BYLINE: Jim Meyer
CREDITLINE: Special to the Star Tribune
HEADLINE: Velvet Revolver: New, yet it seems very ... familiar

The members of Velvet Revolver strongly deny that they are a preconceived supergroup, but there's 
no denying that the combined star power of Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland and Guns N' Roses 
guitar god Slash made for an unusually charged debut Saturday at Quest in Minneapolis. (Was there ever 
this much buzz about Slash's Snakepit?)
Velvet Revolver (including GNR bassist Duff McKagen and drummer Matt Sorum) is on a short, 
small-club tour promoting their debut CD, due out June 8. Their 45-minute set plus an encore of 
oldies was more energetic than innovative, but there is at least one reason for high expectations 
this year.
Velvet Revolver auditioned numerous vocalists, but made a wise (albeit risky) choice in the 
much-troubled, now-sober Weiland, who looked sharp in reflective shades, an airman's cap, tight 
jeans, velvet vest and scarf. He resembled Judas Priest singer Rob Halford prancing and posing 
like a cabaret dominatrix. He was half-naked before long, revealing a severely short haircut and a 
skeletal frame, and he darted around the stage like he was auditioning for Spider Man.
Despite the band having three members from GNR, the first three songs carried more STP trademarks.
 Before playing "Headspace," Weiland blasted negative rock critics and boasted about the new song's
 positive lyrics before turning the song into a classic Scott Weiland vocal showcase.
Perhaps fearful of losing the audience with unfamiliar material, VR broke into STP's "Crackerman" and 
one song later bashed out the GNR crowd-pleaser "It's So Easy." Playing a GNR classic revealed how
 Velvet Revolver's own material lacks similar hook appeal, but it also set the stage for the evening's
 centerpiece, "Fall to Pieces."
Introducing the song, Weiland praised a melody that Slash brought to the band, to which Weiland 
added the lyric about how drugs destroyed his happy home. The song, already slated as the band's 
next single, features the unmistakable Slash guitar tone and a melody heavily borrowed from "Sweet 
Child O' Mine." Obviously, they hope the song will do for VR what "Sweet Child" did for GNR: Make 
them huge. It better, because VR's lighter songs impressed more than their thudding rockers, such
 as the dumb "Big Machine" and the banal "Set Me Free."
The group returned for some encore fun, starting with a faithful rendition of GNR's "Used To 
Love Her" and "Mr. Brownstone," and ending with Nirvana's "Negative Creep." It was a familiar, 

high-volume finale to a short preview that was part steamroller, part roller coaster.
Jim Meyer is a freelance writer from Minneapolis