Zakk Wylde is one smart man. Choosing two of the brightest young lights in music – Jared James Nichols and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown – to open for him on his current Book Of Shadows II tour shows he knows how to smell out talent and put it front and center of his legion of devoted fans. With a set focusing more on the meat of Wylde’s songs, without slacking on the guitar heroics, both bands fit in perfectly on this ticket, providing some blues rock to smooth out and build up the crowd.
Unfortunately, some in the crowd weren’t familiar with the young guys before they played their sets. “Where are they from?” “What do you know about them?” I was asked numerous times while waiting in the photo pit in front of the stage. By the time they had finished, the bands had won over everyone. Bryant played a hellacious solo standing inches away from the fans while Nichols brought the house down ending his set with an invigorating rendition of “Mississippi Queen.” If you came just for Zakk Wylde, you left with two new bands to add on your iTunes rotation.
Nichols, a Wisconsin native with a Texas blues heart, is a young guitar player Glide first discovered in 2013 after hearing he was someone to watch. His Old Glory & The Wild Revival CD gained him a lot of attention, from Steven Tyler to overzealous music lovers in Europe, that helped catapult his star. Although he is ingrained in the blues – “When I heard all that blues stuff, it was just like overnight it changed me and I knew exactly where I wanted to go with it,” he told us – he has been expanding and exploring and brought a searing energy to his New Orleans set. Backed by a hearty rhythm section by way of Sweden, Erik Sandin on bass and Dennis Holm on drums, his too-short set gave a taste of what this trio has going for them. [check soon for a new interview with Nichols]
Bryant also started his career knee deep in the blues at a very young age, learning firsthand from blues players twice his age, who fed his desire to play guitar. “It’s so easy in the music industry to forget why you do music,” Bryant explained to Glide in early 2013. “I play music because it moves me and I believe that it has a lot of power to affect people in good ways. I mean, that’s why I started doing it, it made me feel something.” After several years playing everywhere he could, he formed The Shakedown and they have been on fire ever since. This year alone they have opened for AC/DC, Guns N Roses, Rival Sons and now Zakk Wylde.
Opening with a new, unreleased song called “Weak N Weepin’,” they fireballed through a sensationally passionate “Downtown Tonight,” a sweaty “Mojo Workin’” and a psychedelic thrill ride known as “Aftershock.” Guitar player Graham Whitford played slide on “Downtown,” where he lit the song up, and drummer Caleb Crosby almost broke his drums in two with a heavy hitting rhythm that he brought to the lip of the stage during the finale. Bass player Noah Denney needs to be spotlighted for his pure under-the-radar sound that pulsed every time he seemed to get overtaken by the music; “House On Fire” being a prime example. “That was sweet,” a man said to his friend following the Shakedown’s set.
Wylde, whose new Book Of Shadows II was released back in April, kept his set strongly centered on that new disc, with “The King,” “Lost Prayer,” “Sleeping Dogs” & “Autumn Changes” all being emotion-drenched in lyrical content. But Wylde didn’t slack off his playing, pulling out his arsenal of Vikings and Warhammers and thrilling everyone with death-defying solos on “Sold My Soul” and the breathtaking tornado ride through “Throwin’ It All Away,” where he went into the audience to play.
But the passion was ingrained deep in Wylde’s set, from “Lay Me Down” to “Autumn Changes,” he was a man on a mission, leaving the wild man backstage except when unleashing the beast for a few over-the-top worship-the-beard excursions. He played piano on “Road Back Home” and “The King,” blew harmonica on “Between Heaven & Hell” and pulled out the acoustic on “Dead As Yesterday,” once again proving he never has been a one-trick-hairy-shred-god some tend to think he is.
The Black Label Society band backed him up better than ever. Longtime bass player JD DeServio was on target with his meaty balls bass lines and ever-sturdy rhythm leadership; Dario Lorina played piano, acoustic and electric guitar, his solo on “The King” especially noteworthy; and drummer Jeff Fabb was killing it, making this a night where drums could have taken over the whole thing.
In summation, it was hot, it was steamy, it was loud and it was passionate as all three bands lit the flame on the bonfire and smoked it all night long.
Before the show, I spoke with The Shakedown’s Graham Whitford about the phenomenal year they have been having and what they have coming up in the near future.
Graham, what does the band have coming up?
We finish up with Zakk Wylde on August 21st in Winnipeg, that’s our last show. We’re missing out on the last thirteen cause we have to meet back up with AC/DC for the make-up dates. But before that, on August 15th, we are doing one more show with Guns N Roses.
How was that playing with them before?
It was amazing. We did one in Cincinnati and it was just so surreal and they were really cool – the crew, the band, everybody. And the crowd was super-responsive. And it was just fun.
Do you feel like you guys are on fire right now?
I feel like we’ve had some really great opportunities and I think we’re just trying to make the best of that, you know. We had really nothing going on last year as far as shows. We played only a handful of shows and the year before we were sort of sorting out management and record label so to be so busy this year is really great. And to be doing all these dates with Zakk, and obviously the AC/DC and the Guns N Roses thing, it kind of manifested itself out of that.
Any new music in the works?
We’re hoping to go in the studio and record some new songs and release some songs that have already been recorded but we haven’t put out yet.
How are you going to do that? Another EP maybe?
We’re not really sure yet, to be honest. It’s something that we are probably going to be figuring out in the next week or so, like details with the label and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, we have some new songs that we’re really hoping to get in the studio and record. There’s some stuff we’re even playing live that we just haven’t been able to record yet but we’re really excited about. We’re playing a couple new things tonight that you may not have heard. There’s a song called “Aftershock” that we wrote and have been playing and having fun playing. And there’s a song called “Weak N Weepin’.” It’s the song we open with. We haven’t recorded that one yet but we really love that song and it sort of has a bit of a Classic Rock vibe to it. But there is definitely some stuff we’re trying to get out there. After AC/DC, we’re sort of still figuring all the rest of the year out. We might be going back over to Europe in November with The Cadillac Three so that could be really cool. Then we’ll see. It’s kind of crazy these days. You never really know what’s around the corner, which is exciting.
You know, it’s not just luck, it’s the talent in this band.
I think it’s a mix of that and really opportunities, doors opening and we happen to be standing there ready to go. It’s one of those things where a year ago if you’d told me we were opening up for AC/DC and Guns N Roses, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would have told you you were crazy (laughs). But it’s really amazing that we got to do that and who knows what will happen next year. But I’m looking forward to it and putting out some new music and just keeping the ball rolling and hopefully continuing to rise.
