The legendary Slash filled a stadium and demonstrated all his talent without appealing to the memory of Guns N’Roses

An interesting paradox occurred on Friday night at the Movistar Arena stadium when Barthe now legendary guitarist of Guns N’ Rosessupported by Myles Kennedy and the conspirators.

Because it is inevitable to associate the guitarist with curlers, dark glasses, hat and leather pants with Axl Rose’s band. So it could be assumed that the audience that almost filled the venue was looking for alternative versions of Guns songs. At all: They would listen to Slash.

From the extensive list of songs that consumed more than two hours of show, He only made one of the Gunsthe group that changed the DNA of rock at the end of the 80s: Don’t curse me, and is one of the least known. Complaints, murmurs, hisses? Not one. Nor would they be heard at the brutal volume displayed by the band.

An entity unto itself

Intelligently and with a lot of work, Slash has managed to become an autonomous artistic entity. He tried with his group Slash’s Snakepit and other variations, but found the ideal partners in Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, with whom he has been working for a long time.

The audience already knows them and knows Kennedy’s fine throat and his professionalism on stage, the solvency of drummer Brent Fitz and guitarist Frank Sidoris, even if he maintains an emotional complicity with the extroverted bassist Todd Kerns, who also sings some songs and is an occasional purveyor of harmonies.

While Myles Kennedy is low-key, Kerns is loud and talkative, but Slash is nearly silent.

Just as judges only express themselves through their rulings, Slash said very few words in his presentation, and He preferred to communicate through his guitarwhich has a loquacity that contrasts with the silence of those who command it.

Slash’s style

His style has many things of many guitarists, even some that perhaps he didn’t know, because being Argentine His mottled hair and dark skin remind us of the black García López. (La Torre, Miguel Mateos and, above all, Charly García), but at a certain point he imposes himself with the very high guitar, at a perfect angle of 45º, and has the image of a Pappus.

Although his previous music and T-shirt reveal a taste for Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Slash is a unique guitarist with his own strong style.

He likes digital pyrotechnics, which he displays around songs, but in a limited way, exceeding the notes but not the measures. The first part of their show slipped inexorably towards boredom: professional hard-rock without anything special, common songs without particularity, similar to each other.

This begins to change with a cowbell marking the count Actions speak louder than wordsa song from his 2022 album, Bar 4. There he approaches the Guns ‘N’ Roses neighborhood, but does not go beyond its limits.

Go back a little with yours Cover by Lenny Kravitz, Always in a hurry (Slash played on the original recording), sung by Todd Kerns, and reaches cruising altitude Folded to fly, another solo song with an acoustic start. Oxygen improves, the air becomes more breathable and the show more pleasant.

An unforgettable moment

But there is a unique, decisive and unforgettable moment: Evil Stone, a frenetic rock that releases the monster. There, for the first and only time, Slash does it a single without restrictions, as long as it is impressive; both pyrotechnic and full of meaning.

The muscles in his arms are tense, determined to take each melodic curve to the speed limit, but not out of control, knowing that he is heading for emotion.

That’s where it becomes clear why Slash is one of the greatest guitarists in rock history. An overwhelming thing; The gang can barely follow him but they don’t slow down so the leader can show them everything he knows. And all he knows is a lot. How could the stadium not stop to give him a standing ovation!

Old fox finally, Slash knows he can only use that trick once, and the rest will be flashes with counted jokes. He is a team player and although his name is what he calls himself, he plays calmly, without exhibitionism and without boasting or blemishes that highlight him, even if his solos have no way of going unnoticed. The final acceleration takes him to the last straight where he won the battle.

The encores

The encores are two and very different: a correct version even if taken from the hair of the Elton John classic, rocket man. It seems more like an excuse for Slash to play a lap guitar with the instrument in a horizontal position and the drummer joins in on the piano, a strange castling if there ever was one.

The second encore is AnastasiaSlash’s most successful song as a solo artist, which begins with a riff that has its roots in classical music but on its electric guitar sounds more like a nod to Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore.

It’s his first classic without dependence on Guns N’ Roses, where he has a little more room for string stretches and dribbles at the southern edge of the fingerboard. Sparks of light for a concert that has reached a happy ending.

Outside, the rain that has drenched the audience is waiting to soak them once again. Fortunately, the stadium’s air conditioning made the audience’s stay bearable and it remains only to imagine how the lights and the unbearable humidity must have affected the eternal leather trousers of Slash and his owner. We already know that there is no suffocation that can diminish his talent.