There’s a showiness and jauntiness to the lead guitar on opening track ‘No Mercy’ that clearly says we’re not in 1988 anymore. The thrust is still there, that wonderfully spiky riff, that raw aggression but the clarity of production here and the volume of the ‘lead’ in the mix is very much not what these guys sounded like in 1988 when I first saw them. The more things change though the more they stay the same: 30 years on L.A. Guns still have that aura about them and whilst other Sunset Strip bands will quite rightly fall into the footnotes of history these guys were always just that little bit more.
The classic line-up of L.A. Guns of course is long gone but 2018 sees Phil and Tracy back together and some of the songs here, some of those first album classics namely: “No Mercy”, “Sex Action” and “One More Reason” even pre-date Phil’s time in the band and were written with original vocalist Paul Black.
As set-lists go this one is very heavy on the first two releases (with 4 from the debut and 4 from the second of the 14 tracks) and rightly so, the remaining 6 tracks take you all too briefly through a career with that continued to throw up gems. There’s the immediacy and heaviness of ‘Killing Machine’ from 1994’s ‘Vicious Circle’; the pre-grunge classics ‘Kiss My Love Goodbye’ and ‘Over the Edge’ from 1991’s ‘Hollywood Vampires’ as well as ‘Don’t Look at Me that Way’ from the underrated ‘Waking the Dead’ and a single slice from the latest release ‘The Missing Peace’ in ‘Speed.’
The only other track here is ‘Jelly Jam’ a song only played by the band a handful of times before this April 30th 2017 set. What can I say? It’s a nice ‘jam’ sandwiched between ‘Never Enough’ and ‘The Ballad of Jayne’ in the four song encore.
Musically the 2018 vintage L.A. Guns are on fire, production is spotless and the sound crystal clear which may or may not be to your linking, let’s put it this way you can certainly hear the guitar prominently in the mix and Phil is very much on form vocally. Visually if you buy the DVD or Blu-Ray you get a real feel for L.A. Guns live in 2018 and to be honest this is a nicely shot live show. The band may not look like they did back in the day but Phil and Co are looking remarkably well ass they move into their 4th decade. How does it rate against their 5 other official live releases? The answer is remarkably well I think I’d put it ahead of ‘Hellraisers Ball’ from (2005) and ‘The Hollywood Years-Live and Loaded’ from (2007) and as albums go there’s only really their vintage Japanese release ‘Live! Vampires’ from (1992) that I consider sounds better.
Definitely a must for fans or those curious to see one of the best bands from The Strip back in the day showing they’ve still got what it takes…
