BY MIKE SHALER | Go Venue Magazine
July 15th, 2023, at The Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan was the place to be as glam metal icons L.A. Guns were in town for a stop on their tour in support of their latest album, Black Diamonds.
Opening the night was Chrome Mollie out of Westland, Michigan, who had that classic Detroit blue collar rock sound down to a T. With heavy bangers like “Freight Train”, “Shake It” and “Where’s The Dog” amongst others, Chrome Mollie didn’t mess around, and the ever-growing crowd was quickly swept into what Chrome Mollie dished out and had the evening off to the right start.
L.A. Guns, having slayed audiences worldwide since the early 1980s, has shown no slowdown and brought hits new and old for fans to enjoy. With their latest album ‘Black Diamonds’, released on April 14th, 2023, Phil Lewis on vocals, Tracii Guns on lead guitar, Johnny Martin on bass guitar, Ace Von Johnson on rhythm guitar and Shawn Duncan on drums were packed and loaded to rock the walls down.
We only got a small sampling of their latest album, with the song “Diamonds” being the track they played about midway through their set to slow things down. After “Diamonds” was played it felt like the band kicked it into another gear and ramped things up as songs like, “Speed”, “I Wanna Be Your Man”, then Phil stepped out because as he said had to “Piss like a racehorse”. So, Ace took center stage and delighted us with his lead vocal chops, singing a song about bad luck.
As Phil made his return the band paused to bring out The Machine Shop owner, Kevin Zink and presented him with a doughnut that had a burning candle as the band and crowd sang happy birthday. As the celebration cheers yelled out, the band tore back into the music, closing the show with several of their biggest hits, “Never Enuff” which Tracii opened the song with an AC/DC “Hells Bells” intro displaying his guitar prowess which seems multitude.
“Ballad Of Jayne” got plenty of backup vocals from the crowd, and Shawn walloped a nice drum solo during “Rip & Tear”.
It was another fantastic night of fun and good times and hard rock music that a sold-out crowd left feeling pumped and never forgetting why we listen to rock ‘n roll, it makes us feel alive!
L.A. Guns
Chrome Mollie
Follow our socials, only take a second and is free by finding us on:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
