May 10, 2007 - Chicago, IL - The Riviera

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General Information

Date: May 10, 2007
Location: Chicago, IL
Venue: The Riviera; 4746 N. Racine 60640-4912, Chicago, IL, U.S.A. [ Venue website ]
Box Office Number: (773) 275-6800
Additional Info: Special guests The Actual.

Thanks to John B. Comerford for the setlist and ticket scans!

Set List

• Let It Roll
• Do It For The Kids
• Sucker Train Blues
• Superhuman
• The Last Fight
• She Mine
• Big Machine
• Get Out The Door
• Fall To Pieces
• Vasoline
• Just 16
• She Builds Quick Machines
• Set Me Free
• Wish You Were Here
• Used To Love Her
• Psycho Killer
• Slither

Reviews (18) [ send in your own review/pictures of the Chicago show ]

Thanks to J-Bird: Being a fan of Guns and STP, and the same age Weiland. I was anxious to see this show, these guys flat out rock. Best show I've seen in years, and probably the best for me. Duff, Matt, Slash and Scott, forgot the new guy, are at their best, what an awesome suprise, the memory of Fall To Pieces and Wish You Were Here are so vivid. Boy only for a dvd of the show, that would be a weekly visit, summer tour with Chains is a definite must see. If you dont know much about this band go see them, their a sleeper, my opinion-hands down hardest rocking, best vocalist and wildest dancing frontman you'll ever see. Thanks Velvet can't wait to see you again!

Thanks to Dusty Bottoms: Let me start by saying I am a fanatic about music. My first taste of Rock N' Roll was GN'fR, to make it even better I live in Lafayette, IN. Look it up, William Bailey. Appetite had so much energy, followed with Lies. Brings a tear to my eye. Then came the explosion of Grunge! Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sound Garden, STP, it was awesome. Bad Ass time in Rock N' Roll history to be hearing LIVE. Right in the middle of it all came Illusions Uno e Dos. WOW! Lightning Strikes! Crash, boom, bang.......Rock N' Roll is DOWN for the count. More than 10yrs later, a far off ray of light. Rumors start to fly......Finally! The greatest Front Man of our time joins with the 4 sweetest music to your ears sound creators. VR is born to bring it all back, baby. The first tour was awesome! Saw them at the Riviera (one of their first shows) and some arena in Cinn. Ohio. The first album was killer too. Round two. Finally get to see them again at the Riv., I could hardly wait................(Keep in mind, I truly do love the music). I'm so sick and fucking tired of corporate rock shows I could throw up. Hold a God Damn cord longer than what you hear on the studio cut guys! It wouldn't hurt to play it a little different, that's what a LIVE show is! I'll still be a fan and still go see the shows and still support the bands that COULD make a difference. But it aint got no heart baby. Peace!

Thanks to Alex: Well let me start of by saying that VR Rocked the shit out of the Riviera. Let's see, me and my friends Soccorro and JJ arrived shortly after 5pm. The opening band wasn't bad but wasn't good either. Their opening song Let It Roll left me wanting for more. I'm gona say Vasoline was the highlite of the show. I've seen VR five times already so I was waiting for them to play Crackerman or Sex Type Thing but Vasoline worked perfectly. I'm not much of a Slash or GNR fan at all but they kicked major ass. All in all VR pleased the cool windy city of Chicago, Again!!!!

Thanks to Kim & Dwayne: Best show we've been to in years! Electric show playing VR songs. Energy off the charts. "Wish You Were Here" had us in tears, and "Psycho Killer" dropped us! AWESOME!!! New tunes have us waiting for the release date!!!!!

Thanks to Cori: Well as always VR Rocked!!! All the new stuff was amazing and everything from Contraband sounded just like the cd. Cool venue a tad on the small side but it still sounded amazing. My car was towed and I got a ticket but I didn't care because Scott Weiland rocked my world =)

Thanks to Wade: The show was awesome! I hadn't seen any of them in concert since GNR opened for Motley Crue on the "Girls, Girls, Girls" tour in 1987 in Lakeland, FL. The VIP ticket that I bought didn't amount for anything except getting in maybe 5 minutes before the rest of the crowd. Paid big $$$ not to stand in line. It did net me the best seat in the house, however. I was standing against the rail in front of Slash. He was wearing a "Sum Young Ho" Massage Parlor t-shirt "Where every customer leaves satisfied". I was literally 3 feet from him where I could see every bead of sweat drop from his nose onto his guitar. I could've reached out and grabbed the picks off his Les Paul. He was in a good mood and even toyed with me when trowing out picks at the end of the encore (I didn't get one). My only complaint was that I couldn't hear the rest of the band due to the fact that Slash's monitor was immediately in front of me. Next concert, I will watch from afar so I can hear the ensemble.

Thanks to Elaine: The show was great! The second VR hit the stage everyone went nuts! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a huge GNR fan and seeing the band perform with Scott was the best I could have asked for. Scott and Duff sang on key the whole time and no one missed a note. Who knew Duff could sing?? Slash, of course, was great... and ripped? His solo's are still phenomenal and amazing to watch up close. Scott came out wearing a white tuxedo shirt with an untied bow tie, and the shirt came off one button at a time...hot. I'll end like this, it's the best show I've seen in a long time and I'm going to see them every chance I get from now on.

Thanks to Slim: Show was incredible. My neck's really sore. I started out one back of the railing, but by the end of the show I was about 4 or 5 back because I'm too nice. The new songs sounded great. Slash was smiling throughout the whole show. I took a few pics with my cellphone. I was going to try to sneak a disposable in, but I got patted down pretty good so I just pitched it on my way in. Wanted to take more pictures early in the show because I was a lot closer, but couldn't move my arms. My buddy won a 2 extra tickets from The Loop around noon with my help, but we couldn't get anyone to come on short notice (2-3 hour drive from where most of the people we know are), so we didn't even pick them up.

Thanks to Alex: I've seen VR twice, both in stadium settings (Rosemont/Tinley Park), but this small venue had some kind of magic that just blew away my other experiences with VR. The band was so wild, Scott was screaming how alive he felt and Slash was smiling just about the entire time. They sounded great, the new material is incredible. The crowd really loved "She Mine" in particular. The new GNR can't hold a candle to these guys. Now I feel spoiled! It just won't be the same seeing VR in a larger venue. The $60+ I spent on my ticket was well worth it!!

Thanks to John B. Comerford: During the time that VR hadn't toured, I sort of tried to put anticipating the new album far in the back of my head. This show rekindled my excitement for my favorite rock band however, and really the entire group was synchronized and ready to entertain at the Chicago Riviera. I'll cover the bands presence and performance, the songs and the sound quality and then some of the after show stuff that went down outside the venue.

The band itself were performing really well tonight. Slash had a smile on his face throughout the show, and was eager to entertain, crunching his guitar backwards behind his head to jam, and breaking out solos in great form. Duff had a stage presence blasting his bass with sharp pulls but really complimented the sound without overdoing it (which would have been even better if the Riv's sound was on par that night. It just didn't seem to be coalescing the way it usually does there...). Matt was having a great time poundin' the drums, and threw his sticks out to the crowd several times, at one point giving a long wink and "ok" hand sign to some of the crowd who caught them. Dave seemed like he was having a blast on stage, and honestly he was thrashing around to the VR cover of Stone Temple Pilot's "Vasoline" like I've never seen him do... he was in full metal mode for that song which made for a great performance.

Scott was on fire and really appeared to be in complete control of his performance. I didn't see any manic behavior on stage (well... that is to say maladaptive manic behavior far beyond his wily stage presence), and truthfully he appeared to be fronting the band on all cylinders while at the Chicago Riviera. His vocals were powerful and fantastic and if they seemed off, I could detect that it was a product of excessive speaker volume rather than his own pipes and performance. I was happy to see him generally looking healthy, but what impressed me the most is that he seemed really in charge and more calculating on stage than I've seen him in the past. It also seemed that he was relying more on a symmetrical movement to his stage act as opposed to too much of the "duck walking" thing which drives me nuts (this seems to be a newer thing over the last few years that isn't indicative of his older STP performances). Honestly, Scott was on fire and in control last night, and he pulled off being the best frontman in rock without being excessivly manic. It was a great show, visually.

It has been my past experience that the sound quality at the Riviera is typically pretty good and comprehensible. During the 05/10/07 show, it wasn't bad, but it was just.... loud. In this case, loud doesn't mean simply of high volume, but instead indicates that there was some crackling and distortion that took away from the sound quality in my opinion. Of course, the older material seemed more comprehensible when played live than the newer stuff; but that's a product of being primed for the material. The songs from the forthcoming "Libertad" album really fell like they are going to be great. "Get Out The Door" had a repetition to it that was nearly anthemic, but "This Fight" and "She Builds Quick Machines" were great and once the crowd know the songs, I have a feeling that those are going to be big crowd pleasers when played live. The band opened with "Let It Roll" and I really hope to find that on disc recorded in a studio because it was awesome... A-W-E-S-O-M-E. "Wish You Were Here" is always a crowd pleaser and the sound for that one was crisp, and Scott's vocals were dead on. "Psycho Killer" was a lot of fun to hear and was a new cover within those of my own VR experiences. "Suckertrain Blues" is never off in my mind.... I'll never get tired of that song on disc or live where it just resonates in the room. "Fall To Pieces" sounded terrific and the place went nuts (along with Kushner) during "Vasoline". "Slither" sounded great and is just a powerful rock song which typically the band has dragged out the music when played live in the past. Tonight, the introduction allowed Duff to really work his bass into the song, and they got right into it without playing with the synthesizer or overdoing it. I was happy with this, because "Slither" is a great hard rock song with a deep bass riff and powerful vocals. It's better off being that way rather than emulating some long Iron Butterfly song that stays way past it's welcome. "Slither" rocks and so did the band in concert tonight.

After the show, I had a pretty amazing experience as well. For several years now, I've been trying to land a setlist and hadn't been able to get one. This time, my girl approachd the soundboard guy who was (finally) nice enough to give one out (note: give one to my girl, not me). So really, the setlist was score # 1, but score # 2 was later on that night after the show outside the venue. We saw Scott go to his limo maybe 8 feet away from us, and then the rest of the band loaded up into some black rent-a-transport van. The only member to sign anything was Slash. He signed TWO, count 'em TWO autographs, and thankfully one of those was my setlist through the window of the car they were in. Needless to say, the image of the setlist you see is mine with Slash's autograph which I'm so happy to have. I came in to VR because I'm an STP fan (from the Core days, so long term) and I wish that Scott would've signed, but the night was a great experience and if you guys read these reviews at all: Thanks for a great show, and thank you Slash for your signature! It really made the night.

Thanks to Nolan: They were good, tight, but something was off. They all look tired, especially Weiland. The Actual just sucks. There is nothing going on for that band. The music sucks and they have no presence at all. Nobody was into them. I hope this band (VR) can go on. They just reak of destruction. God bless Weiland. Peace.

Thanks to Jon: The show was undoubdtedly the best I have ever been to period. Scott and Slash worked the crowd amazingly and the set list was organized perfectly. The new songs sound great "Let it Roll", "She Builds Quick Machines" and "Last Fight". I personally like "Let it Roll" the most out of those. "Vasoline" and "Used to Love Her" were a surprise because I had heard VR was done with STP and GnR covers. I was excited before, but now I can't wait for Libertad to come out! Hope a fall tour comes this way!

Thanks to Jay: Great show. This was my third time seeing Velvet and the second time seeing them at this venue. hey were awesome and the new songs sounded great. For me Vasoline stole the show. Also, they played another song that wasn't mentioned this sites set list. They also played Just 16, I forgot when, but it was somewhat towards the end and before the encore. I brought my friend with who was a big Velvet fan, but had never seen them live. He said it was definately one of the best concerts he ever went to. Can't wait for Libertad!!!

Thanks to Gena: AWESOME SHOW!!! First of all, the Riveria was a fantastic venue. It's old, but absolutely gorgeous and the acoustics were great! Also, very easy to score a drink whenever you wanted it. VR was fantastic! Scott and Duff looked amazing, but I was there to see Slash. He was in his classic black leather pants and top hat and he was unbelievable - I can't even put into words what truly great musicians and performers those gentlemen are. My friends and I flew down from Minneapolis and it was money very well spent! Rock on Superstars!

Thanks to Tim Jensen: This was my 3rd time seeing Velvet Revolver from the front row. This time was most special not only cause its was the closest they've ever been to the guard rail but because during Psycho Killer Slash handed me guitar pick while shaking my hand. Duff had given me a pick at the Tweeter and Dave had thrown me one at the Alstate Arena. This was by far the best concert I've ever been to.

Thanks to Mr Zinc: I have to admit, I was a little let down. I've seen all 3 previous Chicago shows, 2x in Vegas and in my own backyard in Rockford IL. And for the most part, those shows were the same.. with the exception of a different cover thrown in here or there. So this time around, with a brand new album and 3 years later, I was expecting a different show, but this was for the most part "the same show". I've seen 6 times now. Acoustic Wish You Were Here, seen it before. Used To Love Her, seen it before. I was just hoping for more new tracks.

Vasoline was great, and I was happy to see that change in the setlist. She Builds Quick Machines was fucking great, that will make a great single. The rest of the new songs were pretty good from what I remember, though I will have to hear 'em again.

All in all though, it was a good show and I was happy to see them again after two years and Matt autographed my You Could Be Mine 12" before the security roughed me up, but that's another story.

Can't wait for the album, and to see 'em again when they get back from across the pond, hopefully with more new tracks and a more varied setlist.

Thanks to Jake: This was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.The set list was the exact same as the last show as far as I could tell, with the same 2 encores. The Actual were terrible; everyone checked their watches after each song.

The Riviera was really strict about cameras so only a few were able to be snuck in. Hopefully those who did get pictures and video will upload it for everyone else.

VR didn't go on until around 9:20, almost an hour after the opener got off the stage but it was worth it. This was my first time seeing VR and in all of the times I've seen GNR videos, I've never seen Slash smile as much as he did tonight.

The Last Fight sounded really good. The only one I wasn't much for was Pyscho Killer. But all the songs sounded great, especially the STP and GNR covers. They all looked really tight.

Thanks to Tim: Holy shit VR fans. First off the Actual were fairly decent, couldn't understand a word they said, but songs sounded good anyways, except for the lead singer who was constantly moving around stage.... anywho. VR came on around 9:30, and my god it was amazing. I've seen them 4 times and this one by far was the best. Band has never sounded better and the new tracks they played were incredible. She Builds Quick Machines and Get Out the Door are rockers. Contraband stuff was top notch. Fall To Pieces, Do It for The Kids and Slither stole the show for me, until I heard Vasoline which was surreal. My friends and I can't wait for the big end of summer tour cause we'll be there again. Show was amazing and VR is the best band on the planet... keep on rocking guys.