L.A. GUNS – Loud & Dangerous: Live from Hollywood

To understand L.A. Guns and their newest live album, you need to go back in time and see how it all started.

L.A. Guns was formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by guitarist Tracii Guns. The band consisted of Tracii Guns on guitar, W. Axl Rose on vocals, Ole Beich on bass, and Rob Gardner on the drums. Axl later quit to form Hollywood Rose and was replaced by singer Michael Jagosz. After putting out a demo in 1984, Tracii and Rob left to reform with Axl as Guns ‘N Roses (named after L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, not Tracii Guns and Axl Rose). Due to musical differences, Tracii left Guns ‘N Roses to re-form L.A. Guns. Guns ‘N Roses replaced him with Slash, and you probably know the rest of that story …

After several line-ups, the band released the first full-length and self-titled album in 1988. The band had the following line-up: Phil Lewis – Lead Vocals, Tracii Guns – Guitar, Mick Cripps – Guitar, Kelly Nickels – Bass, and Nickey “Beat” Alexander – Drums. After the release of L.A. Guns, the band have since released eleven other studio recorded albums, four best of records, and three live albums.

In 2005, a remastered set of demos (re-released as Black List), which were recorded around the time L.A. Guns wrote their first album (before Phil Lewis joined) was released, featuring Paul Black on vocals. At the same time, Tracii Guns and Brides of Destruction released their second album Runaway Brides, but it didn’t maintain the success of the first, so Tracii focused on putting together a “solo” band. The line-up for the Tracii Guns Band, featuring former L.A. Guns members, Paul Black, Nickey “Beat” Alexander, and Tracii Guns, as well as Tracii’s son Jeremy Guns, was announced. The band is now also going under the L.A. Guns name, regardless of the fact that the Phil Lewis version is still together, recording, and touring.

This has caused some arguments amongst the L.A. Guns fan base. Some fans have argued that the Tracii Guns Band is the “true” L.A. Guns, as it features more original members, and the man who wrote the band’s first album; Paul Black. However, other fans dispute this, arguing that as Paul Black never appeared on any of the L.A. Guns albums until the demos featuring him were released in 2005, as well as the fact that Nickey Alexander never toured in support of any of the L.A. Guns records. Many fans see Phil Lewis as the “true” L.A. Guns singer due to the less notable material released during his departure from the band. That argument aside, it is the Phil Lewis version at hand today, as they’ve just released L.A. Guns’ third official live record, entitled Loud And Dangerous.

Though many consider them a Hair Metal band with roots in Goth and Punk Rock, L.A. Guns’ musical style is mainly Hard Rock with some Blues elements. Since their previous live album, A Night on the Strip, only Phil Lewis and Steve Riley are still in the group. It seems like L.A. Guns is eager to get out this live album to show their new line-up.

The band seems pretty tight and they still rock, but the album doesn’t offer anything new. The only song that isn’t from the Tracii Guns era is “Rock And Roll Outlaw.” The song was recorded for the album Rips the Covers Off, which is an album with cover songs that they put out to introduce Stacey Blades as their new guitarist in 2004.

Phil Lewis seems to be in great shape for this one, and delivers the goods with his unique voice and reveals why he’s one of Rock’s greatest front men. Even though he’s been around for two decades, he still sounds great and shows it on songs like “Never Enough,” “Rip and Tear,” and “The Ballade of Jayne.”

Stacey Blades is really an amazing guitarist. He truly fits in well with the band, and he has the cool playing style that is needed to deliver this kind of music. He shows some incredibly cool Hard Rock solos on songs like “Rock And Roll Outlaw,” and, of course, on the Bluesy “Nothing Better to Do.” This is a four-minute long Blues Rock song with loads of guitar masturbation, which is much needed and appreciated in this genre.

The album also comes with two bonus video tracks. “Hollywood’s Burning” and “It Don’t Mean Nothing” sound very cool live, and are a nice treat for the fans. They are taken from their newest release Tales from the Strip (2005). Why not fill the live album itself with more songs like this? Instead the album becomes sort of a blast from the past. Eight of the twelve songs on the album were also on A Night on the Strip, which is a far better live album.

If you aren’t familiar with L.A. Guns, this isn’t a bad record by which to get to know them. On the other hand, if you want to hear L.A. Guns at their best, go buy A Night on the Strip instead!

Lineup

• Phil Lewis – Lead vocals, guitar
• Adam Hamilton – Bass, vocals
• Stacey Blades – Guitar, vocals
• Steve Riley – Drums, vocals

Tracklist

1. No Mercy
2. Sex Action
3. Never Enough
4. Over the Edge
5. Rock and Roll Outlaw
6. Nothing Better to Do
7. Hell Raisers Ball
8. One More Reason
9. Electric Gypsy
10. Rip and Tear
11. Ballad of Jayne
12. Don’t Look at Me That Way

Bonus DVD cuts:
-Hollywood Burning
-Don’t Mean Nothing