Review: Slash – Live At The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival
Slash – Live At The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – DVD – Blu-ray – Digital / Label: earMUSIC
Release: 2025
Text: Martien Koolen
Guitar picker Slash became of course famous when he was playing with the notorious Guns N’ Roses, making five albums with them, while later on in his career he made two albums with Slash’s Snakepit, two albums with Velvet Revolver, two solo albums and four albums with Slash, featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.
He also showed his guitar skills on lots of albums and now he releases a live album with his Blues Ball Band, consisting of Teddy “Zigzag “Andreadis (keys, vocals), Tash Neal (rhythm guitar, vocals), Johnny Gripanic (bass guitar), Michael Jerome (drums) and of course the master himself on lead guitar.
This new Slash album, captured live at the Mission Ball Room in Denver, 17 July 2024, is a tribute to Slash’s love of the blues, featuring fifteen covers of notorious and well-known songs. Sad but true, I am nor really a fan of covers but I have to say that some of the songs on this live album can really move me and that is of course mainly due to the fabulous guitar picking and playing of Slash, and yeah, he can play a mean blues guitar indeed.
Highlights of this impressive live blues album are Stormy Monday (originally by T-Bone Walker), Crossroads (originally by Robert Johnson), Stone Free (originally by Jimi Hendrix), Oh Well (originally by Peter Green) and Shake Your Money Maker (originally by Elmore James).
Conclusion, if you like Slash’s guitar playing, who does not by the way, and you like blues classics, then this is a must have album for sure. Play it LOUD and enjoy.
Listening tip: Stone Free!!
Tracks:
01. Intro (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
02. Parchman Farm Blues (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
03. Killing Floor (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
04. Born Under a Bad Sign (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
05. Oh Well (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
06. Big Legged Woman (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
07. Key to the Highway (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
08. Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
09. Stormy Monday (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
10. The Pusher (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
11. Metal Chestnut (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
12. Crossroads (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
13. Stone Free (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
14. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
15. Shake Your Money Maker (Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival)
Website: https://www.slashonline.com/