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Review: Myles Kennedy, O2 Academy
Cardiff’s Cardinal Black are clearly delighted to have landed this tour, which gives them the opportunity to play in front of packed houses every night in the middle of a pandemic. It’s not hard to see why they’ve been championed by Steve Winwood, as their brand of tasteful rock with soulful vocals and plentiful keyboard embellishments could have been drawn from any of his later solo albums.
These guys have been round the block a few times. They’re talented, slick and well-rehearsed, with not a note out of place. Trouble is, they’re also a little – whisper it – bland. If they ever had any disagreeable rough edges, these have been thoroughly sanded down. They’ll probably be huge.
is needed now More than ever
Myles Kennedy is also delighted to be here, albeit for slightly different reasons. Like all American artists with sizeable audiences on this side of the pond, getting to the UK has been touch-and-go, with the rigmarole of PCR tests, isolation on arrival and touring in a bubble. One infection and the entire entourage could be stuck here for Christmas. Little wonder this opening night of the tour is an emotional experience for his trio, and he’s visibly moved when the packed audience break into a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday (he’s just turned 52).
Kennedy was last in town three years ago for a massively over-subscribed solo acoustic show aboard the Thekla. This time he’s brought drummer Zia Uddin and bassist Tim Tournier, who both prove to be limelight-shunning professionals performing in service of the star. And Myles is every inch the star, being the frontman of arena rockers Alter Bridge and vocalist with Slash. Hell, he even came within a whisker of replacing Robert Plant in a reformed Led Zeppelin after the band’s 2007 reunion.
But while we’re all familiar with the power and versatility of his voice, Kennedy’s solo work also permits him to demonstrate his skills as a guitarist in a variety of styles – all of which are on display tonight, from the country blues picking of the magnificent Haunted by Design to the sublime slide guitar of Blind Faith, Tell It Like It Is and In Stride.
Kennedy’s lyrics occasionally touch on darker personal themes (addiction, loss of religious faith) and he clearly has a well-developed social conscience, but he’s rather too fond of the exasperating “why can’t we all just get along?” school of songwriting – indeed this is actually the chorus of Get Along – whose carefully crafted vagueness and positivity dodge overt political statements with the potential to alienate any demographic. One can’t help but wish he’d actually nail his colours to the mast now and again.
Still, the thoughtfully balanced set is drawn mostly from recent solo albums Year of the Tiger and The Ides of March. While there’s no shortage of those air-punching rockers custom built for audience bellow-alongs in heartland arena shows, it’s the more intimate songs that resonate most strongly in this comparatively bijou setting. Even Alter Bridge’s All Ends Well acquires new life when stripped of its bombast and delivered in solo acoustic form. Classy stuff. Let’s hope they ride out the plague, return home safely and come back soon.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: December 2021
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