Photos and Review by Chris Besaw
This past Saturday night while fans of Syracuse Basketball werehanging their heads from the Orange Men’s loss to the Miami Hurricanes, the hard rock fans at the Vine at del Lago Casino were banging their heads and raising their fists! Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators brought The River is Rising Tour 2022 to upstate NY along with their friends in the band Plush.
I admit that I was not familiar with the opener Plush. Hailing from Upstate New York, the band consisting of Moriah Formica (vocals), Ashley Suppa (Bassist), Bella Perron (guitars) andBrooke Colucci (drums) are an extremely talented bunch of musicians! Here is just a little snippet of their history. Their drummer, Brooke Colucci, whose video drum covers of various bands hit songs received over fourteen million views. She was also featured in Modern Drummer magazine. Bella Perron who attended Berklee College of Music, Moriah Formica who was one of the youngest competitors on NBC’s “The Voice” at the age of 16 and was referred to as a “Rock Goddess” by pop sensation Miley Cyrus. Let us not forget bassist Ashley Suppa who was dubbed the “female version of Cliff Burton” and was requested by Ace Frehley (Kiss) to lend her skills on bass and vocals on his solo album Anomaly.
As I mentioned before, I went into the evening not knowing much about Plush and was eager to see what they were all about based on what I learned about the band. From the moment they opened with the track “Athena” to the heavy-laden groove riffs of “Champion,” this group of young musicians came out determined to bring rock n roll back to the masses! Being a young band with their ages ranging between 18-21 this group of women hard rockers play and sound as tight and seasoned as any veteran rockers. One of the highlights of their set was their incredible version of the classic Heart track “Barracuda.” If you do get a chance, catch them live, they are definitely worth checking out!
Next up, the band the sold-out crowd was waiting eagerly for, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators! After a brief intro, the band took the stage charging right into “Driving Rain,” and “My Antidote.” I would like to mention that it was remarkably interesting to see the band play a huge mix of their songs from their career, even tossing in a few of Slash’s Snake Pit songs. There were some die hard Guns n Roses fans in attendance shouting for a couple GNR songs only to be let down. Aside from playing some Snake Pit songs, the band played two covers, Lenny Kravitz’s “Mama Said” which Slash co-wrote and a very incredible version of the Elton John classic “Rocket Man.”
The band is currently on tour in support of their latest release, simply titled 4 and played quite a few songs from that release. If you have not picked it up yet, I highly recommend it! They played an impressive twenty songs with one encore with notable mentions, “Back From Cali,” “Whatever Gets You By,” to which Myles Kennedy quipped he was playing the most metal instrument on it, “a triangle.” Other stand out songs included “C’est La Vie,” and “World on Fire.”
Something I want to point out is that I really appreciated and enjoyed their performance at the Vine. If you have not seen Myles Kennedy perform you are missing out of one of the best voices in rock n roll today. It would be a crime to not mention the rest of the band, Todd Kearns (bassist), Brent Fitz (drums),and Frank Sidoris (rhythm guitar) are all extraordinarily talentedand amazing musicians. Lastly, the man with the hot riffs and his signature top hat and shades, Slash! Truly a guitarist who lives up to the title… Legend! I have seen him perform with various projects and what I can appreciate about his work with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators is that it is straight, no frills,gritty, heavy rock n roll. I suggest if you get the chance to see them on this tour, get tickets while you can because shows are selling out and you will not be disappointed.
Thank you and enjoy the highlights from the show.
Leave a Reply