Live music review: Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators

3Arena, Dublin

Speaking to the Irish Examiner several months ago, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash seemed ambivalent about his upcoming arena tour. He had enjoyed performing in small sweaty clubs: in stepping up to larger spaces might some of the backstage drama which had ultimately led to his departure from Guns N’ Roses manifest once again?

At 3Arena you initially shared his misgivings. Where Slash’s 2013 show at the more intimate Olympia was rollicking and electric, here the yawning dimensions initially resulted in a slightly flat atmosphere. It didn’t help that, though Slash was undoubtedly the star, he wasn’t the frontman: that job was filled by Myles Kennedy, a journeyman who, while he could approximate the live-wire shriek of Guns leader Axl Rose, lacked his dark charisma.