LIVE REVIEW: Myles Kennedy @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London

Everyone hates March. It’s the end of winter and you’re sick of the dreary weather, the April showers are just around the corner, and it feels as if the seasonal depression may be here to stay for good this time. The ides of March may be a bad omen for pop culture, but it also serves as the title for ALTER BRIDGE frontman MYLES KENNEDY’s second solo studio album. Touring the record across the UK, Kennedy settled in for a night at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, where March and December blurred their lines and shook hands.

Whilst the bulk of the audience may have been made up of classic dad rockers, hearts set on defending the fort of old school hard rock in the form of the vocalist’s collaboration with GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist SLASH, they first had to undergo Welsh openers CARDINAL BLACK. The tone of the atmosphere was quickly set by frontman Tom Hollister stating “I feel like dancing tonight”, confirming that the evening was to be more mellow than a standard ALTER BRIDGE/SLASH line-up. The soulful vocals that emitted from Hollister stirred pangs of pain, the heartache and agony clearly visible behind his passionate notes in Tell Me How It Feels, the band’s debut single that dropped only six months ago and subsequently knocked NOEL GALLAGHER off the iTunes Rock Singles Chart for the #1 spot. 

Bassist Sam Williams and drummer Adam Roberts may not have been front and centre both physically or musically, but the effortless bond within their rhythm section built a foundation that held up ethereal vocal harmonies and passionately phrased guitar solos. If you were to close your eyes during Warm Love, comfort and tenderness would wash over you like a toasty bubble bath. The guitar playing which has earned Chris Buck the #1 spot in Guitarist Magazine for ‘Best New Guitarist’ and ‘Best Blues Guitarist’ had initially sceptical audience members lapping up his twangs and squeals like kittens being shown milk. With enough bollocks to step away from the microphone and sing lovingly penned lyrics acapella to his wife amidst the crowd, Hollister and CARDINAL BLACK ended their support slot with a tear-jerking impression.

Rating: 7/10

Swing and jazz instrumentations between the band’s sets stirred up further murmurs of perplexity, however the immediately recognisable voice, one of which that has not deteriorated in the years that it has been away from the spotlight, boomed out over the monitors and hands were soon clapping sporadically with enthusiasm as MYLES KENNEDY took to the stage. An excess of reverberation on Kennedy’s voice during set-opener A Thousand Words painted him in the light of a divine being, Godlike in the sonic boom of his vocal delivery. Double-takes were glanced over in the direction of Myles’ torso, begging the question, is that a checkered shirt? The hoedown jauntiness of Devil On The Wall fit the mood of his attire, before the storm clouds rolled in over the top of crawling bass lines on the doom-inducing Haunted By Design and Year Of The Tiger. 

Perhaps it was the miracle of the tour going ahead at all that had Myles extra humbled and not taking anything for granted ever again, making the most out of changing guitar between every. Single. Song. And this was a 16-track setlist. It wasn’t a treat just for himself though, as technical difficulties had the frontman thinking quick on his toes and changing the rules of the game, taking a shot at title track Ides Of March, allegedly having not played it live before as the multi-layered instrumentation was theoretically difficult to fill out as a three-piece. “I see a lot of ALTER BRIDGE shirts in the audience,” observed Myles at one point. “You know, I actually know those guys. I’ll tell ‘em you said hi,” before cascading into ALTER BRIDGE classics All Ends Well and the emotional Watch Over You. Both were private and delicate moments with just him and his acoustic guitar, with the wise and comforting words of his mother echoing throughout the room, ‘If you believe in nothing else, just keep believing in yourself’.

The encore of the night raised its head in the form of an acoustic version of the SLASH, MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS’ track World On Fire, as Myles’ guitar tech had the hardest job of his life this evening fiddling with leads left, right, and centre that he ended up being the honorary fourth band member. 

MYLES KENNEDY’s set proved that dreams really do come true. If you wish hard enough, make sacrifices in order to keep live music alive, and look out for one another, then gigs and music will be back to traversing the continents and oceans in order to give us hope and something to believe in once more. 

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Jordan Darby Photography here: