Manchester Academy 3 – 01/09/19
Arriving at Manchester Academy 3 there was a buzz of excitement about the place amongst the sea of Guns N Roses fans who were about to see GNR bassist Duff McKagan up close and personal. As a Guns N Roses fan myself, to say I was a little bit excited is an understatement!
I was very intrigued as well, I certainly didn’t know what to expect. Would he play some Guns N Roses stuff, would he ignore the bands material altogether and just focus on his stuff? Who knows… All will be revealed. What I did know however, was that I was about to witness something very special.
But first, I must talk about Shooter Jennings. Shooter Jennings for those that don’t know and to be honest, I didn’t know all that much about him, is a musical prodigy. He and his band were not only the support act, but also worked on Duff McKagan’s album Tenderness. They played the opening set and then backed Duff McKagan for the main set. What an incredible set of musicians. Shooter is equally well versed playing piano as he is with the guitar. His mix of rock, country and blues was excellent and his band were incredible, the harmonies between the fiddle and guitar were spell binding and I have to say, I particularly enjoyed Shooter’s song ‘The Outsider’ – A real country singalong.
Now, onto the main event. After Shooter’s fantastic opening set, we had a brief interlude and then Duff casually walks onstage to a huge applause from the crowd, followed by Shooter Jennings and his band. He opened proceedings with ‘You aint the First’, a track originally from the Use Your Illusion album. The country feel to this song playing to the strengths of Shooter Jennings and his band and Duff Mckagan’s vocals were well and truly suited to this song. The crowd loved it and the easy going, laid back nature of this track set the tone for the night.
‘Breaking Rocks’ was up next. A track from Duff’s new album ‘Tenderness’. It’s a really nice song and a great introduction to Duff’s new material. Duff introduces the album, telling the audience that these songs were written about his experiences on the road with his ‘other band’. He then launches into the title track ‘Tenderness’ which, on the record sounds stunning, but live it really was something else. The honesty and raw emotion that Duff displayed during the show was incredible. This was a show and indeed an album from the heart.
I particularly enjoyed Duff’s cover of the ‘Mad Season’ song ‘River of Deceit. It was really powerful and add to that the genius of Shooter Jennings and his band, it became somewhat of a sing along moment, a very chilled sing along, but a sing along all the same. Duff joked with the crowd saying that Manchester and Seattle are parallel cities and you can get a direct flight for ‘very, very cheap’, to which someone in the crowd shouted ‘come here more then!’. Wouldn’t we all like to see that.
Duff’s performance was a very honest one, the songs on Tenderness were written about his experiences on the road with Guns N Roses. In fact he even said at one point, he’d been to Manchester once before in 1992, but couldn’t remember a thing about it, “can you remember?” he asked the crowd. Of course, this got a cheer. Speaking of Guns N Roses eight songs into the set, we were treated to another GNR song. Again a track from Use your Illusion, ‘Dust and Bones’, but this time Duff was handed an electric guitar. He rocked out, running around the tiny stage as if he was playing Wembley. It was a really nice tempo change and of course, the crowd went wild.
Another great song and personal highlight for me was the song ‘Parkland’, which Duff dedicated to the victims of mass shootings in America. It was a particularly powerful moment as that weekend there had been yet another shooting in the states. It’s great that an artist like Duff is trying his best to bring it to the attention of the masses and equally disturbing that there is enough material on the subject of mass shootings that he was able to write an entire song about it. It certainly makes you think.
After Parkland, Duff played ‘Clampdown’, a Clash cover, which drew on his punk routes. I’m pleased to say he still has all the angst he always has done and then some! Following Clampdown came the final Guns N Roses song ‘Dead Horse’ which was played with all the energy and vigour of the original. I would have perhaps liked to see Duff pick up a bass for at least one of the Guns N Roses songs. I have to mention fiddle player Aubrey Richmond who took lead vocals on the song. Not only has she been playing fiddle all night, but, what a cracking voice. She absolutely nailed it.
Bringing the show to a close, Duff played us out with ‘Don’t Look Behind You’, which was a real lighters in the air moment…. If people till smoked! Arms up, slow swaying, crowd singing. It was great and then the final song, yet another cover, was ‘Deepest Shade’, which really gave the entire band an opportunity to show off. It was a really full sound and the harmonics between the fiddle and guitar was just brilliant.
Overall, what an incredible show. It was a real musical treat, not only to see Duff McKagan, who was absolutely sublime, but to see the incredible musicians he shared a stage with. Shooter Jennings, Aubrey Richmond and the rest of the band were out of this world. It was a truly amazing night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. What a sound, what a band, what a gig!
