L.A. GUNS
L'Empreinte - Savigny Le Temple, near Paris, France
December 9, 2010

L.A. Guns are a rare sight in Europe, and this December there was an L.A. Guns tour coming to town, with Pretty Boy Floyd as special guests!
This was announced as an incredible evening!

But which L.A. Guns?
There are two bands touring under the name L.A. Guns, one lead by singer Phil Lewis, who joined the band in 1987, and the other lead by original guitarist and only remaining original member, Tracii Guns.

I’m not going into the debate about which one is the original or which is the best L.A. Guns, but Tracii Guns is the founder of the band!

I saw L.A. Guns once before, back in 2002, and I had the chance to attend one of the few shows with W.A.S.P.’s Chris Holmes as a guitar player.
He was replacing Tracii, who had just left the band.

So tonight, I was very excited about seeing Tracii Guns on stage for the first time!

Appart from Tracii, L.A. Guns line-up was completed by Danny Nordahl, Jizzy Pearl and Chad Stewart.

Danny Nordahl and Chad Stewart have already played here at l'Empreinte in January 2010 with Faster Pussycat.

By the way, Chad was playing his second show of the evening, as he also was the stickstam for Pretty Boy Floyd.

The frontman was Jizzy Pearl, known for being the singer of Love/Hate, but he has also played with Ratt and Adler's Appetite.

He's very charismatic when talking to the audience and he's got a great voice, easily reaching high notes when needed.

But the way he moves on stage and the way he dances are quite strange. His poses look mechanical or unnatural, I guess i'ts just his style.

The L.A. Guns setlist was well chosen among some of their best known songs, but lots great tunes were missing, like I Wanna Be Your Man or Bitch is Back.

Two Love/Hate cover songs were played to honour Jizzy Pearl's original band: Spinning Wheel and Black Out In The Red Room.

Before the ncores they played the Ramones song I Just Wanna Have Something To Do as a trio, with Danny Nordahl on vocals, without Jizzy.
Something similar happened on Faster Pussycat's show in Savigny, with Danny singing Blitzkrieg Bop.

I would have expected Pretty Boy Floyd to play this song, as it was covered in one of their albums.

The version was cool but I would have prefered L.A. Guns to play another song of their own, given the fact that this show was shorter than others: No Mercy and Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door were played in some other dates of the tour but not tonight.

I loved Tracii Guns attitude on stage, and I found his guitar style amazing. Sometimes bluesy, sometimes heavy, with many licks and fills.
He's not the demonstrative kind of player, but he looks sure of himself and knows what he's capable of.
He's a legend and after all, he's the one who was in Guns'n'Roses before Slash!

Nevertheless, I think L.A. Guns should have a second guitar player, their music would gain power, especially during the solos.

The evening finished on the rush to catch the last train back to Paris (Savigny is a bit far away) but with the impression of having seen a legendary band.

To be honest, I prefered the more energetic Pretty Boy Floyd performance, but I was really satisfied after having seen such renowned musicians that's I'd never seen before, like Tracii Guns and Jizzy Pearl are.

So, 2010 was a great year for Glam rock concerts! What's coming next in 2011??

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Setlist L.A. Guns – L'Empreinte - Savigny Le Temple, near Paris, France – December 9, 2010

01. Electric Gypsy
02. Bitch Is Back
03. Decide
— Guitar Solo (incl. Back In Black) —
04. Never Enough
05. Dreamtime
06. The Ballad of Jayne
07. Over The Edge
08. Spinning Wheel
(Love/Hate cover)
09. One More Reason
10. Black Out In The Red Room
(Love/Hate cover)
11. Rip and Tear
12. I Just Wanna Have Something To Do
(The Ramones cover)
————————————
13. Sex Action

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