Deceit), The Twilight Singers (Deepest Shade) and The Clash (Clampdown). McKagan’s wayward drawl is 90 per cent emotion and 10 per cent technique, and even he mocks his own acoustic guitar playing (“Shredding,” he says drily at one point), but what it lacks in perfection it makes up for in honesty. Feel is introduced with a heartfelt tribute to dead friends and inspirations (Scott Weiland, Prince, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington), although it’s that joyously ramshackle Clash cover that captures the celebratory mood of the night.
Dave Everley
Halestorm
Live At Wembley ATLANTIC
Momentous 2023 Arena show bottles lightning.
“This is a rite of passage to us. This is where our idols have played…” Lzzy Hale is clearly stoked to play Wembley Arena, and in this recording from last year Halestorm rise to the occasion.
From her paint-stripping high note to introduce I Miss The Misery, there’s a raw, cathartic quality to their performance, and she’s full of showbizzy but effective tricks to encourage her public to feel it, whether by punctuating I Am The Fire with an invitation to light up the room with cellphones, inviting the females in the audience to join in I Get Off or exhorting the faithful to do what Raise Your Horns says in its title, after acaptivating gospel-like reading of it on her own on piano. Stomping hard rockers abound in between, traversing the band’s back catalogue from early firebomb Love Bites (So Do I) to 2022 single Wicked Ways.
Triumphant stuff.
Johnny Sharp
Earthtone9
Resonance Nexus CANDLELIGHT
Innovative Brit metal crew return with all guns blazing.
It’s a testament to the esteem and affection people hold for Nottingham’s Earthtone9 that a decade off the radar has failed to dull the enthusiasm surrounding their return. Resonance Nexus is their first album since 2013’s IV – which itself was a crowd-funded comeback after an 11-year break – and it finds the Brit metal crew on fiery form.
Their artistic flair and boiling-over energy remain undimmed as they kick things off with a blast riff and a throaty howl, before a journey of intense discovery that suggests they’re living right in the moment rather than resting on past glories. It’s a battlefield of progressive post-metal with aggressively controlled chaos at its heart, although Black Swan Roulette is a moment of elegant respite – heavy, yes, but with a darkly beautiful melody allowing an intake of breath before the next onslaught begins.
The craftsmanship is masterful, each song revealing new facets with every listen, meaning that even if Earthtone9 disappear again for another decade there’s plenty to uncover in the meantime.
Emma Johnston
Kissin’ Dynamite
Back With A Bang NAPALM
Pucker up for explosive eighth album.
Why has it taken eight albums for Kissin’ Dynamite to come up with this title? It seems like a bit of a no-brainer, really. Aptly enough, the opening title track does exactly what its title says, and surely presents plenty of pyrotechnic potential for the stage show. As a kick-off detonation it couldn’t do a better job, setting the scene for what the band does so well – delivering 80s-style hard rock designed to bother stadia the world over. From My Monster and the nostalgia-fuelled Raise Your Glass to The Devil Is A Woman and When The Lights Go Out, memorable hooks abound and no opportunity for an anthemic chorus is ignored. And just for a bit of variety, closer Not A Wise Man finds the band breaking out the acoustic guitars for a bit of a romantic singalong.
Strike a match and light that fuse.
Essi Berelian
The Folk Implosion
Walk Thru Me JOYFUL NOISE RECORDINGS
Cult 90s Sebadoh side project reunite two decades on for underwhelming comeback.
Another pandemic silver lining: the now-or-never reunion of The Folk Implosion, Lou Barlow’s 90s Sebadoh spin-off with John Davis that became a major concern after their soundtrack to Larry Clark’s Kids gave them a breakout hit with Natural One.
This, somewhat muted, first album in 20 years lacks much of the Beck-like shuffle and experimental pop lustre of that early era, but boasts a mature earthy seam thanks to Barlow lacing its noirish alt.folk (Crepuscular, the title track), 80s-inflected crypt rock (O.K. To Disconnect) and melodic drone and dub experiments (The Fable And The Fact, Water Torture) with touches of Middle Eastern instrumentation. Right Hand Over The Heart even plays out to medieval beats and Cure guitars, one of several darkly political tracks counterpointing the record’s deeply personal moments: Davis detailing his father’s death on The Day You Died, and Barlow dissecting the tribulations of fatherhood on My Little Lamb.
Mark Beaumont
JJ Grey & Mofro
Olustee ALLIGATOR
Florida reflection.
Nine years is a dangerously long gap between albums, particularly if you’re still on the rise. But JJ Grey doesn’t seem bothered. Maybe he’s looking at the bigger picture, as he does on evocative opening ballad , which conjures up a timeless, almost mystical vision of the waves lapping round his Florida home state. He then heads east towards New Orleans (musically) for a can of funk to bring to the party onalbum – ballad followed by soul stirrer – and it makes for a tight, compact album.
